Text-based Communication in Linux

I enjoy x-windows as much as the next person, but I've found that text-based applications are the best way to work with information that is essentially text-based. Most direct communication, including E-Mail, Instant Messaging(IM) and Internet Relay Chat(IRC), fall into this category. I will touch upon these three communication methods in this article, and provide the text-based solution that I use.

But first, I will introduce screen.

From the introduction on the site:

"Screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes, typically interactive shells ... Programs continue to run when their window is currently not visible and even when the whole screen session is detached from the users terminal."