LA 2nd Life - SL for Linux people

Is being mute better than a voice without freedom?

nospam@example.com (DanteJones Laszlo) — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:49:16 +1000

Linux users of Second Life seeing voice currently being supported in all but their Viewer, are posed with that question.

Reading through a job logged in March in the SL JIRA issue tracker titled 'Support Voice on Linux', two things become clear;

1) Linden Lab have licensed Vivox to provide propriety code for Voice.
2) If they ever do support the Linux viewer it will be with a closed 'binary blob'.

To me this seems a real shame. Linden Lab have gone to great lengths to make sure that the technologies they choose to build Second Life are standards based, and as open and transparent as possible.

Recently Sardonyx Linden in a post to the SL Blog thanked the open source community for the work they've done bugfixing the SL Viewer. Linden Lab have gone so far as to GPL the SL viewer including the excellent 'WindLight' code. The Vivox code seems to contrast this attitude starkly.

Vivox appear to have only had limited exposure, their technology being used most notable in another MMOG called 'EVE Online' which doesn't support Linux at all.

I'd love to know why Linden Lab selected Vivox over numerous other open alternatives, as it seems to me that it will only be a matter of time until this code, which is not GPL2 friendly has to be removed and replaced.

What are your thoughts?

Under The Grid with Tateru's guidance

nospam@example.com (DanteJones Laszlo) — Sun, 27 May 2007 04:17:00 +1000

One of the 'Giants' of Second Life community on who's shoulders other residents can stand is Tateru Nino. She has consistently mentored new Residents, and through postings on various sites revealed not only how to be creative in SL but also it's inner workings.

One such set of inner documentation is in the the form of the "UnderTheGrid" postings on Second Life Insider.

In a current posting Tateru covers how to build a simple bot using python. Previous posts have covered topics like the Open Source SL viewer, Prims and causes of lag.

Feeling creative but lazy? SL Wiki Video Tutorials for you!

nospam@example.com (DanteJones Laszlo) — Sat, 12 May 2007 15:28:31 +1000

So you're now a Second Life resident and have a vague recollection of the skills taught on the Orientation Island. You've visited some clubs, seen some sights, made some friends, raided some money trees, did some camping and spent your Lindens. The urge to be creative is growing and you want to leave your mark in the Metaverse. What to do?

Well, you could travel to the Ivory Tower of Prims and follow some of their excellent tutorials, but you're lazy and would really like to see what's involved creating content in SL.

Fortunate for you a whole library of Video Tutorials exist on the SL Wiki that impart a vast collection of creative SL skills like;

How to use the building grid

How to create and send a notecard

How to build a chair

How to to make tiny prims

How to make a flag that waves in wind

How to link an object to a web page

How to create a teleport link

Many other Video Tutorials are available to fill the gaps in your SL knowledge.

In a future post LA2nd Life will cover which Free Software tools are available that allow you to generate all the SL content you wish.

No more excuses, find a sandbox and get to it!

Ubuntu Deb package for Second Life

nospam@example.com (DanteJones Laszlo) — Thu, 3 May 2007 23:41:00 +1000

This little discovery should make life easier, especially for new or lazy Ubuntu users wanting to install the latest version of Second Life with a minimum of fuss. Thanks to GetDeb get your Second Life install Deb!

It comes complete with a movie introduction to the wonders of SL.

Enjoy.

An Intro to Second Life for Linux Geeks

nospam@example.com (DanteJones Laszlo) — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 22:59:00 +1000

Second Life is a Place not a site

Second Life (abbreviated to SL) is an online virtual world. It contains geographic locations, avatars, a bazillion objects, it's own currency and an active economy. The content of this virtual world is imagined, created and owned by it's Residents. One analogy might be to think of it as a very large 3D wiki, where you can see and communicate with others viewing, adding or editing the content.

From a technical perspective SL is broken up into thousands of servers (called the Grid), a communications protocol that uses UDP and TCP, and a client (called a Viewer).

Each server generally provides 4 geographic regions (called a Sim). The Sims are populated by online users (called Residents) which are represented by an avatar. Almost any aspect of an avatar's appearance can be modified to the owner's liking. In almost every case, an avatar represents a real person in real time.

Second Life can be considered a metaverse with it's own day, night, wind, physics, land and water. Different people are in SL for different reasons.

Stuff in Second Life

Creators of content own the content they make and can choose what to do with it. Permissions on objects are very similar to unix permissions with User, Group and Other categories.

The tools to build objects are part of the SL viewer and available to all Residents. Objects in SL are built from 3D geometric shapes (called Prims) and apart from the shape can include a texture and a script. Prims can be grouped together to make complex objects. The scripting language used in SL is called Linden Scripting Language (LSL).

Objects can represent everything from buildings, trees and liquid to clothes, plasma, killer mech-bots and kittens. Objects can be bought and sold, belong to a group or given away.

What it looks like

Watching a few episodes of The Grid Review will give you an idea, and hopefully a few chuckles.

Click 'continue reading' to see how the installation is done
Continue reading "An Intro to Second Life for Linux Geeks"