Microsoft Opens Source Code of 1990s Comic Chat Application

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Microsoft has released the source code for Comic Chat, its graphical IRC client from the 1990s, as an open-source project. The announcement was made on Microsoft's open-source blog on July 16, 2026. Comic Chat, originally launched in 1996, was notable for representing chat conversations as comic strips with cartoon avatars. The release allows developers and enthusiasts to study, modify, and build upon the historic software. This move is part of a broader trend of tech companies preserving legacy software by making it publicly available.

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