This whole thing over the regulation of Third Party viewers is pretty interesting. Linden Lab are again flexing their claws and this time showing the grid who’s the big boss by clamping down on the runaway viewers which have illicit functions built into them. Again, this is one of those things we all saw coming, and were braced for – with the advent of new “grid-killer” copybot clients nearing a release, a lot of designers on the grid have been voicing concerns.
But I’m pretty interested in the long run. If Linden Lab are going to keep a list of good kids and naughty kids, how long before they decide to swallow up a viewer? The release of Snowglobe was overshadowed by the popularity of Greenlife Emerald Viewer, and although the Official Viewer is still the most used, it does smell a lot of Microsoft Internet Explorer versus Mozilla Firefox. All the seasoned users are switching over to the new shiny viewers with their cool gadgets while the old, original viewer is slipping behind.
Until Second Life 2.0.
I’ll come clean – I’ve seen a sneak view of Second Life 2.0. It’s cool – and very different. Everyone’s going to bitch and moan when they see it because you won’t be able to find anything for a while, but to be honest, I’d rather the Lab bunged together all their changes in one go and hit the grid at once with it. If you’re going to make something better, then do it all at once.. don’t phase it over time and make everyone wait 6 months. Plus the new toys in this viewer look set to blow all the current third-party viewers out the water. If you’ve been part of the resident group interviewed by Linden Lab, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
I’m assuming the new viewer which has got the Lab buzzing is going to be open-platform like the current viewer. Making it closed source could well resolve a lot of community issues, but then anytime the viewer has a bug, there’s no alternative out there. Maybe some sort of API with the ability to submit code to LL for approval before it’s enabled and released?
Again, it’s most likely Second Life 2.0 will be open-platform, which means the breed of new viewers will build upon the new code, and become more stable, functional and shiny. Which begs the question, will Linden Lab GOM a viewer? They’re actively playing a role within the community now, teaming up with a modelling agency and taking control of XStreet SL – why not take over a viewer which everyone is running to, and bring in the programmers onto the LL payroll?
The race to be the grid’s favourite third party viewer hasn’t started yet – it begins once Linden Lab finally launch Second Life 2.0. Once a Release Candidate is launched within the next couple of months, and the bugs are ironed out, then the race begins. And my money says that the most popular viewer will see themselves getting a job offer from the Linden suits.
Prad Prathivi on October 21, 2009
Joshua brings up the good point that Third Party Viewers are (usually) on a GPL license, so the quick answer is “No”.
I still say they’ll hire the coders behind the most successful viewer though, to brush up their own.
Kalel Mommsen on October 22, 2009
Some of the top coders aren’t too keen when dealing with linden labs. it would take some persuasion on their hand.
i’m sure they are going to find bugs and quickly adapt to get this customized viewer out before linden labs can Make a second move after they get flooded with alot of complaints.
katiem on October 30, 2009
I disagree. I don’t think the coders of the “best” third party viewer will be absorbed en masse by LL. Most of them, quite frankly, so this sort of stuff in their spare time and don’t really need or want a job with LL.
I fail to see how this is different from any other open source vs closed app war. The browser war you mentioned is a great example – you don’t see the top coders for firefox getting swallowed up by Microsoft.
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