I don’t know if you consider freenode to be “hosted by corporations” but if you don’t, the channels dedicated to both specific libraries and the languages thems

I don’t know if you consider freenode to be “hosted by corporations” but if you don’t, the channels dedicated to both specific libraries and the languages themselves are at least active, last I checked. The one downside I’d point out is that language channels tend to be filled with purists, of the, “ you shouldn’t want to do that” variety.