Changes between Version 4 and Version 5 of PidginCommunity

Timestamp:

Sep 23, 2007, 1:35:27 AM (16 years ago)

Author:

John Bailey

Comment:

FAQ migration is almost entirely complete!

PidginCommunity

@@ -37 +37 @@
 == Miscellaneous Questions ==
 
+=== Did you guys reverse-engineer the protocols? ===
+The core Pidgin, Finch, and libpurple developers did not.  Here's some related information:
+  * XMPP (a.k.a. Jabber), SIMPLE, and IRC are published protocols, so we didn't need to reverse-engineer them.  (Google Talk is an instance of XMPP.)
+  * MSN was at one time a published protocol; over time changes have creeped into the protocol and other people have reverse engineered those newer revisions.
+  * OSCAR and Yahoo! are not published, and were reverse engineered by other people.
+  * Sametime is maintained by a developer of the meanwhile library we make use of.
+  * Our SILC plugin was written by one of the protocol's developers.
+  * Novell kindly provided us with the Novell !GroupWise plugin.
+  * QQ was reverse-engineered by other people and later absorbed into libpurple.
+  * !MySpace IM was reverse engineered by a Summer of Code student and several other people in 2007.
+
+=== Do Pidgin and Finch support secure instant messaging (encrypted IM)? ===
+==== Short Answer ====
+  Yes; use the SILC protocol.
+
+==== Long Answer ====
+  The SILC protocol is natively encrypted.  For other protocols, which do not natively support encryption, neither do we.  Simply encrypting the data stream with no verification of the parties involved in the conversation is not secure in any sense of the word.  Some other clients offer options like this, but we feel that such measures instill a false sense of security that is more harmful than helpful.
+
+  Note that there are a number of third-party plugin developers working on secure IM frameworks.  Take a look at the ThirdPartyPlugins page for links to those we know of.
+
+=== When will the next version be released? ===
+The schedule for releases is every third Thursday.  However, a new version will only be released if it meets a certain standard of quality (i.e., it will not be released if it still has a large number of serious bugs).  Therefore, some releases will take longer than others.  Major rewrites means lots of new bugs to work out.  The new version will be released as soon as it is possible to do so.  The [/roadmap Roadmap] gives best-guess estimates, but take them with a grain of salt--if we aren't ready to release on a Milestone's due date, we won't release,, and that milestone will fall into "past due."
+
 === What will the next version be numbered? ===
 Starting with version 1.0.0, Pidgin version numbers have 3 parts to them. The format is major.minor.micro.  If we change something internally in Pidgin such that some plugins won't work with the newer version, we will increment the major version number.  If we don't increment the major version number, and we've added things to the Pidgin API that won't break any older stuff, we will increment the minor version number.  In any other cases, we will increment the micro version number.  Even and odd numbers have nothing to do with stability, and you should always be running the latest release of Pidgin to get new features and bug fixes.