It will be released when it's released. What if Tom just renames RC8 to final, would that make you all happy? Why does he need to tell you that it's not ready yet, because he said he would? He said "I had hoped to complete and release 5.0 'final' before leaving, but just ran out of time. I'm really sorry about that, and when we get back, we will be hitting it hard to get this done a.s.a.p." So where does it say it would be released in October?? He had hoped it would be done, but ran out of time and now the Holidays are here so I'm sure he is busy.
You all need to calm down a little. Maybe he is adding more features to it, maybe he is waiting till his new servers are ready? Who knows but it doesn't really matter. We all want it to be released and would like more communication from him but this is the way he does things so you just need to learn and live with it. If you don't like it find another product or write one yourself.
This form is not offical, if you need HELP you are supposed to email him but don't expect a response if you ask about BETA software. This form is for more user to user help IMHO.
Why don't we just leave this thread go till the new year and see what happens?