Creating my own chat system
 

I know this is way out there but Ive had thoughts of opening my own chatroom. I just wanna know where to start. If you can give me any thoughts websites etc,.. id really appreciate it. And also what version of Linux would be best in supporting this. Thanks for all the info.

Well, I've tried doing this from scratch with Java, and it's not pretty, and it's annoying as all get out. In all truth, I'm not sure why I ever wanted to do that. IRC is pretty good. Why not try running ircd? But that's pretty complicated. You can really just sign on to an existing network like QuakeNet and open a channel. But that's my 2 cents.

Theres a good example of a java chat room in "Thinking in Java 2" which is freely available on the internet. I think Deitel and Deitel also have a good example.

That would be if you were hosting it yourself (unless you want to make an applet I suppose). You can definatly do it with java.

You've got several options to accomplish. My pick would be something like Jabber.

Thanks for the suggestions. I really appreciate your help and if you have any more advice please dont hesitate to speak your mind.