In Ubuntu, we've applied the attached patch to achieve the following:
* debian/control: - Drop xchat-gnome from Replaces/Conflicts. We thought you might be interested in doing the same.
diff -Nru xchat-2.8.8/debian/control xchat-2.8.8/debian/control --- xchat-2.8.8/debian/control 2014-10-13 21:58:48.000000000 +0200 +++ xchat-2.8.8/debian/control 2015-04-05 19:24:50.000000000 +0200 @@ -10,10 +10,9 @@ Package: xchat Architecture: any Provides: irc -Replaces: xchat-gnome (<< 1:0.11-1), xchat-common (<< 1.6.0-1) +Replaces: xchat-common (<< 1.6.0-1) Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, xchat-common (= ${source:Version}), ${misc:Depends} Recommends: ${shlibs:Recommends}, esound-clients | alsa-utils, libnotify4 | libnotify-bin, xdg-utils -Conflicts: xchat-gnome (<< 1:0.11-1) Description: IRC client for X similar to AmIRC XChat is a graphical IRC Client with a GTK+ GUI. It has a look and feel similar to AmIRC for the Amiga. Special features include the mIRC extension