If you want it, I just compiled it (with all the gaim-vv features that they included so far) and made a debian package (suitable for installation on debian/ubuntu). It installs the program in /opt/gaim, so if you already have another, perhaps more stable version of gaim installed, you can safely install this along side of it. Just be sure to back up your .gaim directory first. You can download that here. 
If you’re looking for RPMs instead, the Gaim developers are looking out for you, as you can download them here.
Wow, two posts in one day; I’m on fire!
Get it while it’s hot!
This release shows a lot of the GUI changes in Gaim. It fixes one of the most annoying things about previous releases: the sticky window that stays open when you set your status as away. Replacing this is a combo box at the bottom of the buddy window; a much better design, as you can dock it to the system tray, and not have to worry about it. Also, while not completely implemented, they are merging in the capabilities of Gaim-vv, a friendly fork of Gaim, specifically focusing on Voice/Video features.
To be completely honest, I was expecting a little more from this beta. I mean, from the language in this post, they all but say that Google Talk voice support will be in 2.0. However, there is nothing of this visible in 2.0 Beta 1. Maybe they’re saving this for the final release. But, beta releases are supposed to have all the features at least present. If you don’t have all the planned features, then release an alpha (so that everyone will not expect too much).
But, all that is alright; I’m just happy not to have a useless floating away window anymore.
Very soon after my conversion to Firefox from the old Mozilla Suite, I found my favorite extension: Adblock. Firefox, itself, already blocks most unwanted pop-ups, but, it didn’t have a built-in way of blocking banner ads that are embedded directly in the page. So, some wise person created Adblock, which allows one to create custom rules for blocking banner ads in web pages. Sadly, at the time Firefox 1.5 was released, Adblock had some strange bugs that prevented it from working correctly. I was devistated: how I read the many stories that I read every day, with banner ads constantly attempting to sway my attention?
Adblock Plus, a fork of the Adblock code, seems to be taking up the slack. They have created a version of Adblock that works even better than the original. So, over the last year or so, I’ve created quite a list of rules, and I’d like everyone reading this to have the opportunity to download this list and be able to browse like I do.
I’ll be uploading new lists as I add more rules to it. Very shortly after this post, you should be able to download my list at http://jaredsutton.com/adblocked.