Despite having a lot more features than we initially intended, this version of Mira should be considered a pre-alpha release, so we ask you not to expect the program to be 100% stable. We are still nurturing it into a fully-fledged platform. That being said, however, we have plugged all of the serious bugs that we encountered in several months of testing, and we have implemented some really useful features which should make the user experience much more intuitive. You never know: you might just forget that you’re running a pre-alpha application, altogether!

Anyway, I suppose this monologue has already added enough to the commentary of the last few years: it’s time to see this finally in action. To download a fresh copy of Mira Client and Mira Server (because you will need to have a Server running in order to use the Client, for now), please see the Download section on this website.

Happy Testing!

Through some rose-coloured spectacles, this seems absolutely fantastic. Admittedly, we did encounter a few minor bugs in Mira Client (all of which have been reported) — and there was one point when Mira Server crashed, out of the blue — but I’d say that was a very good effort, for a pre-alpha project! We’re now tidying up the bugs and preparing an installer so that we can finally push the release of Mira Groupware 0.1 and press on with work on version 0.2.

It’s really exciting that we’ve reached the stage at which this project no longer rests up in the clouds: it truly does work. Now that we have the groundwork for the code base in place, it’s just a question of progressing onwards and upwards — adding more features, improving stability, making the interface more versatile and user-friendly. With time, all of the pieces will fall into place. It is with great pleasure that I can now say that you should expect the release of Mira Groupware 0.1 very soon indeed.

For more information on Monday’s tests, please see the transcript of the IRC meeting that occurred simultaneously.

Update on 14/04/2010: The Server bug has been fixed.

The setback, for the technophiles among us who are interested, came about when running Mira Groupware on Windows. The issue had to do with the unique way in which the Windows dynamic loader works, which is why this problem was never spotted before, when we were developing Mira on Linux. Alan has been working diligently to correct this issue, and is making excellent progress providing a workaround for it. He pointed out this thread from StackOverflow.com which explains the cause of the error in more detail: Visual C++ - Linking plugin DLL against EXE?

However, once Alan has finished fixing this bug on Mira Server, all we have to do is tie up the loose ends and package everything up. In other words, don’t despair — our first release is not far away! In the meantime, engaging in a nice, large tub of ice cream might just prove indulgent enough to mellow you through to our next announcement… Let’s hope!

The latest progress has been made on the Utility framework by our eternally diligent lead developer, Alan. Although it may not look like much at the moment, a lot of blood, sweat (and code) went into producing the first version of the Files Utility and its underlying framework, as shown in the screenshot  below:

If you want to follow Alan’s work, please see the Utilities branch on Launchpad or visit his blog. For more information about our upcoming release, keep checking back regularly — we’re hoping to release Mira 0.1 between February 1st and February 8th, so stay tuned!

Our initial idea for Mira was that it would function based on a Centric model: a group of Clients would connect to a central Server and perform all communications through this Server (apart from some Peer-to-Peer communications subsequently initiated between the Clients). This model is excellent for office environments, but it’s not very flexible in small networks, like at home: how many people have the option of setting up a standalone server to run Mira Server 24/7?

That’s right: not many! So, Alan has come up with an alternative. He is working on a zero-configuration, instant set-up collaboration system which would use the new Distributed model. All you would have to do to collaborate in a Workplace is to start a Mira Client on a network, create a Distributed Workplace and then invite the other Clients on the network. The best part is that there is absolutely no need to set up a Server because the Clients will be able to communicate directly to each other (without any tinkering!) using service discovery, via Zeroconf. A nice touch, don’t you think?

It’s not quite ready yet, but here’s a preview of the service discovery feature (take a look at the ‘Neighbors’ tab on the right):

For more information, check out the Distributed Network Layer blueprint and Alan’s blog post: Mira connects to peers on LAN. You can also see the code for yourself in our network-protocol branch on Launchpad.

A few things you should know:

• Our old webserver was shut down by our web hosting provider due to “excessive MySQL activity”. Unfortunately, we also lost all our old news posts as a result. We have since moved the Mira Groupware website to another webserver and have plugged the bug that was causing this problem.
• We are moving the build system from autotools to CMake, which is far less complicated and easier to maintain. If it works for the KDE project, it’ll work for us!
• We hope to release the pre-alpha Mira Groupware 0.1 within a few weeks.

I am also going to update this blog every week or two to keep you up to date on the latest Mira news. If you’re interested in this exciting project, stay tuned!