Gfire

Gfire is a plugin for the Pidgin Instant Messaging client. It allows users to connect the Xfire gaming network to communicate. The plugin currently allows users to chat with contacts, add and remove contacts, view Xfire profiles, detect the games running and join others' games.
Gfire launched on 23 May 2005. Under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3, Gfire is a free software.
Features
Gfire was originally designed for Linux users to be able to connect to Xfire, since there is no native application. However, it also supports Microsoft Windows users. The plugin uses the Pidgin framework to communicate with Xfire. It uses the standard features of the Pidgin client, with support of a friends list and basic chat. However, the friend's list has been developed to incorporate games which friends may be playing. It is able to do this by using the same games list which Xfire provides through the official client. Using this games list, Gfire is able to detect the games which the user is playing. This information is sent to their Xfire profiles, to keep track of their gaming time. It is also possible for users to be able to join their friends' games online.
History
Gfire was started by Asraniel in 2005. Over the next year, he released 11 installments of Gfire. After the release of 0.6.0 in September 2006, development stopped until March 2008. Gfire was taken over by a new team. Chewit and Luxus worked on a new website using Assembla software. On 1st May 2008, 0.7.0 was released along with a new website and dedicated support of weekly game list updates. During the next few months, an IRC channel was setup as well as a wiki page to add a community side to Gfire.
Version 0.8.0 was released April 1st 2009, Gfire's biggest release to date. It brought many new feature which the community wanted; such Group Chat and Improved Game Detection.
Development
Gfire has no set development cycle. Development is ongoing for the developers of Gfire. A release is only made, when a set number of features has been added and then it will be available to download as a new version. Development of a new release goes through 4 stages. The first stage is alpha 1, this is when all bugs are fixed which have been found in the previous release. The next stage is alpha 2, this is when all the new features are added and bugs fixed which were found in the new features. The third stage is the beta, currently Gfire has a closed beta, where the new version is tested. Final stage is the release, this is when everyone can download a stable release of Gfire.

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See Also

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