Swift 1.0 Beta9

This is the final beta (preview) release of Swift 1.0. The aim of this release is to find the last issues, so we ask that you please report any problem you find.

First, the screenshots:

Comments can be sent to the mailing list at http://swift.im/lists/mailman/listinfo/swift-users, and we have a chat room at swift@rooms.swift.im. It will be very useful if people trying the beta can report any issues they find.

Swift is trying to plug a hole in the XMPP client landscape, and has these aims.

• Wide platform availability.
• Doing the "Right Thing" for the user, without configuration.
• Doing the "Right Thing" with standards-compliance.
• Targeting the end-users, not the system administrators.
• Being an XMPP client - not multi-protocol.
• Concentrating on the most frequently performed tasks.
• Never interrupt the user with something that doesn't need attention.

Here are some of the interesting features in Swift:

• Easy status setting (and plans to make it better).
• Easy room joining and bookmarking.
• XEP-0258 Labelling for secure environments.
• Stream compression for bandwidth-saving.
• Support for the new SCRAM authentication mechanism.
• Support for acknowledging server receipt of messages (Demo)

These are the changes since 1.0-beta8:

• On servers that support it, users can now perform searches for contacts to add or chat to.
• The roster header can now be configured to show the JID instead of the nick.
• Server certificates are now verified and validated. Certificates not passing the tests require confirmation.
• Added dialog changing your nickname and avatar.
• Swift now uses SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS authentication on servers that support it.
• Highlighting an item in the login account list and pressing delete will now prompt you to remove the cached credentials for that account. (Thanks to Thilo Cestonaro)
• Added keyboard accelerators for tabs and commands. (Thanks to Arnt Gulbrandsen)
• Security labels (XEP-0258) support has been updated to match the latest version of the specification.
• It is now possible to edit contacts from the standard menus (without needing to right-click on the item)
• Added extra build flags for specifying paths to Boost, Expat, LibIDN, and Avahi
• Remember avatars for offline contacts correctly.
• Popup notifications for new messages should no longer be generated if the relevant chat is currently selected
• Historical messages received when joining a room will no longer be marked as unread.
• Fixed the bug where a MUC room would go into loop of parting and joining continually.
• On Windows, if Snarl isn't available, use the default balloons for pop-up notifications.
• You'll now be asked for confirmation before clearing the chat window history.
• Chat window titles will be updated when contacts are renamed.
• Duplicate chat windows when contacts are using multiple clients should now be avoided.
• Clearing the chat windows should now work correctly.
• The Swift logo will now remain in the center when the login window is resized.
• MUC room context for days other than today is now annotated.
• The MUC Search will now remember previously searched services.
• Signing out with unread events will no longer trap your system tray with unread messages.
• Newly-created rooms will now receive your presence updates, consistent with existing rooms.
• You'll now be asked for confirmation before removing contacts.
• On reconnects, existing MUC history now won't be replayed.
• The toggle state for showing offline contacts will now persist between restarts.
• The roster should no longer sometimes show online users as offline.
• Fixed all other known bugs.
• Various speed improvements.
• Various aesthetic improvements.
• Added Dutch translation.

We currently have versions available for Windows and Mac:

• Windows: Swift-installer-win32-1.0beta9.exe
• Mac OS X (10.5 or later): Swift-1.0beta9.dmg
• Ubuntu Linux
  • Note: These packages require you to install our key in the Synaptic package manager in the list of trusted sources. You can get our key here.
  • Lucid Lynx (10.04)
    • 32-bit: swift-im_1.0~beta9-1_i386.deb
    • 64-bit: swift-im_1.0~beta9-1_amd64.deb
    To stay up to date with the latest release, you can add the following APT lines to the list of Software Sources in Synaptic Package Manager:

    deb http://swift.im/packages/ubuntu/lucid beta main
    deb-src http://swift.im/packages/ubuntu/lucid beta main

  • Maverick Meerkat (10.10)
    • 32-bit: swift-im_1.0~beta9-1_i386.deb
    • 64-bit: swift-im_1.0~beta9-1_amd64.deb
    To stay up to date with the latest release, you can add the following APT lines to the list of Software Sources in Synaptic Package Manager:

    deb http://swift.im/packages/ubuntu/maverick beta main
    deb-src http://swift.im/packages/ubuntu/maverick beta main

The source code for Swift and the underlying Swiften XMPP library are available from the Git repository at http://swift.im/git/swift. Instructions for building the source code can be found in Documentation/BuildingOnUnix.txt and Documentation/BuildingOnWindows.txt.

The source for this release is available under the GNU General Public License version 3.