Comment 58 for bug 44728

I want to agree that splitting is a bad idea compared to just building in SILC support as is done in Debian now. I also want to note that the only thing required to fix this bug is to add the libsilc dev package to the build-deps and libsilc to the package dependencies. That's all that's been needed for at least the last couple of releases (edgy, feisty, gutsy). It's such a simple solution and would make the lives of all of us using silc so much easier that I would really like to see it happen before the next release. I'd also like to note that the pidgin and finch packages (in gutsy) both claim to have silc support when, in fact, they do not.

Also, if anyone comes across this thread wanting to enable silc support in pidgin or finch in gutsy here's how to do it:

http://ubuntumagnet.com/2007/10/enabling-silc-support-pidgin-under-ubuntu-7-10-gutsy-gibbon