Second Life Client Goes Open Source

by prokofy on 08/01/07 at 7:49 am

Link for new revolutionary development still not now working (UPDATE 10:00 am EST).
Opensource

I’m sure many more tekkie heads will be around to parse the significance of this cyberspace-shattering development, but Phoenix Linden just announced that Linden Lab is open-sourcing the Second Life Client.

First question: what will this do to land values?

Seriously, this is the model the Lindens have used to raise money for their own bottom line; will it continue to work for them and for those who make money in SL from land and content development?

What will it mean for intellectual property?

The announcement comes so much earlier than anyone thought, that I had to wonder if Phoenix was leading a rogue band of Lindens that have decided to break away from the mother ship.

Unfortunately, the page with the download is broken already, probably from being bombarded by too many metaversal myrmidons.

Let’s play pirates!

52 Responses to “Second Life Client Goes Open Source”

  1. Prokofy Neva

    Jan 15th, 2007

    I’ve never claimed anything of the sort, bubbles, I’m not superior to scripters, programmers, and builders, I take their products and rearrange them as a service. But they aren’t superior to me, either, just because they are creators and I am a rearranger. That’s fascistic, to claim only scientists and artists in a corporativist hierarchical world “count” and the rest of us our peons. That’s what I object to, and rightly so.

    Justa, when will you come out of your mom’s basement and blink in the bright light of the real world instead of the artificial tribal conformism of your Internet social software networks?

    It’s more than fine to come with a sign to a townhall. I didn’t disrupt shit. A giant dragon with huge numbers of prims comes and knocks people over and lags the sim to a halt — in fact TWO of such creatures come, knowing full well that it is good practice not to come wearing huge amounts of prims attached like that. Yet no one tells him to leave.

    Dozens of people are calling out shit and Squeebee is calling out stupid shit about Cory being hot and her being available blah blah blah — and that’s ok? Why aren’t they ordered to shut up?

    Some idiot spoofing my name shouts nonsense about “My tenants” — he isn’t removed?

    Many people shouting, pushing, cat-calling, and cross-talking are left alone.

    I, alone among avatars, standing at the back of the room, not shouting, not pushing, just responding with a line or two of very pointed and true cross talk — like the fact that the Lidnens need to sell scarce servers for $1695, not $0 as a money sink for first land, and I am booted for telling the truth. That’s what it’s about. That’s what it is always about. Meanwhile a thousand fucktards stay on the server.

  2. annie

    Jan 21st, 2007

    An observation from a programmer (though I’m a n SL newbie)

    The client and server have to agree on the protocol between them. If you have the client sources you have the ability to create a server.

    this doesn’t mean it will or won’t happen

    in theory, after all, anyone could have written their own prootcol, client, ans derver, and set up an OS version of SL at any time. Buuuut…. that’s a lot of work for something that won’t be compatible with the standard, which is SL.
    sooo….
    knowing the protocol is important of it’s own.

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