freenode began as a support channel, #LinPeople, on EFnet. The channel moved to irc.linpeople.net, and a short time later became a network called Open Projects Net, or OPN. In early 1998, OPN had 200 users and 20 channels.

In mid-2002, a not-for-profit entity, Peer-Directed Projects Center, was created to manage the network and take on other community-related projects. At the time, the project was called Open Projects Net. The old name seemed bulky and unwieldly and, since the project was about to become a part of PDPC, we took the opportunity to change the name to freenode, which was shorter and seemed more memorable.