I still don’t see why we can’t just use IRC anymore. The protocol itself is old but reliable, and just needs a good client or two to help people compare it to Discord a bit more favourably. Though I suppose the need for a BNC to fully match it is probably a bit much of an ask for most.

It does still live on, somewhat, in its spiritual successor, Haiku: https://www.haiku-os.org/

Its last release was in December 2022.