I know we've got at least one Linux user on the staff here at SLI (Hi Tateru), and I also discovered that there's a NEW Nicholaz Mac version (bleeding edge-r is now the latest) so I figured I'd post news about the various updates as they come out (obviously an intermittent process).

Whilst hunting around I found this page, which links to all of the Nicholaz versions, for windows, mac, and a variety of Linux builds. Enjoy your Nicholaz builds on whatever platform you run your SL. I'm still loving the return of all my screen real estate with that wide IM window and the occasional tall, thin friends window. The general speed increase is something I don't really notice until I'm doing something fiddly, but it is always there and nice to see.

Sabin Linden informs us that the login process for the viewer is going to change to address anti-fraud and other security issues. Essentially, you're not going to be logging in through the viewer anymore.

Instead, logins will be processed through the Second Life website, and the browser launched from there with a custom, secure token included in a secondlife:/// link. The token is valid for five minutes.

While the solution has been tested internally to function fine with Windows and Mac viewers, the Linux viewer solution still needs work.

Cel Edman brings us SculptyPaint. Currently at version 0.9, it already rocks so hard that strong men faint. You want a fast, free way of making sculpties without all that tedious mucking about with applications and exporters? This is it. This is totally it.

That said, you won't be going crazy with it in the first few minutes. Look at the tutorials, and fiddle with the tools a bit before you try to do much with it. The tutorials are simple, but will show you what you need to know to get going.

Grab it (for Windows, Linux, or MacOSX). You'll need Java 1.6 before you do anything, so get that too. If you like it, by all means go and feed Edman's tip jar - he doesn't have to just give this away, you know.

So, Second Life is now 'fully voice enabled'. That means that assuming your network can handle it, and your hardware can handle it, and you've got a headset, and your office policies don't forbid it, and your family lets you use it you're just fine.

Unless, of course, you are one of the 1 in 100 Second Life users who uses the popular open source operating system Linux - a number which is increasing - it has been observed that Second Life runs better on the same hardware if that hardware is running Linux rather than Windows.

Where the heck is the holdup? Now, that's an interesting question - and depends entirely on who you ask.

Tired of fiddly manual downloading and installing the viewer under Linux? It has to be downloaded from the website, unpacked, and you need to set up a launcher, or change your existing launcher to the new version.

Well, I get tired of that sort of thing too, so I wrote and released a script to do all that for me, and it can do all that for you too. All you need is a standard python 2.2 (or later) setup (and face it, your Linux distribution probably relies on one already).

Grab it, unpack it, read and edit the source, use, share, enjoy.

GetDeb is now providing the Second Life viewer as an Ubuntu package, enabling Ubuntu users to get the viewer through the standard package distribution system, or to download the package from the GetDeb page. The package is available for 32 and 64 bit Intel architectures.

Unless there is a change in the structure of the Second Life website, the package will apparently not need to be altered, and will therefore be up-to-date: the package downloads the viewer from the site. The latest official viewer, 1.17.0.12, is listed on the GetDeb site as the most recent viewer.

Debian is a distribution of Linux; Ubuntu is both a flavor of and an extension of Debian. Thus packages intended for Debian systems and Ubuntu systems are frequently interchangeable.

We asked Linden Lab about the future of voice for Linux-using residents. As you probably know, the addon modules for voice in Second Life are third-party and aren't apparently supported outside the Mac and Windows. Inworld a number of Lindens have mentioned that they are pushing hard for voice-on-Linux, but it's been unclear as to whether they meant they were pushing for it personally, or whether they were speaking for Linden Lab as an entity.

Linden Lab responded to our query that they did not "have a timeline for a voice enabled Linux viewer at this time". To me, that pretty much means "Not for the foreseeable future" considering how these things generally work.

The current Second Life beta test grid (Aditi) has been updated with 1.16.0(4). Linux is back on the beta grid menu again.

No official or unofficial announcement has been made of the update at this time, so here's the bugfix list for this version:

Bug fixes:

• Fixed VWR-657: Beta -> Linux -> Startup -> Crash
• Fixed object loss occuring when taking an item
• Fixed render issues with tapered cubes
• Fixed sculpt texture loss after when texture picker is cancelled
• Fixed flexible sculpted prims becoming distorted
• Fixed textures applied to sculpted prim at a 90 degree rotation

Get the beta viewer for Windows, Mac and Linux from the usual place.