Welcome to the sixth installment of "Under The Grid", an irregular look at the mechanics underneath Second Life. This time, we're looking the announced release of simulator code.
The announcement that the simulator/server code would be released open source came at the same time as the announcement that the viewer source-code would be - both took place almost exactly two years ago, in September 2005.
Philip Rosedale, in his talks at SLCC this year, estimated that server-side simulator software would be open sourced within approximately twelve more months. Development staffers whom we have spoken to inworld and who have spoken on the matter on the development mailing list around the same time are estimating 1-2 more years.
There are a number of interesting blocking issues involved in opening up the server software.
The winners of the Linden Lab Innovation Awards ('The Hippos') were announced by Rob Linden (aka Rob Lanphier) at this year's SLCC. Rob Linden's award announcement is reproduced on the Linden blog, introduced by Liana Linden.
While not everyone's going to ultimately agree with the winners, because everyone doubtless has their own perspectives on who is most deserving in each field, take a moment to consider the efforts of each of these people towards your Second Life experience.
Today, Linden Lab released two core pieces of server side code as open source items. These are Eventlet and Mulib, respectively. No, these two (rather poorly documented) libraries won't have you running out and flinging simulators together by tea-time, but they do represent two critical items of communications code that are essential to the new web-services/REST-based backbone model that Second Life will scale from in future.
Both modules are written in modern python (which should come as no surprise) and are available as zip files, or via the subversion repository. The Second Life wiki has been updated with what little information is available for Eventlet and Mulib.
Rob Linden will be announcing the awards in person at SLCC. To hear him in-world, tune into the "social track" audio stream provided by SLCC. See the in-world SLCC info page for details.
Liana Linden will be organizing a gathering of award nominees inworld, at which Cory Linden will be speaking. To wangle a guest invitation for this gathering should contact Liana Linden before Friday morning.
In April of 2007, Jesse Malthus passed away, leaving an entire community saddened by their loss. He was known for his involvement in libsecondlife, Open Source, and OpenSim. A kind individual often found in #opensl on EFnet IRC, he would help anyone that needed it. His enthusiastic attitude lives on today in those that carried on his work, including his mother, who joined after his death.
That is why otakup0pe Neumann has chosen to nominate Jesse Malthus for Best Open Source Community Organizer. According to him, it has nothing to do with the fact that he is gone. If Jesse were still alive today, he would be nominated just the same. If you were ever encouraged by Jesse, or he helped you in some way, please consider voting for Jesse, leaving a comment, or both to help him get the recognition that he deserves.
Linden Lab announces its 2007 Innovation Awards, to acknowledge the work of open source contributors. Categories include Contributor of the Year, Best Contribution, Best Feature, Best Bug Hunter, Best Community Organizer.
Votes are being taken through JIRA, and Lindens and their family are not eligible. The full announcement is reproduced below the fold.
Zen Linden (of the Boston Lindens) tells us that while Windlight's taking a hiatus to be hammered on for the next release (some weeks away, apparently), it is available in open source form from the version control repository for anyone who is interested in taking a look at the source code.
So, while Linden Lab aren't making Windlight viewers for the main grid, you can do it yourself, if you've got a little experience and some of that technical book learning. Other than that, if you're jonesing for your fix of Windlight, you'll have to wait while they pour a couple more buckets of eyecandy in there.
The last couple of days have seen some concerns start to develop on the Second Life IRC channel and developers' mailing list about some of the conditions surrounding licensing and the Terms of Service as they apply to the open source code.
One key item is about the Terms of Service granting Linden Lab editorial control that may cause unavoidable breach of third-party contracts. A second is about the terms of redistribution of the small package of included, static content.
Linden Lab has just released the source code for the First Look viewer. Now (assuming you can read C++) you can get a first-hand look at all the rendering pipeline, and caching architecture changes in the First Look viewer.
If you haven't tried running the First Look viewer, you may want to give it a try. While some people don't experience any particular improvement from the changes, some report performance improvements of 100% or more, particularly on some multi-core architectures, and with older graphics hardware.
Hot on the heels of the open source viewer comes the launch of the first home brew Second Life server. A user was able to build the single Sim server, and is planning to release the project open source. While this is a far cry from allowing you to build a fully functional metaverse for yourself, it is certainly a step in that direction.
While I am very excited about the possibilities of an open source server, this brings up lots of questions for me about how Linden Labs will take the news. In the past they have embraced the work of libsecondlife and even parody sites. So, we know as far as corporations are concerned they are about as tolerant as they come, but will this be one step to far.
