Dear users,

We are gathered (well, figure of speech) here today to celebrate the release of the next generation BitlBee. The third generation already. Almost two years ago Wilmer and I started version 0.70, the first generation. It was a freaky version, crashing whenever it saw the chance. Like a child, who holds its breath when you don't give it candy.

Last year we released 0.80, a teenager. Doing stupid things, like driving 160 kph, and crashing. Counting on you to get it out of the shit it has gotten itself into.

Now, Wilmer and his developers (developers! developers! developers!) are releasing 0.90. An adolescent, almost ready to face the world alone. But not quite. It still counts on you for mental support and guidance. But it won't crash as easily as before.

But not only stability improved (although this is 0.90's biggest improvement, and the one that took the most time, mainly due to the MSN-rewrite), they also added proxy-support and a huge load of minor improvements that increase BitlBee's general usability in a big way.

Wilmer, Maurits and Jelmer are ready to guide the Bee into adulthood. They hope to release it somewhere this summer. It will contain among other things the long awaited ICQ server-side buddy lists. This code is almost ready, but didn't quite make it before 0.90. Stay tuned, it'll be here shortly.

More things happened than just code improvements. Last year I told you that Jelmer would leave the BitlBee development team. And he did. Luckily, he later decided to rejoin. He was and again will be a good addition to the team.

Also, Maurits joined the team. He worked on a daemon patch for quite some while and knew his way around the code already. Maurits has done a lot of good work for this release and I'm sure he will keep doing so in the future.

Last change to the development team was my departure. I'm still very committed to making BitlBee the best, though.

In the past year we got some very cool t-shirt too! Everyone here now wears that t-shirt. All 45 of those have been sold. I got two. Thanks to Tijmen for designing the Bee on the shirt. It's a very weird, but very cool Bee. Just like our own.

Leaves me to congratulate the current development team with this very fine release. Wilmer, Maurits, Jelmer, you made a very good program. I'm proud of you. And of the Bee of course. I think I speak for the rest of the community when I say, thank you for your undying passion in making such a great program. We love it, as we know you do. Thank you.

And now, while I finish this speech, Wilmer is getting ready to hit the button. We're ready, just as we'll hope you'll Bee.

Sjoerd Hemminga
Ex-BitlBee developer, proud BitlBee user