Stable version: 1.3
Release date: September 25th, 2017
Website: https://psi-im.org/
Sources: https://github.com/psi-im
This program is licensed under the GNU General Public License. See the COPYING file for more information.
Psi IM is a capable XMPP client aimed at experienced users. Its design goals are simplicity and stability. Psi IM is highly portable and runs on MS Windows, GNU/Linux and macOS.
Psi IM is minimal but powerful. There are keybindings for just about everything, Unicode is supported throughout, and contacts are cached offline. Security is also a major consideration, and Psi IM provides it for both client-to-server (TLS) and client-to-client (GnuPG, OTR, OMEMO).
WebKit version of Psi IM has few additional features (in comparing with basic version of Psi): support of animated emoticons, support of (adium) themes in private chats and group chats, support of previewing of images and videos in private chats and group chats, etc. But if you prefer old fashioned plain text chats from era of IRC heyday, then basic version of Psi IM is your obvious choice.
WebEngine version of Psi IM is identical to WebKit version of Psi IM in supporting of extra features, but it has some pros and cons:
See CHANGELOG file.
See INSTALL file.
In 2009 a Psi IM fork named Psi+ was started. Project purposes are: implementation of new features, writing of patches and plugins for transferring them to upstream. As of 2017 all active Psi+ developers have become official Psi IM developers, but Psi+ still has a number of unique features. From developers point of view Psi+ is just a development branch of Psi IM which is hosted at separate git repositories and for which rolling release development model is used.
Currently the development model looks like this:
X.Y (where X and Y are not digits but numbers).X.Y.Z (where X, Y and Z are not digits but numbers).master branch of psi repository and its submodules. Each commit to it increases Z part of Psi+ version to one.master branch (for example, release-1.x, release-2.x, etc.). All new releases (git tags) will be done in it. Necessary changes from master branch to stable branches should be cherry-picked or moved manually. Do not forget to merge release branch into master after adding of new git tags.Z part of Psi+ version to one. Sometime later they will be moved to Psi. It may require different amount of time.master branch of psi repo.master branches of psi and plugin repos should be in sync.master branch of Psi+ and are (semi-automatically) adapted for Psi.There are a lot of people who were involved into Psi IM and Psi+ development. Some of them are listed in license headers in source files, some of them might be found only in the history of commits in our git repositories. Also there are translators, makers of graphics and just active users. We are thankful to all them.
If you found a bug please report about it in our Bug Tracker. If you have doubts contact with us in XMPP Conference <psi-dev@conference.jabber.ru> (preferable) or in a Mailing List.
As we (intentionally) do not have nor beta versions of Psi, nor daily build builds for it, you are invited to use Psi+ program for suggesting and testing of new features, and for reporting about new bugs (if they happen).
We like constructive comments and wishes to functions of program. You may contact with us in XMPP Conference <psi-dev@conference.jabber.ru> for discussing of your ideas. Some of them will be drawn up as feature requests in our Bug Tracker.
The work of translators is quite routine and boring. People who do it usually lose interests and their translations become incomplete. If you see such situation for translation to your native language, please join to our translations team. It is extremely welcome!
There are many ways to contribute to the Psi IM project, if you think you can do a better job with any of the Psi IM graphics, then go right ahead!
Patches are welcome! Contact to Psi+ team if you are working on them.
If you want to prepare personal builds of Psi IM and/or Psi+ for MS Windows and macOS systems, it is very welcome! We may distribute them via our official projects on SouceForge.net: psi, psiplus. Becoming an official maintaner for these systems is more complicated, but also possible.
For GNU/Linux and *BSD systems the situation is quite clear: just update packages (pkgbuilds, ebuild, etc.) in official repositories of your favorite distributions or make a Personal Package Archive (PPA) with them. We will add links to it into our documentation.
If you want to donate some money for development of Psi IM and Psi+ project, it is possible. See related info at official websites. Thanks!
Have fun!