3pointD.com

Linden Lab, makers of the virtual world of Second Life has made an open-source version of its client software available for download, and sooner than most people expected. “Releasing the source now is our next invitation to the world to help build this global space for communication, business, and entertainment,” the company said early this morning on its official blog. An open-source client has long been talked about for Second Life, but many people thought it would take more time to get there because of the intricacy — and disorganization — of Linden Lab’s code. “Though Second Life makes abundant use of non-standard technologies, our basic UDP protocol message system for example, we rely on open standards and open source implementations when appropriate and available. Since many of the components that will make up this network are not yet done, we are not publishing long white papers or RFCs at this time — instead, we are giving everyone what we have along with a goal of producing those open standards with the input and assistance of the community that has brought Second Life to where it is now,” the company said.

Just the news for now, more analysis later. Do read David Kirkpatrick’s take. He seems to have been given the news early after a recent article in which he defended Linden Lab and Second Life against the depredations of some skeptics. His current piece is a good one, and includes some further skepticism about whether SL really is the Web of the future. In any case, the release of the client code marks the beginning of a new era in virtual worlds; there are other open-source corners of the metaverse, but none that have been seeded with hundreds of thousands of active users.