I’ve had a look at a few different go servers and clients, but not one of them (including KGS) was fully to my like. I talked to wms (owner and sole developer of KGS) about the development of his server, but according to him it is unlikely that KGS is going to improve as quickly as I’d like it to.

It is totally possible to fix many of the issues, as proven by a nice fellow Go player and programmer (I’m not sure if he wants to be named in public), who decompiled the KGS client and added a lot of really interesting features. The huge list of missing features (KGS Wishlist on Sensei’s) is just not justifiable.

So much for KGS. There are multiple other Go servers around. Firstly, there are the Asian-style servers Oro, Tygem and the like. The main advantage of these servers boils down to their huge player base. The main flaw is the, seriously, lousy programming of the clients. The applications are, in comparison with KGS, absolutely terrible to use.

Secondly, there are servers like IGS. Not a social place at all. I met a lot of nice people on KGS, I barely spoke to anyone on IGS. No fun. I’m not saying a Go server should replace ICQ/MSN, but it really should be possible to have a nice talk with people.

Maybe the most interesting servers are websites like DGS or OGS. These servers got nice features by their web-based nature. On the other hand, the interface is average or less, and it’s kind of slow in every aspect. Also not very social, especially since there is hardly any real-time chat. So, while having a good reason to exist, it’s not going to be the ultimate kind of server anytime soon. We need desktop applications.