What is up with Pidgin (prev: Gaim)

[zanglang]

From their repository log messages, seen at http://cia.vc/stats/project/Pidgin

event counters

The last message was received 2.58 minutes ago at 01:51 on Apr 25, 2007
10 messages so far today, 45 messages yesterday
84 messages so far this week, 133 messages last week
308 messages so far this month, 0 messages last month
308 messages since the first one, 1.48 weeks ago, for an average of 0.81 hours between messages

Don't worry, there's development going on alright. I suspect the developers are too busy doing their own thing and coordinating with the new Google SoC students that no one has bothered to step up and say, "Aight. Feature freeze. No more feature check-ins, we'll release in 7 days." or something like that... but hey, Beta 6 works fine, I don't mind a slight delay in their next release.

[jiminycricket]

Kopete, nothing else.

Same here. Where is webcam support? Three or so years after the gaim-vv fork and still nothing in mainline GAIM for silly reasons. I don't want to sound like a whiner, but I agree that Kopete and aMSN are excellent -now- for people who need that support.

[ricardisimo]

I've only read two or three entries in this thread and those alone have compelled me to write the following:

I'm thankful we have anything at all in the way in IM, much less a highly stable multi-ID, multi-server util. Thank you a million times over to those responsible. Release Pidgin at your leisure.

...

Did I say "thank you" yet?

[syxbit]

2 things
1. I don't mind how long they take upon release, but they said it would be out last week. they simply shouldn't have made that claim, only to then accuse people of misunderstanding. How exactly do you misunderstand a clear release date? (well, i know it wasn't an exact date, but they said end of this week or next).
we had the entire feisty fawn testing forum wondering/hoping it would make it out in time for feisty

2. they're not adding features, there is no such thing as a feature freeze. They said it would be the same as gaim 2.0b6 with the changed name/theme.

[TravisNewman]

2 things
1. I don't mind how long they take upon release, but they said it would be out last week.

Ugh, NO they didn't. they said they HOPED it would be out last week.

they simply shouldn't have made that claim

They didn't make any claim except saying what they hoped. Would you get upset at me if I said "I hope the Steelers win the superbowl" and then they didn't? Would I have broken my promise, or gone against my claims? No, because all I said is what I HOPED.

only to then accuse people of misunderstanding.

There was a misunderstanding. People misunderstood "hope" as "this is set in stone"

How exactly do you misunderstand a clear release date?

There wasn't a release date, and it wasn't even clear that they would be releasing when they said they hoped, because they used the word "hope."

2. they're not adding features, there is no such thing as a feature freeze. They said it would be the same as gaim 2.0b6 with the changed name/theme.

Then why does it matter so much?

The conversion utility is worthwhile, not everone is comfortable changing things around manually, especially on the Windows side of the mountain.

[Ateo]

Dude. You really don't understand software development do you? It'll be released when it's ready. Would you rather have a broken application or a stable one? If you don't care, then why don't you join the Pidgin dev team and quite your bitching? That way you'll have the most current version. Oh. And don't complain that you don't know how to do that.. You can learn, unless you're dumb.

I check the pidgin site every other day. Yea. It's a bummer that's it's not out but I don't go home crying and write a 3 page column on my disappointment.

[drfalkor]

What about making a fork of pidgin ? With a new crew, new ideas and working at cam support ? a fork would be great ! + faster dev cycles !

[TravisNewman]

what about just making a plugin to add the support? Seems less intrusive. Forks are usually a bad idea unless there's a real need. It seems cam support is the only thing really lacking

[OmniCloud]

Has anyone ever had a problem with the sound in Gaim? When I test it it's fine, but I doesn't respond when I IM:huh:

Hmm....

I think it's some dependency I probably don't have though...

[riffic]

http://digg.com/software/Pidgin_IM_The_Final_Beta

Pidgin 2.0b7 was released today, looks like its just windows binaries and source. kudos to the person who ends up packaging this for the masses =)