I... don't know what to say. Adium, the popular third-party chat client for OS X, just got released into version 1.0 tonight. This has happened after years and years (and years, and years, and years, and years) of development—always adding new features, always being way better than any other standard chat clients from AIM or Apple—and never having reached 1.0 status. I'm one of those oldschool users, too—the type who remembers chatting with the Adam Iser all the time back in the dizzay.

This is monumental. Like... the seas parting. Or Gmail coming out of beta.

Anyway. Adium 1.0 has been through a year and a half in development, according to the Adium blog, and has over 600 enhancements and bug fixes. Among them are:

Functional direct connect and file transfer

New interface

Global user profiles

iTunes "now playing" integration

Improved privacy management

Grouping of saved status messages

Redesigned chat transcript viewer

So, so much more

Adium is open-source and, as always, a free download (however, the team graciously accepts contributions). Congratulations to the entire Adium team. For those who are angsty that some of your favorite stuff is missing (such as, say, certain themes that certain Nobel Intent writers are fond of), I'm sure you'll be able to add it in again via AdiumXtras.

As if I needed an excuse to drink on a Friday night, I'll drink to that*.

* Already had half a bottle of wine