How about a linux client

My main OS is Linux. Would be nice if I didnt have reboot into Windows XP to play SL. I know that can be done. :=)

I second that.

They've stated for quite a while that they fully intend to do a Linux client. It's just not here yet.

I was kinda surprised there wasn't a client since SL is basicly run on Linux. But yeah I think they'll eventualy have one, they got two main OSes down, just got one left.

I don't even use Linux (I'm too lazy to actualy getting around to installing it on my older computer), but the idea of SL having a Linux client is nice.

I used to run Debian, but two things simultaneously occurred:

1) I forgot to change the partition on which my data was held from ext2 to ext3 (I had recently made it)
2) My motherboard was crappy, and caused a kernel panic in the middle of a file operation.

Result: filesystem corruption! I've been to lazy/busy to fix it. ^^;

I wouldnt be suprised if LL gets the Linux version done faster then they're doing the Mac OS 10 version, as Mac OS X has a UNIX core

==Chris

As someone who only ever uses windows to run SL, and does everything else in linux...

I fully endorse this product or service ...

BSD, bish.

But you must also remember, Mac OS X has a stable OpenGL interface. Linux has... about 950 different possible OpenGL drawing libs

Btw, the "I was surprised there isn't a Linux client as it basically runs on Linux" is kind of a ridiculous argument. Most (all?) MMORPGs have run on some variant of UNIX/BSD/POSIX for the server side.

The server side is just lots of calculating and network traffic passing. The client side is almost entirely graphics and HID. The two really aren't related.

Also, unfortunately, creating stable graphical interfaces in Linux is non-trivial, just due to Linux being too broad sweeping a name, as several distributions use different sets of graphical libs. I have a feeling Mesa3D(? IIRC) will be the 'chosen one' as it's the most common, but I don't recall it's performance being all that spectacular in most instances.

I have a feeling LL will have to write a lot of their own display interface to do this if they want it to work well at all, and given the workload they have, they probably need to stabilize everything else before beginning it.

I am sure I will get flamed for this but what the hell.

I am all for LL porting SL to whatever they can, but given the limited development resources they have, I must admit it seems silly to develop a Linux client for such a small user base. Linux is very strong on the server side, but as a client side OS it is a very small percentage and too fractured among versions to be able to do the kind of stable base that SL needs for such a graphic intensive client.

I would hate to see development resources siphoned away from developing the Windows and MacOS clients. If they have the ability to bring on dedicated resources to do a Linux client then more power to them - but otherwise it seems like a futile effort that would slow the progress of all of the clients and SL overall.

Cristiano

That is what they did for the Mac version, according to latest developer notes.

Yay! In that case, it's cool. Bring on the OS2 version, and branch out to consoles as well

A Linux version of SL?

"I'm John Driscoll and I support this message..."

Well, the servers run on linux, so there's no reason not to, apart from the market LL is aiming at.

But you can't rule the world without catering for everyone.

heh, good point. They probably did Winblows first because its used by the public more. Then the Mac users started complaining because they didn't have a port yet. Linux users are too l33t to complain and sit patiently and quietly. heh

Andrew Linden told me today that Philip Linden made the public promise of a Linux client in the first quater of 2005.

I'm not sure if this is achievable (I have no idea how hard an ask this is of the Linden teams) because they haven't started yet I've been told, but that's something at least.

Ill bet if you took a poll youde find that more SL users than you think, actually use Linux.
From what Ive seen, most of us are geeks.

Geeks as in "Cool smart creative" people.

yup - that was like two town halls ago or so... I think that's the same time frame they gave us for the havok upgrade too but I might be wrong about that one. I'm tired. Anyway, if you're feeling adventurous, there are several ppl that have gotten SL to work thru winex... although I never was able to. :-/

-Meiyo

Just get a copy of WineX, it's not free but it runs Windows DirectX and OpenGL games on X with roughly 90-95% the speed of Windows

Now why someone would want to run anything on X is beyond me... Linux is a fine operating system for servers and non-gui operation... but once you get into X, your stability, efficiency and reliability plummet. I don't mean X a as opposed to KDE or Gnome like some people of thought i was meaning... KDE and Gnome RUN on X, and X is itself very unreliable. Of course i speak of XFree86... It's free for a reason... The commercial copies of X are far more reliable but also extremely expensive.

Not saying Linux is bad, just the free versions of X... Not saying Windows is better, not saying Mac is better... I like all computers for what they're best at, I don't believe any one OS or platform is the best at all. Personally i own 12 Game Consoles, 11 Handhelds, 10 AppleIIs, 9 C64s, 8 SPARCs, 7 TI Calculators, 6 Sinclairs, 5 PCs, 4 Amigas, 3 RS6000s, 2 Power Macs and a Pegasos on MorphOS.

I can't seem to find that thread, but there was an excellent one about getting SL to run on a linux box, there seems to be a good dozen or so who might be regularly doing it. FedoraCore1/Debian I think, tho nothing about SUSE 9.1. I really considered tackling the idea til i switched to a ATI 9800 just recently. ATI and Linux....yeeich.

Here are the two sections of Philip's recent Town Hall event log which refer to the forthcoming Linux client:
Q1 2005 would make a lovely present for the new year.

To whomever is working on the Linux client in LL, please let us know if any changes/fixes/etc are needed in any of the open-source Linux libraries that will help this work along, or improve the performance of the client. It would be great to help, even if not on the client code directly.

Does anyone have bookmarked that post of Philip's which mentioned the open-source code which they use in SL? It would be totally cool to optimize the hell out of it.