Bug#1028638: Gajim crashes. Upstream denies responsability and bans users.

[Niccolò Paganini II]

I have the exact same issue. Gajim doesn't start anymore, after last
upgrade.
I'm running Debian testing.

If I try to start Gajim from the terminal I get this message:
«No translations found for en_US
Dirs searched: [PosixPath(’/home/user/.local/share'),
PosixPath(’/usr/local/share’), PosixPath(’/usr/share’)]
No plugin translation path available
terminate called after throwing an instance of ’std::runtime_error’
  what(): Unable to read configuration
Aborted»

After some investigations, I was able to get Gajim to start up without any
problems, and in a way that kept my accounts and settings.

I started by trying to install a previous version of Gajim, but I realized
that this would raise a lot of dependency issues. Debian package management
(aptitude) itself warned of this. So I gave up on this idea.
Next, I tried to install an older version of the libproxy1v5 package, but I
realized that this would also raise a lot of dependency issues. Debian
package management (aptitude) itself warned of this. So I gave up on that
idea as well.

Then I managed to solve the problem this way:
a) I downloaded an older version of libproxy1v5 (the buster version). I
downloaded that *.deb file from here:
https://packages.debian.org/buster/amd64/libproxy1v5/download
b) Then I unpacked the aforementioned file.
c) Then I went to "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu" directory and made a backup
of the "libproxy.so.1.0.0" file: # cp libproxy.so.1.0.0
libproxy.so.1.0.0.orig
d) Then, I copied the libproxy.so.1.0.0 file from the extracted package
I've previously downloaded from the Debian website, that is, the "buster"
version of such file, to the said directory "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu /".

Of course this is only a temporay workaround.

I've have reported this issue on XMPP's MUC (gajim at conference.gajim.org).
They refuse to accept that this bug is their responsibility, so they will
do nothing to fix it. In fact, Gajim's developers have explicitly told me
that this bug is the sole and exclusive responsibility of the Debian team.

I also told them that the Gajim project has become excessively complex,
particularly after the introduction of video chat, which means that the
programming language in which it is written (python) has become
inappropriate, as can be seen after reading these articles:
https://granulate.io/blog/optimizing-python-why-python-is-slow-optimization-methods/
https://devm.io/java/energy-efficient-programming-languages-137264
https://towardsdatascience.com/why-python-is-not-the-programming-language-of-the-future-30ddc5339b66?gi=c7558778945d
https://content.techgig.com/technology-guide/3-reasons-why-python-is-not-suitable-for-big-projects/articleshow/90765233.cms

After having told Gajim's develepers, in an extremely polite manner, that I
did not agree with them, as in my opinion the bug reported here is their
responsibility, and not a bug introduced downstream, I was immediately
banned from said Gajim's MUC, without any justification or early warning.

That's speak volumes about the Gajim team. They not only suppress freedom
of choice but thay are also recurring to low level methods in order to hide
Gajim issues and bugs. I felt compelled to report this incident downstream.
It's a childishly and autocratic behavior.

In the present circumstances I wonder if the Debian project should continue
to maintain the Gajim application in its repositories.

Greetings to all.
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