The UM3D Lab at the University of Michigan has just announced that they have developed a new stereoscopic 3D viewer for Second Life. While you might have to find yourself some of those old school red and blue glasses from the 3D movies of the 50s. While I can't find a screen shot yet, I am picturing the world popping out of the screen as vividly as it does it is in the real world.
While more than likely the new viewer will cause headaches and such, as I remember feeling when reading 3D comic books back in the day, I think this is one of the coolest uses of the Open Source viewer I have seen yet. I am looking forward to being able to interface my Power Glove as well, but no word on that yet. Also, I am assuming all the kids in the picture are not using Second Life as that would violate the Terms of Service, right?
There's been a lot of interest and a lot of commentary about Linden Lab releasing the source code to the viewer, and it's eventual plans to release the code to the simulators. Dozens of articles have appeared on blogs, websites, and news periodicals, and continue to do so.
How many of you have you downloaded the viewer source code? If so, why? Did you download it for curiosity, to make changes for your personal use, to make changes to contribute back to Linden Lab, or for some other reason?
Or are you completely disinterested in the source code?
25,044 new signups bringing us to 2,542,729 signups total.
A peak concurrency of 23,132 at 2:42PM, and a minimum concurrency of 11,265 at 2:43AM. Average concurrency for the day was 17,562.
The Second Life Land Management forum closed. The majority of thread comments seem to be from people who have never been able to elicit a response from the support email address. Only one poster reports ever receiving a response from the support address.
A new First Look viewer was released with major rendering pipeline changes. It's got its quirks and issues, but the buzz about it is generally positive.
A new version of the Second Life viewer source code was put out today, including the first resident contribution, by Kage Pixel. The patch does not alter viewer functionality, but makes the code a bit easier to build. Further build fixes are in the pipeline. Several other Linden Lab provided updates are in this release.
The cat is out of the bag. The genie is out of the bottle. Humpty Dumpty is a pile of calcium carbonate and long-chain proteins at the base of the wall, and the King's Horses and Men are standing around, looking uncomfortable. The Second Life viewer is now Free Software.
As we have seen time and again, in Second Life and out in First Life, how we feel about something, and the implications of it are sometimes more important than the fact of it -- at least, if we take action based on those feelings.
Is the release of the viewer source code for anyone skilled enough to modify or contribute to a bane? Is it a boon? Is it some other thing that may or may not begin with the letter 'B'?
Welcome to the fourth installment of "Under The Grid", looking at the mechanics underneath Second Life. The first open source release earlier today of the Second Life viewer under a Free Software License is raising a lot of questions and concerns. Aside from those already strongly familiar with the community, very few people know what the distinctions are between Open Source, Free Software and Proprietary Software are, or how the source code being open can or is likely to change things.
And change there certainly will be. This is the biggest thing to happen to Second Life since version 1.2, and will probably turn out to be a bigger deal than that. In the next week, you'll read a lot of stuff that says that the sky is falling as a result, noting that we hear that every time there's a change, so hearing it -- however loudly -- does not reflect on the truth or falsity of the statement.
Let's dig around in the can and see what we can pull out.
Welcome to the sixth installment of "Under The Grid", an irregular look at the mechanics underneath Second Life. This time, we're looking the announced release of simulator code.
The winners of the Linden Lab Innovation Awards ('The Hippos') were announced by Rob Linden (aka Rob Lanphier) at this year's SLCC. Rob Linden's award announcement is reproduced on the Linden blog, introduced by Liana Linden.
Today, Linden Lab released two core pieces of server side code as open source items. These are Eventlet and Mulib, respectively. No, these two (rather poorly documented) libraries won't have you running out and flinging simulators together by tea-time, but they do represent two critical items of communications code that are essential to the new web-services/
The 
With 
Zen Linden (of the Boston Lindens) 
The last couple of days have seen some concerns start to develop on the Second Life IRC channel and developers' mailing list about some of the conditions surrounding licensing and the Terms of Service as they apply to the open source code.
Linden Lab has just released the 
There's been a lot of interest and a lot of commentary about Linden Lab releasing the source code to the viewer, and it's eventual plans to release the code to the simulators. Dozens of articles have appeared on blogs, websites, and news periodicals, and continue to do so.
Or are you completely disinterested in the source code?
Today in Second Life we had:
The cat is out of the bag. The genie is out of the bottle. Humpty Dumpty is a pile of calcium carbonate and long-chain proteins at the base of the wall, and the King's Horses and Men are standing around, looking uncomfortable. The Second Life viewer is now Free Software.
Welcome to the fourth installment of "Under The Grid", looking at the mechanics underneath Second Life. The first 
