A Tale In The Desert II / SL In Linux !

I just installed Scientific Linux 4 (based on Redhat Enterprise 4) and it's nice to have the lovely new linux all running. My USB stuff is autodetected when I plug it in, it looks great... Runs quick. I love Linux. I even found an MMOPRG (you know, that mass of letters) that runs on Linux, A Tale In The Desert II. It's really cool and was lots of fun. I think in one day I clocked up about 12 hours in there (no kidding!) I just couldn't put it down.

In the end I did tire of it mostly cause you have to keep 'harvesting' stuff all the time, and the more you build, the more you have to 'harvest'. I'm not one for chores in real life, and I'm certainly not one for virtual chores. But it ran in Linux and damn, how cool that was. I loved it. It was like driving down a clear road on a sunny day with the top down.

Then I headed here cause this is as close as I can get to SL without booting into XP. Let me tell you about THAT user experience. I get into XP which is kind of sad and old and slow on my PC cause so much adware and viruses have riddled it. Explorer crashes a few times, so the start bar disappears, and then comes back. There's a little search window above the clock that I don't remember ordering. It calls itself 'desktop.exe" to try and fool me. If I can be bothered I close it.

Somewhere in memory is a virus that pops up multiple copies of the calculator, at random.

Using SL is like driving through a traffic jam, in heavy, heavy rain, past an agricultural slaughter house, with the stench of sewage all over the place.

So have Linden Labs done a rubbish job? It's not them, it's the OS. That's why we STILL badly need a Linux client. I LOVE my copy of Linux. I work there, I play there, I log into my server there. It's all there. But not SL.

I don't know how many times it can be said that we need this before it gets done. I've heard Lindens saying they have some contractors in mind for the project. I've heard them promising "wait till Q1 2005". Well, Q2 2005 and so far it's sadly vapourware.

Already I don't use SL very much anymore. The Lindens can look at my logins, I'm hardly there. For whatever reason, I don't want to buy apple mac hardware. So then it's a stark choice. The weakest and worst OS in the world, or the leading competitor. And the leading competitor is not an option

PLEASE work on the Linux client. It IS important.

And the mentality that goes with the OS.

As an XP "power user," I can somewhat relate to the problems you're having. I stopped using Internet Explorer for more than my hotmail account (since MSN runs it by default) roughly a year or two ago. Firefox keeps me happy, and to date the worst virus I've gotten on my desktop was a worm from a LAN party that was quickly caught and removed.

I run my computer behind two routers, keep my anti-virus up to date, and run most of my major applications off XP just fine. If anything, I'll start by suggesting that you reformat your computer.

This is not the point.

The Second Life Linux client is very much a necessity if SL wants to open itself to more of the coding community, just as the Mac version allows it to be opened to those with more artistic talents. This also allows for several powerful tools that I trust - including the GIMP and Blender.

Linux is, in my opinion, a necessary evolution. It has not been frontlined largely because the Lindens are human beings with finite time on their hands, as work on 1.7 plows on.

I believe, however, that as Linden Labs continues its hiring spree, you'll see more work on the client for this platform. Until then, I suggest you stock up with a nice big can of RAID for your computer.

A good start would be AVG Antivirus, which happens to be freeware for the small version. You can download it here:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

It may not be as comprehensive as programs like Norton, but it's served me well for the cost.

You may also want to try Ad Aware - again a free, useful tool:

http://www.lavasoft.de/

This may belong in the tech forum.

What you're saying here is, you can run XP securely. I used to run my web and database server off an XP machine, and it ran very securely.

The problem is, where in Linux security is out of the box, in XP it requires a multitude of additional software packages to keep the OS itself under control, and a lot of time and vigilence, and a lot of being scared of software off the net, cause much of it contains other apps like trojans in some cases (I refer to file sharing programs).

Linux is secure, and Windows can be dragged into being secure. Sorry, that's not good enough. I'm not going to drag an OS into being secure, and watch over it every time I use it, and buy it software, just to use Second Life.

I don't boot into XP much cause frankly I can't be bothered. And that's the long and short of it. It's far too high maintenance. And if SL is only in XP, then me and SL are seperated till something changes.

Linix is only secure because so few people use it that it doesn't make a tempting target. If it was as widely used as XP I've no doubt that just as many holes would be found and exploited. AFAIK the SL Linux client is already being developed.

Alot of my friends are going to kill me for this, but frankly I don't see Linux as a high priority for SL. Seems to me that it would take alot of developer time away from feature enhancements and bug fixes.

According to this site: http://counter.li.org/estimates.php
There are an estimated 29 million users of Linux. I think that estimate is quite high, but I have no way of attaining any more accurate numbers.

Compared to the over 1.5 billion users of Windows, I see no reason to target that market.

The only two reasons I could see targeting Linux users:

1- If LL beleives they will find a much higher ratio of creators.
2- If there truly is only one other MMPORPG that uses Linux. That in itself may be worth the development time, as SL would have very little competition in that market.

I know of at least 2 people from the MUD scene (writers and creators not players) who would join SL if there was a Linux client. One is going to try to get it to run under Winex.

Nobody is going to build a windows machine just for SL.

You all just need Macs

I've been waiting for so long for linux to gain enough multi-media support.

Surely enough, little by little it has come to a point where Linux is a very efficient environment for pretty much all of the tasks I use my computer for. The only application that is holding me back now is...

trumpet horn and drum roll --

a native linux client.

Getting SL running under linux is possible using Point2Play/WineX -- but you have to buy a subscription to another service to accomplish it. Fine for some, a nuisance for others, and absolutely no support from LL either way.

It's sad but understandable that the Linux client isn't a high-priority.

Actually not quite. Linux's security lies mainly in permissions. Windows by default lets you do everything. Linux beats you in the nuts with warning messages if you start using the root account for everyday use. Your user account is limited, and applications are designed to work within those parameters, instead of forcing you to use an administrator account.

Linux controls roughly 66% of the webserver market, yet the number of holes that appear in apache and linux is tiny compared to the holes in the 15% of windows webservers.

As far as the Linux client goes, I'm actually not sure that development has started. LL has picked a contractor, that much we do know, but I dont know if they have started work yet.

And yes, I'd love a linux client. Linux is my primary OS.

-Adam