You can access to the sheet change log on the CVS.
Generic section
Generic criteria from QSOS version 1.6
Intrinsic durability
Maturity
Age
less than 3 months
if between 3 months and 3 years
after 3 years
Not evaluated
Stability
Unstable software with numerous releases or patches generating side effects
Stabilized production release existing but old. Difficulties to stabilize development releases
Stabilized software. Releases provide bug fixes corrections but mainly new functionalities
Not evaluated
History, known problems
Software knows several problems which can be prohibitive
No know major problem or crisis
History of good management of crisis situations
Not evaluated
Fork probability, source of Forking
Software is very likely to be forked in the future
Software comes from a fork but has very few chances of being forked in the future
Software has very little chance of being forked. It does not come from a fork either
Not evaluated
Adoption
Popularity (related to: general public, niche, ...)
Very few users identified
Detectable use on Internet
Numerous users, numerous references
Not evaluated
References
None
Few refences, non critical usages
Often implemented for critical applications
Not evaluated
Contributing Community
No community or without real activity (forum, mailing list, ...)
Existing community with a notable activity
Strong community: big activity on forums, numerous contributors and advocates
Not evaluated
books
No book about the software
Less than 5 books about the software are available
More than 5 books about software are available, in several languages
Not evaluated
Development leadership
Leading team
1 to 2 individuals involved, not clearly identified
Between 2 and 5 independent people
More than 5 people
Not evaluated
Management style
Complete dictatorship
Enlightened despotism
Council of architects with identified leader (e.g: KDE)
Not evaluated
Activity
Developers, identification, turnover
Less than 3 developers, not clearly identified
Between 4 and 7 developers, or more unidentified developers with important turnover
More than 7 developers, very stable team
Not evaluated
Activity on bugs
Slow reactivity in forum or on mailing list, or nothing regarding bug fixes in releases note
Detectable activity but without process clearly exposed, long reaction/resolution time
Strong reactivity based on roles and tasks assignment
Not evaluated
Activity on functionalities
No or few new functionalities
Evolution of the product driven by the core team or by user's request without any clearly explained process
Tool(s) to manage feature requests, strong interaction with roadmap
Not evaluated
Activity on releases
Very weak activity on both production and development releases
Activity on production and development releases. Frequent minor releases (bug fixes)
Important activity with frequent minor releases (bugs fixes) and planned major releases relating to the roadmap forcast
Not evaluated
Industrialized solution
Independence of developments
Developments realized at 100% by employees of a single company
60% maximum
20% maximum
Not evaluated
Services
Training
No offer of training identified
Offer exists but is restricted geographically and to one language or is provided by a single contractor
Rich offers provided by several contractors, in several languages and split into modules of gradual levels
Not evaluated
Support
No offer of support except via public forums and mailing lists
Offer exists but is provided by a single contractor without strong commitment quality of services
Multiple service providers with strong commitment (e.g: guaranteed resolution time)
Not evaluated
Consulting
No offer of consulting service
Offer exists but is restricted geographically and to one language or is provided by a single contractor
Consulting services provided by different contractors in several languages
Not evaluated
Documentation
No user documentation
Documentation exists but shifted in time, is restricted to one language or is poorly detailed
Documentation always up to date, translated and possibly adapted to different target readers (end user, sysadmin, manager, ...)
Not evaluated
Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance
No QA process
Identifies QA process but not much formalized and with no tool
Automatic testing process included in code's life-cycle with publication of results
Not evaluated
Tools
No bug or feature request management tool
Standard tools provided (for instance by a hosting forge) but poorly used
Very active use of tools for roles/tasks allocation and progress monitoring
Not evaluated
Packaging
Source
Software can't be installed from source without lot of work
Installation from source is limited and depends on very strict conditions (OS, arch, lib, ...)
