Trillian Astra

[Meshuggah]

Given our limited development time, we decided to take a small break from our standard development roadmap. (Yes, we actually have one of those! :p ) It was important for us to continuously watch the servers, add new testers, and make the small changes we noticed necessary as they cropped up throughout the week.

Hasn't this piece of crap been in alpha for months and months? I want to try a public beta already :/.

[Rappy Veteran]

Hasn't this piece of crap been in alpha for months and months? I want to try a public beta already :/.

Yeah I think its been ages since the last alpha build :unsure:

[Linkinfamous]

Yeah I think its been ages since the last alpha build :unsure:

No. They release new alpha builds pretty regularly.

[Rappy Veteran]

No. They release new alpha builds pretty regularly.

Oh right do they?...I thought it was like monthly but then I wouldn't know seeing as I didn't apply for the beta but I see some of the "leaked" builds out there...lol

[AdverseDeviant]

they usually come once a week, we're at build 48.

[halcyoncmdr]

Yes, builds are usually released weekly, once in a while they are released sooner to fix a major issue here or there preventing users from using it at all. They are also looking at other ways to get the web version work for phones otehr than the iphone, and hopefully native clients...

One of the main reasons it is taking so long to get out of alpha is because they are reprogramming fro mscratch to make the actual code platform-independent while still allowing old skins and plugins to interface with it. They are also redesigning all of the plugins one by one. IT is not near a beta yet, features are still missing; some removed for stability ATM otehrs new and just nopt implemented yet.

This last week they added 3,000 new testers. The largest group so far. They are running on new servers then before and they are more stable then the old ones. The people who complain about it taking so long just don't understand how much is actually changing in the code and how much testing has to be done. I have used both the legitimate and the leaked versions, the leaked versions don't work the same way as the legit versions and are crippled from the gound up. CS have stated all applications will be reached eventually, you just have to be patient. They are looking for specific things in the alpha testing, not every person to overload their servers and take it down preventing anything from being done.

[halcyoncmdr]

Pro customer invites.

Invites will be going out to all Pro customers who signed up to be alpha testers as of this morning, staged throughout this week and next. Please watch your inboxes for invites (from the ceruleanstudios.com domain); we’re looking forward to hearing all of your feedback, both positive and negative! Don’t be shy when submitting bugs and feature requests to Bugzilla, and please carefully read your invitation e-mail to ensure you’re up-to-speed on the current limitations and flaws of the alpha. Major items we haven’t (re-)added yet include but are not limited to full mail alert integration, voice/video, web profiles, MSN/Jabber/Google on Web/iPhone, a proper upgrade and installation wizard, etc. This build is still considered alpha quality and therefore feature incomplete.

Invitations will continue on their normal schedule for non-Pro customers as well. You do not need to be a paying customer to join the testing team, but we’re fast tracking Pro invitations to thank those of you that continue to keep us in business. If you’re a current or past Trillian Pro customer and did not submit your information to our alpha signup form, please do so now and we’ll be sure to get you into the team over the next week or two.

Once we have a chance to hear from our paying customers we’ll move more aggressively towards an open public beta (feature-frozen except for emergencies/horrendous oversights) and an invitation system so you can get some of your friends and family on Trillian Astra.

One caveat: this is the largest batch of invitations we’ve sent out thus far, and we are staging them accordingly. If we notice a major server explosion during any stage of the invites, we’ll halt further invites until the problems have been tracked down and resolved. We will update the blog if this happens so you’re aware and so you don’t expect an e-mail that isn’t coming.

Thank you for your patience and support, and we hope you enjoy testing the new build! Remember that we release builds roughly every week, so keep checking back with the blog for news and updates. We have a few more tricks up our sleeves before reaching beta! :)

//SOURCE: Cerulean Studios Blog

Just thought people would like to know its getting closer to an open beta :)

[Creamy]

We have a few more tricks up our sleeves before reaching beta!

Well, they better do...

[Rappy Veteran]

Be nice to see it finally get to beta...but now Pidgins around it will be interesting to see if it can keep up.

[#Michael]

Be nice to see it finally get to beta...but now Pidgins around it will be interesting to see if it can keep up.

Been part of the alpha now for a couple of months and I still think it has a long way to go to catch up to pidgin.

Trillian astra just isn't what they have hyped it up to be imo.

[Jack 0Neill]

Tried Trillian and it was okay but very crash happy. Been waiting for Astra for over a year, finally said forget it to the project. Taking far too long.

Pidgin works better and looks better.

[Jase]

Just got accepted in Trillian Astra Alpha Testing! :D

[Impact]

This is taking forever. By now it should be a public beta. I heard about this over a year ago, and now its still not even an open beta! Jeez, the current version has been out for what seems like forever.

[jimbo11883]

I wish they would accept me already... I registered a looong time ago...

[DigitalE]

I'm using Astra now, and it seems to work really well :) I haven't had any problems with it.

[Linkinfamous]

It's very clever how they did the window on Vista....It's a borderless aero enabled form with transparency to give it a unique shape...This lets them use Aero's current color, and provide for some blurred alpha transparency. I don't think I've seen any other app do this.

Just got accepted in Trillian Astra Alpha Testing! :D

Me too.

[kak]

Been using it for a few weeks now. It will randomly disconnect me from non-Astra services. Other than that, it works great.

[Veedems Veteran]

It's as though these guys are competing with Miranda and Pidgin for slowest development cycle. Granted, pidgin has picked it up as of late, but considering the Trillian team makes money off of this, you'd think they'd have some extra motivation.

[Xab]

It's as though these guys are competing with Miranda and Pidgin for slowest development cycle. Granted, pidgin has picked it up as of late, but considering the Trillian team makes money off of this, you'd think they'd have some extra motivation.

I totally agree, you can't complain much when it's free and taking forever, but when free programs are making more progress than you, faster, it's a bit sad. Not to mention, what they have gotten done is barely good enough to use on a daily basis. I have tried to use Astra but without direct connect support of any kind, and there is still an annoying bug where anytime you alt+tab away from the IM window, it will flash orange in the taskbar like you have a new message, even when there is no new message. This is a bug that's gone unfixed since the first build.

[Valerus]

It's as though these guys are competing with Miranda and Pidgin for slowest development cycle. Granted, pidgin has picked it up as of late, but considering the Trillian team makes money off of this, you'd think they'd have some extra motivation.

(Y)

Wondering the same...

[Rappy Veteran]

It's as though these guys are competing with Miranda and Pidgin for slowest development cycle. Granted, pidgin has picked it up as of late, but considering the Trillian team makes money off of this, you'd think they'd have some extra motivation.

I agree at the moment I would rather use Pidgin but that comes from someone who isn't in the Alpha program.

[halcyoncmdr]

It's as though these guys are competing with Miranda and Pidgin for slowest development cycle. Granted, pidgin has picked it up as of late, but considering the Trillian team makes money off of this, you'd think they'd have some extra motivation.

You also have top take into account the fact that Cerulean Studios is all of 8 people...

[ViperAFK]

I agree at the moment I would rather use Pidgin but that comes from someone who isn't in the Alpha program.

+1 from someone who is in the alpha program, I'm not too impressed with astra yet.

And pidgin's developement was really only slowed down because they were involved in that lawsuit with AOL over the name if I remember correctly.

[Veedems Veteran]

You also have top take into account the fact that Cerulean Studios is all of 8 people...

8 people is quite a bit for a project such as an IM client.

[Phantom Limb]

You also have top take into account the fact that Cerulean Studios is all of 8 people...

It's an IM client not a first person shooter. Most IM clients are done with much less.