[sldev] Opening the server source?

[Kelly Washington]

Tao Takashi wrote:
> (as long as nobody creates the backend services themselves and creates
> another (separate) grid).
>
This is a key point to remember. 

In addition to Soft's excellent points I have a couple of my own:

* Just having the source but being unable to run it is of extremely
limited use, even for bug fixing.  Right now the 'server side' is a
large cloud of services, some central, some distributed to various
degrees.  If we release *just* the simulator source right now it would
be essentially useless.  Until someone reverse engineered the central
services and started running their own back end systems...

* Being able to run a simulator outside our network that can use our
services (or appropriately interact with them) is a key part of the
*missing* infrastructure needed for our open source goals.

* An open source "server" benefits SL and LL far, far more if third
parties are able to run regions that interact with the "main" grid and
expand the main grid.  So much more so that this feature is usually the
primary focus of efforts towards an open source "server".

- Kelly