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Second-Life client now open source

Fred Oliveira on January 8, 2007

Second life

I just got word that Linden Labs decided to open the source code for the Second Life client, and I must say I love their decision. Ever since I first saw Second Life - now over a year ago - I thought adoption would be slow because game mechanics (and other client-side details) weren’t appealing for most people.

By opening the source code to the community, second life users don’t need to wait for Linden to come up with an improved graphical engine it desperately needs. The community can just build it themselves - and I’m positive someone will take it upon themselves to do it.

We are not desperate, and we welcome the inevitable with open arms.

This way, Linden will focus on the core technologies behind the Second Life grid - the base for the whole system -, and someone else, the community, can create a better client-side application. Everybody wins. They may even get me to use Fred Wolf - the character I built when testing out SL some time ago - again.

If you want to get started, visit the open source page at Linden Labs or their wiki, that has information on how to obtain the source code for the client and compile your own version in your platform of choice.

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Thomas Wanhoffs Weblog » Second Life jetzt Open-Source

[...] Christian schickte mir diese Nachricht über Second Life: I just got word that Linden Labs decided to open the source code for the Second Life client, and I must say I love their decision. Ever since I first saw Second Life - now over a year ago - I thought adoption would be slow because game mechanics (and other client-side details) weren’t appealing for most people. [...]

Marshall Kirkpatrick » Open Sourcing Second Life - Will it Become the Next WWW?

[...] The big news this morning is that Linden Labs, owners of Second Life, has opened up the source code for the client side of SL (the part users interact with, not the servers) under a GPL open source license. Fred Oliveira at web design firm WeBreakStuff writes that this is the only way that the interface is going to be kept up to date - Linden can’t do it and it desperately needs improvements so let a wide variety of parties create new SL interfaces just like the early proliferation of browsers made the web much more usable. [...]

Marshall Kirkpatrick » Open Sourcing Second Life - Will it Become the Next WWW?

[...] The big news this morning is that Linden Labs, owners of Second Life, has opened up the source code for the client side of SL (the part users interact with, not the servers) under a GPL open source license. Fred Oliveira at web design firm WeBreakStuff writes that this is the only way that the interface is going to be kept up to date. Linden can’t do it and it desperately needs improvements so let a wide variety of parties create new SL interfaces just like the early proliferation of browsers made the web much more usable. [...]

ENGRENAGEM - Media e Tecnologia: blog sobre jornalismo, citizen journalism, blogosfera e novas tecnologias

[...] Visto no Webreakstuff 8 Janeiro 2007 | [...]

Second Life - O cliente tornou-se Open Source - NaWeb2

[...] Acho que o Fred vai arregaçar as mangas neste tarefa de melhorar o cliente para o SL. [...]

Open Sourced: Second Life - Nate Koechley’s Blog

[...] Update: Marshall Kirkpatrick asks, in a paraphrase of WeBreakStuff, if the open-sourcing of the Viewer is akin to the early WWW days when “the early proliferation of browsers made the web much more usable.” [...]

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