Installation from source is easy
Not evaluated
Debian
The software is not packaged for Debian
A Debian package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
The software is packaged in the distribution
Not evaluated
FreeBSD
The software is not packaged for FreeBSD
A port exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
A official port exists in FreeBSD
Not evaluated
HP-UX
The software is not packaged for HP-UX
A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
A stable package is provided for HP-UX
Not evaluated
MacOSX
The software is not packaged for MacOSX
A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
The software is packaged in the distribution
Not evaluated
Mandriva
The software is not packaged for Mandriva
A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
The software is packaged in the distribution
Not evaluated
NetBSD
The software is not packaged for NetBSD
A port exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
A official port exists in NetBSD
Not evaluated
OpenBSD
The software is not packaged for OpenBSD
A port exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
A official port exists in OpenBSD
Not evaluated
RedHat
The software is not packaged for RedHat/Fedora
A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
The software is packaged in the distribution
Not evaluated
Solaris
The software is not packaged for Solaris
A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support (e.g: SunFreeware.com )
The software is supported by Sun for Solaris
Not evaluated
SuSE
The software is not packaged for SuSE
A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support
The software is packaged in the distribution
Not evaluated
Windows
The project can't be installed on Windows
A package exists but it is limited or has important issues or just cover some specific Windows release (e.g: Windows2000 and WindowsXP)
Windows is full supported and a package is provided
Not evaluated
Exploitability
Ease of use, ergonomics
Difficult to use, requires an in depth knowledge of the software functionality
Austere and very technical ergonomics
GUI including help functions and elaborated ergonomics
Not evaluated
Administration / Monitoring
No administrative or monitoring functionalities
Existing, functionalities but incomplete and or need improvement
Complete and easy-to-use administration and monitoring functionalities. Possible integration with external tools (e.g: SNMP, syslog, ...)
Not evaluated
Technical adaptability
Modularity
Monolithic software
Presence of hight level modules allowing a first level of software adaptation
Modular conception, allowing easy adaptation of the software by selecting or creating modules
Not evaluated
Code modification
Everything by hand
Recompilation possible but complex without any tools or documentation
Recompilation with tools (e.g: make, ANT, ...) and documentation provided
Not evaluated
Code extension
Any modification requires code recompilation
Architecture designed for static extension but requires recompilation
Principle of plugin, architecture designed for dynamic extension without recompilation
Not evaluated
Strategy
License
Permissiveness (only if user wants to become owner of code)
Very strict license, like GPL
Moderate permissive license located between both extremes (GPL and BSD) dual-licensing depending on the type of user (person, company, ...) or their activities
Very permissive like BSD or Apache licenses
Not evaluated
Protection against proprietary forks
Very permissive like BSD or Apache licenses
Moderate permissive license located between both extremes (GPL and BSD), dual-licensing depending on the type of user (person, company, ...) or their activies
Very strict license, like GPL
Not evaluated
Copyright owners
Rights held by a few individuals or entities, making it easier to change the license
Rights held by numerous individuals owning the code in a homogeneous way, making relicense very difficult
Rights held by a legal entity in whom the community trusts (e.g: FSF or ASF)
Not evaluated
Modification of source code
No practical way to propose code modification
Tools provided to access and modify code (like CVS or SVN) but not really used to develop the software
The code modification process is well defined, exposed and respected, based on roles assignment
Not evaluated
Roadmap
No published roadmap
Existing roadmap without planning
Versionned roadmap, with planning and measure of delays
Not evaluated
Sponsor
Software has no sponsor, the core team is not paid
Software has an unique sponsor who might determine its strategy
Software is sponsored by industry
Not evaluated
Strategic independence
No detectable strategy or strong dependency on one unique actor(person, company,sponsor)
Strategic vision shared with several other free and open source projects but without strong commitment from copyrights owners
Strong independence of the code team, legal entity holding rights, strong involvement in the standardization process
Not evaluated
Human/Machine Interface and other features
Customizable skins support
No customizable skin
Custumizable skin but needs complicated manipulation
User friendly skin support
List of other clients using the same skin constituent:
Not evaluated
Accounts management
Creation
No account creation is possible directly in the client
Account creation is possible for part of the protocols supported
Account creation is avalaible for all supported protocols
Not evaluated
Access to an account for management
No link for account management provided by the client
Link to the account management page for all or part of supported protocols
A native interface exists to edit accounts (all or part of supported protocols)
Not evaluated
Deleting an account
