freenode, the IRC network we used to discuss and support AsteroidOS, no longer exists in the form we knew and loved. The network is currently in hostile-takeover by a commercial entity and a huge number of the freenode staff have resigned. They explain the circumstances a lot better than we ever could.
The core team of AsteroidOS decided to move to Matrix, a federated and modern communication protocol.
We will be available under: #Asteroid:matrix.org.
To join us visit the chat here.
For those of you with questions about Matrix, there is an elaborate FAQ on the matrix.org page that I can recommend to everyone interested.
The AsteroidOS team hoped to end the long drought of news on a positive note, but with the current situation we felt that it is important to inform our users and contributors about the situation on freenode and our action regarding it.
A lot has happened after the 1.0 release, and we hope to be back with more delightful news in the coming months.