ZDOOM - Development has ceased.
As of today (January 7th, 2017), Randi (former ZDoom sourceport developer) has announced the immediate eschewing of the development and maintenance of the widely-used DOOM sourceport ZDoom, and has also mentioned that no further releases of said sourceport will be made.
ZDoom has become quite a solid reference when it comes to DOOM sourceports. It all started 18 years ago actually, of course not in the same level of advanced scripting that we all have witnessed over the years, but nonetheless, for a DOOM sourceport to last this much and to arguably become the most installed DOOM sourceport in this day and age it's not an easy feat.
Without ZDoom we certainly wouldn't have the Brutal Dooms, the Zen Dynamics, the Smooth Dooms, the Samsaras, the Knee-Deep in ZDooms, the Reelisms, the Demonsteeles, and all the cool modern gameplay mods people actively play this year.
ZDoom was also used as base for many other sourceports such as ZDaemon, Odamex (via csDoom), GZDoom (of course), Skulltag and Zandronum (via Skulltag, naturally). So you can't really say ZDoom hasn't had an impact in your DOOM life, especially if you play multiplayer DOOM.
Now, you may be asking: "with the stoppage of the development of ZDoom, does it mean that it is dead?" Hell no!
After all the information I've said previously, I would say that there is no way ZDoom is "dead" or will be "dead" anytime soon. It has ceased from being actively developed, just as any other piece of software, but unlike Windows XP, you can still have it and it will be completely functional for what it was specifically made (and safe from intruders, too!). You can still download and play with ZDoom, it's going nowhere!
If we were to compare this situation with Skulltag's departure, ZDoom is definitely staying around for a good while compared to the ill-fated destiny that the multiplayer sourceport faced back in the day. And boy, was that a mess.
The legacy of ZDoom will still continue thanks to GZDoom and the hot new QZDoom, and of course the most immediate member of the ZDoom family that has MP capatibilites - Zandronum! It will also take some time for modders to transition between ZDoom and the other actively maintained sourceports, so you might get to see a few gameplay mods be released after this that will work fine with the latest stable release of ZDoom.
ZDoom was the very first DOOM sourceport that I downloaded wayyy back when I started playing DOOM, I'm sure I'm not the only one that experienced (and will experience) the same situation.
It's going to take a good damn while until we get to see another sourceport in its place. Take a break, ZDoom. You did a great job.