Deleting an account is not possible via the client
Link to the deletion page of an account is provided
A native interface permits to delete an account without browsing the web
Not evaluated
Plug-in support
No plug-in system integrated to the client
Limited plug-ins features
Advanced plug-ins features
Not evaluated
Minimum bandwidth need
512KB/sec at least
256KB/sec at least
64KB/sec or less
Not evaluated
XMPP Protocol
Textual Instant Messaging Protocols Supported
Open Standard Protocols
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol
Multi User Chatroom (MUC) handling
No MUC support
Limited MUC support
MUC is fully supported
Not evaluated
Ressource priority handling
No Ressource priority support
Limited support of Ressource priority
Full support of Ressource priority
Not evaluated
vCard Support
No vCard support
Old vCard specification supported
Flexible vCard support
Not evaluated
Avatar system
No avatar system is provided by the client
http-storage avatar system
vCard-based avatar
Not evaluated
Presence Status Handling
Presence status handling
No presence status features
Basic presence status indicators only
Customizable Status indicators
Not evaluated
Auto-away handling
No auto-away system
Basic auto-away system
Advanced auto-away system
Basic auto-away system: idle-time before away can't be adjusted, no personnal auto-away message or auto away message not adjustable
Advanced auto-away system: auto-message when auto-away is activated, settable idle-time before away
Not evaluated
Customizable presence features
Presence status is the same for all contacts (one presence status even for more than one account)
Presence status can be different from one account to another
Presence status can be set for each contact
Not evaluated
Instant Messaging tools and gadgets
Security
SSL/SASL/TSL encryption features
No encryption support
Encryption partially supported
Advanced encryption suport
Not evaluated
Peer to peer encryption
No peer to peer encryption support
Basic peer to peer encryption support
GPG based encryption
Not evaluated
Smileys
No smileys avalaible
Basics smileys avalaible
Ability to extend and share smileys list
Not evaluated
Nudge
No nudge support
Nudge partially supported
Nudge fully supported
Not evaluated
Whiteboard
No whiteboard support
Partial support of whiteboard
Full support of whiteboard
Not evaluated
Game integration to the client
No game provided
Limited choice of games with dependencies to the used protocol
Large choice of games compatible with different protocols/clients
Not evaluated
Own Specific Protocol
The IM module uses a Proprietary Protocol
The IM module is based on costumized existing open protocole
The IM module uses exclusively standard open protocols
Not evaluated
Proprietary Protocols
Access to Proprietary Protocols
Multimedia (voice and video) support
Voice over IP Support
Compatible Protocols
H.323 protocol compatibility
Not compatible
Partially compatible
Fully compatible
Not evaluated
Jingle compatibility
Not compatible
Partially compatible
Fully compatible
Not evaluated
SIP compatibility
Not compatible
Partially compatible
Fully compatible
Not evaluated
List of other protocols compatible
Integration to traditional telecom infrastructure
Compatibility with traditional telecom infrastructure
No compatibility
Traditional telecom infrastructure is supported but bugs exists
The system is entirely compatible with traditional telecom without important bugs
Not evaluated
Billing and prepaid systems
No billing system needed (no external call possible with the client)
Limited billing system
Adanced billing system
Not evaluated
Additional features
Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC) support
No AEC provided
AEC system exists but doesn't work properly
Full support of AEC
Not evaluated
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)
IVR and ASR are not supported
IVR works but not ASR
ASR and IVR works correctly
Not evaluated
Voice mails (VMS) support
No VMS support
Limited VMS features
Large Pannel of VMS possibilites
Not evaluated
Visio Support
Protocols supported for Visio Module
Supported OS for Visio Module
Existing packaging
Compatibility between different packaging
Only one plateform supported
Multi-plateform support but no inter-plateform connexion is possible
Full multi-plateform support
Not evaluated
Advanced features
Audio compression
Audio quality
Telephone quality (8KHz sampled sound)
FM qualtity (16Khz sampled sound at least)
Hi-fi quality (24Khz sampled sound at least)
Not evaluated
Codecs used for audio compression
For information, here is a list of existent codecs for different sampling:
8khz: G.711 loi mu /loi a, G.723, G.728, G.729, EVRC, etc.
16khz: G.722, G722.1, etc.
24khz: Proprietary codecs
video compression
Codecs and video format suitable for low rated networks
Codecs and video format optimized for large band networks
Video flows are customizable to fit the networks capacities
Not evaluated
Patent issues with codecs provided
Proprietary codecs used
Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC) support
No AEC provided
AEC system exists but doesn't work properly
Full support of AEC
Not evaluated
Data transfert
No data transfert is expected with VideoConferencing
Data transfert works but hardly if behind a firewall or a NAT server
Data transfert is fully supported
Not evaluated
Multi Point Videoconferencig
Only peer to peer videoconferencing is supported
Multi point Video conferencing is possible but no dedicated servers exists
A dedicated architecture permits multi point videoconferencing
Not evaluated
Network Architecture for Multimedia supports
Gateway and Media Gateway
Gatekeeper and Media Gateway Controller
No calls possible due to Gatekeeper/Media Gateway controller inexistence