I agree they are very different beasts. Which is probably why IRC has held its ground despite strong headwinds.
I question whether the Matrix team even wants to eclipse IRC. It probably won't earn them many beans.
IRC is "professional technical chatter during work hours," and I use it as such - as I've used it for the bulk of three decades at this point.
Indeed and the clients and servers certainly treat it as such. But remember that Matrix is a federated protocol... What if your employer also used it? Or if you wanted to participate in Nix or Rust or Mozilla discussions?
Certainly you wouldn't want to receive work/business/etc messages while off with your friends and family. Different device, different account on the device, different client on the account... Lots of options to get Matrix working for you in more than one way.
But the clients are so different compared to IRC. And there is no real home server for the FOSS world. Mozilla, Nix each run their own AIUI.
That is because matrix is federated and IRC simply is not.
There are plenty of "professional" development matrix rooms, the Fedora ones are an example of that. They often hold directions meetings etc and have their own bots for that there.
I question whether the Matrix team even wants to eclipse IRC. It probably won't earn them many beans.
IRC is "professional technical chatter during work hours," and I use it as such - as I've used it for the bulk of three decades at this point.
Indeed and the clients and servers certainly treat it as such. But remember that Matrix is a federated protocol... What if your employer also used it? Or if you wanted to participate in Nix or Rust or Mozilla discussions?
Certainly you wouldn't want to receive work/business/etc messages while off with your friends and family. Different device, different account on the device, different client on the account... Lots of options to get Matrix working for you in more than one way.
But the clients are so different compared to IRC. And there is no real home server for the FOSS world. Mozilla, Nix each run their own AIUI.