[sldev] Upcoming viewer releases?

Nicholaz Beresford nicholaz at blueflash.cc
Tue Aug 28 18:55:25 PDT 2007


Second Life from the inside out:
http://nicholaz-beresford.blogspot.com/


Soft Linden wrote:
> Linden Lab isn't a monolithic "they." 

Well, I'd say that's an example of reality bubble.  From the inside
it may seem like this, from the outside it doesn't.  I hardly hear
anyone refer to a specific Linden, it's mostly "the Lindens" were
doing this or that.


> I normally appreciate your comments and criticism Nicholaz, because
> you've tended to be good about not complaining for complaining's sake,
> but pointing to specific things that need to be fixed. I don't see
> that here though, so maybe you could elaborate on that bubble, and
> suggest specific things individual Lindens might be able to do to
> improve the situation?

What I mean by reality bubble is, and excuse if that sounds theroretical,
a social system of communication, information, values, goals that is
separated from the outside.

A simple example is that as a Linden you have some idea when the next
update will be or happen and what will be part of it.  A non Linden
and even a developer who may be working on patches or tools based on
the source can expect it in a day or by the end of the next month.

Another example would be that you most likely have an idea what the
GUI fixes will be (if any).  We'll see them when the viewer comes out.

I know that it was said that the snapshots should have been out once
a week.  But fact is they were not and nobody was aware of it and nobody
here knew if they were supposed to be out or not.

What I mean by this is that SecondLife looks a lot different from the
outside than from the inside.  Certainly for a resident, but surprisingly
even for a developer.


 > What are other examples of the bubble, especially ones where you see
 > things getting worse?

But it's not necessarily things getting worse.  It's merely things not
getting better.

I'll give you two examples:

After two desastrous memory leaks and after me sending the instructions about
how to make your standard compiler detect them to five different Lindens after
the first leak, after then being asked to write up a Wiki on how to do it
when the second leak happened, voice comes out with new memory leaks.

After a near uproar about the GUI, I'm not aware of any resident or developer
discussion about what will appear as changes in the upcoming release.


I'll leave it to others to fill the gaps or to say I'm wrong.  I don't
claim to speak for the community and I've been pretty vocal about most of
the issues already anyway that restating them would feel like beating a
dead horse.


Being passionate about SL from a source or in-world perspective is a pretty
hard job and it doesn't seem to get easier.



Nick



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