w00t looks like xenforo is winning it's lawsuit

Not just XenForo, all of them do. If a new feature is really successful they'll all follow.

Yep thats what i mean, ipb has already started to introduce similar features to xf's. I think the popularity of xenforo's features is rubbing off on other forum software and before long phpbb etc; will have status updates and alert notifications.

I don't think so. Possibly alerts but as for status updates - not a huge number of people use them. They're one of those things people think cool! but then never use.

They will remain plugins for the free forums I think, this saves time for the developers.

I hope xf wins, they have done a good job and made a giant leap for foruming.

I have been rooting for XenForo. I have nothing against vBulletin, they in fact where my idea of what good forums looked like some years ago, when most communities I visited had their software.

I am happy nowadays there are free and cheap options that look very professional.

That link wont load for me

Loads for me - what about this shortened version? http://fb.me/WlLBo9oK

They need to hurry up and throw the case out