[sldev] alternative os support?

[Mathew Frank]

>> So yes, we wouldn't add "bsd" to the list of valid clients, and 
>> should instead evolve this handshake to accommodate viewers build by 
>> other parties. Off the top of my head for short-term approaches would 
>> be to add Linux (which for the foreseeable future will be the UN*Xy 
>> platform targeted by Linden builds) and perhaps add an "other" token 
>> of some variety that can be used to tell users who have built their 
>> own viewers that the protocol has changed.
>>
>> Opinions? What makes sense? What information should be provided in 
>> this handshake such that a sufficient warning can be shown? (And 
>> consider the scenario that you've built the viewer yourself vs. the 
>> future scenario of having downloaded the viewer from a third party 
>> provider.)
>>
>
> It would be very handy if you could publish the protocol update along 
> with notice that the protocol has changed. Right now libsecondlife is 
> using a daemon to scrape for client updates on the website and extract 
> the protocol file, but downloading a 30MB tarball to get to a 200KB 
> message_template.msg file isn't very efficient, and our scraper 
> doesn't seem to be very reliable either.
>
Given that last week I asked Lindens about a binary-only license for a 
free viewer we are building (hope I get a reply soon) my biggest concern 
is this:

Protocol changes come "out of the blue" right now.  With a custom client 
- and lots of people using it - you just can't afford to keep people out 
of SL for a few days while you get the update and recompile (assuming no 
local code changes required).  It is not good business to work on a 
reactionary basis for this.   I would like the following therefore:

    * An eta of "protocol expected to change on X date"
    * A warning a few days before the change with all details required
      for it (ie updated source code, and message layout)
    * An announcement on go-live day that the protocol is changing

Cheers,
Mathew
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