Do we have to have this VIEWER in order to log into SL, or will there be an alternative to play it just the way it is now?

How about a proprietary (non open-source) signature module for the official client, which will allow the server to tell whether the user has the official client or a … umm… non-official client? If land owners could ban users who don’t use the Game administrators who are worried about client-side cheats could prevent non-official client users from participating in their games.

It could (ok… probably would) be an annoyance for people with innocently-tweaked clients to be barred from certain places just because the land owners set the “OFFICIAL_CLIENT_ONLY” flag on their parcels out of ignorant hysteria or just plain ignorance (”What’s that check-box do?”), but at least folks could work on and test their own enhancements to the client in developer-friendly territory before submitting them to LL for inclusion in the official client.

@Rex: I do believe Gringo’s comments about Windows and Firefox were meant sarcastically (correct me if I’m wrong, Gringo).

It’s been now 26 months since I first asked in a Town Hall meeting “Will Linden Lab ever open source their software?” The answer is here, today.

Now I’m afraid to ask any further questions — I’ll just give them a very heartfelt hug for LL keeping true to their vision, and continuing to show that their vision is true through actions, not words

I’m sick of all the BS with SL right now.

I can’t create, because some objects after hours of creating, lose perms.

I can’t stay logged in, because SL feels the need to crash the sim I’m in.

I can’t move in SL, because I can’t rez objects most of the time.

I’ve lost inventory, which was supposedly looked at 3 weeks later with nary a word as to what the hell happened to my items, which Torley said was ’somewhere’ and resi’s would get it back, guess what? Still gone 6 weeks later.

I’m sick of attachments getting lost because I go to attach them, they get lost in my rear end, and then disappear for hours on end, or never get them back.

I’ve defended you guys. I’ve tried to make people laugh when you guys have ungodly updates.

I’m getting REAL sick of defending you guys when nothing is going right anymore.

What are you doing about ANY of this besides introducing new features to polish up for more VC, mainstream media and the like?

You’re gonna lose those who made SL what it is today, those who stuck by you with NOTHING from LL aside from a playable platform. Less and less residents are logging in that I knew from when I first came here. I’m sick of losing friends because you can’t get your act together.

When are you gonna fix the MAJOR issues? I’m sure scripters would be happy if a few scripts were broken, if it meant that the stupid scripts would save upon creation for a little while. I’m sure builders would be happy if it took a little longer to rez an item, assuming it stayed there.

Please, for the love of God, get your dang priorities straight. Screw the bug fixes and shiny flashing items on the ground. Get the game playable again.

(And yes, I have a high end comp, so it’s not me, don’t even tell me it is)

The first questions from content creators are, can we import/export content, and can we work offline? A little thought tells us, no, barring a herculean effort to reverse-engineer a viable server emulator, we can’t.

My question: is it possible, from a coding and user hardware standpoint, for LL to release “single player” software to emulate an SL sim or sims with a complete toolset in an offline environment? Such software could be published to CD or DVD-ROM and sold as an optional Gold Edition, updating with the viewer patches. It would allow exploration of the total toolset, an offline work environment, and back-up of creations (and possibly purchases): some of the greatest concerns of new and experienced users alike.

I’ve made a feature proposal to this end, but would like Linden feedback on viability. The proposition is linked to my name above. I know there are other proposals addressing parts of the issue, but a complete, LL authored offline emulator strikes me as the simple solution to our Gordian Knot.