Where can we get "new features lists" for upcoming patches/versions?

LL has done a great job at keeping us posted with most of the thingies they've been tinkering with. Besides their comments here and there on some forums, we have an upcoming Features Discussion on Linden forums, a feature Suggestions, several bug reports/queues (at least two on the wikis, one "official", several threads in the forums...), etc. etc. We even have third-party web sites for discussion of upcoming features and vote on them. And it seems that every month a new site/page/forum/thread is coming out!

We have lots of "data" but perhaps not really "information". The net result is, it's hard for a "common resident" like me to properly understand

a) What bugs are REALLY in the queue
b) What bugs have been reported, but are not in the queue
c) What bugs are being fixed
d) When these bugs are going to be fixed.

The same applies to features...

a) What features are being considered
b) What features have been proposed, but not considered in the "near future"
c) What features are going to appear in the "near feature"

Finally:

a) How should we give feedback (beyond the official Linden Feature Discussion forum and this very same forum)
b) How can we get a timeline - understanding that this timeline is going to be dynamic - beyond some Town Hall events where either Philip, Cory or Robin give us some hints on what's going on?

For instance, I have recently read a post by Hiro - someone far more informed than myself! - asking, in surprise, if international keyboard support is really going to appear in 1.6. Searching through the Hotline, the official reply by both Robin and Ben is "it's going to be implemented very soon". However, one of the transcripts of a Town Hall I have attended shows that the promise for that is for version 1.6 - but it's hard to search for the correct transcript when using the forum search tools

Means we have the data, but not the information.

My memory is never good, but I seem to remember the following "upcoming feature list" timeline:

Late December/early January: previews on the new rendering engine (recent posts by Robin shows that this is slightly delayed, but not forgotten)

Late December or 1Q2005 (well, it looks like it won't before March ): Version 1.6 with the following new features:

- skinnable UI on a more advanced multi-threaded viewer
- international keyboard support, notecards with Unicode characters (I even saw somewhere that they would support RTF, inline images and HTTP links!)
- inventory search, more cool inventory tricks
- large-scale login improvements, no more monolithic inventory download at login
- Linux client (!) ready 90-95% of the way, probably released later or even just with 1.7

Late Spring 2005 (since originally 1.7 should be 3 months after 1.6): Version 1.7

- Havok 2 (hah!)
- new rendering engine, including morph based animations (such as hand poses and expressions)
- new UI (not so tied into the SL client)
- 2-way XML-RPC/better object to object communication
- vastly improved in-world text support (whatever that means, I believe it's related to the new IM system), including the ability to draw things on prims - ie. playing movies or flash, font support, web pages in-world, etc.
- eventually, new permissions system (including Creative Commons copyrights)

Late 2005: version 1.8

- API for the UI
- experiments on partially open-sourcing the code (most likely just parts of the UI, not the server code - yet!)

Beyond 1.8:

- 2nd generation rendering and streaming systems
- rewriting of LSL

This list is far from complete. The sources for it are mostly from Cory's blog, Town Hall meetings, and assorted forums and posts everywhere.

However, as a suggestion I would just like to have all information at the same place! A single web site for features, suggestions, voting on suggestions, a bug queue, and, of course, a proper timeline.

HOLY PANACEA!!!!

I pray to you Gwyneth Llewelyn you are the best! I have been searching for this type of a post forever, that will list kind of a colaboration of all the information that I read floating about. I only see from post to post like 1 tidbit of information about 1.6 or about any bug fixes, etc.

I was searching forever, and just happened to think, let me search on Town Hall (mostly due to the fact that I gleaned that word in one of the breadcrumb forum posts I mentioned above). And whala your post was here with lots of good information, even if not completely up to current as you say.

I cannot believe that the SL website does not have a place similar to, for example, Ultima Online's website "Update Center" with issues, bugs currently known, site news, server issues, general testing, the latest update applied, what was fixed and most importantly "In Concept" and in the pipeline type fixes.

I hear lots of Lindens in the forums talking about 1.6 is coming, its coming, but no where can I find whats in that version! I am sure by now they are pretty confident in its feature set, and I can understand why they wouldnt post whats in versions in the future (as development schedules always slip, etc) but as soon as they are sure it will be in a version they could post that in a forum post so we are all aware. And they could keep a list of what they are looking at (example Havok 2) for future versions, and when they think it might happen with disclaimers, etc.

Okay, my two cents (which now that I read it turned into twenty five or so).

rock on.

RICHTEXT FORMATTING in notecards would R0X0R, especially for a buddying typographer like me! Eh, maybe kerning is too much to ask for, but it would be a nice start -- and monospace fonts too.

Thank you very much, Gwyngwyngwyn, for this list.

I'm excited for the future.

Wow, fabulous. Now if we could only find out when/if new clothing types and/or avatar options might work into the schedule... I heard something about them being linked to or "after" the new rendering engine. Anyone have any more data to go on than that?

Really excited about the proposed notecard changes-- and the ability to draw on prims! Whoa!

neko

*bump*
I would like to add. Don't get overly excited.
I was promised international keyboard support, custom animations, and havok 2 in beta.
Sometimes LL can take FOREVER to add something... I guess in their eagerness to please the SL community, they tend to work on things that arent really necessary, and announce things that are planned a whole year before actually starting to work on it...

Yeah, uh... I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that they may not totally stick to that timetable.

From what I've heard, it's all definitely stuff they're doing, and I'd expect it in that order, but I think the 1.5 debacle really hammered home the point about a three-month development schedule -- IE, that it's not a good idea. It's been almost 6 months now since 1.5.0 was released, and from all accounts, it will have been worth it.

On the other hand, consider that while 1.5 looks much the same as 1.4 or 1.3, it's not. Just going through the files it installs and comparing it to earlier versions will demonstrate that. A lot of the changes Gwyneth mentions have already been partially implemented.

The one thing I kind of doubt we'll see anytime soon is a Linux client. There are obviously people who want it, and obviously at least a couple of the Lindens who want to write it, but I just can't see it really being worth their while, to be honest. I don't believe the potential market is large enough to warrant the amount of developer time spent on it, to say nothing of the nightmare of supporting a Linux port. Yes, I realize they've said they'd do it, but I still don't buy it. Sure, maybe one day, but not on the timeframe listed here.

I would hazard a guess that many people, namely me, are "stuck" in windows because of one or two little things.
For me, it's an inability to get my supposedly supported USB modem up and running.
The only non-free software I run under windows is Second Life.
I mostly use Gaim, Firefox, and SL on this machine. Most of my development work is either at college (where we use Linux) or wherever I'm working. I don't really play computer games anymore. I don't do a lot of document editing, and when I do Open Office is good enough for me. I've also used gimp for what little texturing work I've done in the past.
So yeah, if SL had a Linux client, I would certainly get off my ass and buy a new modem or something

Oh, there's no question that there are lots of people that would use a Linux client. I just don't think there are ENOUGH people. Further, I don't believe that there's many people at all for whom a Linux client would mean the difference between not using SL and buying sims and land and being a huge SL advocate. Case in point, you, Eggy. You're already here!

You are probably right. But, I would be okay first with a Linux-FRIENDLY client, which is still a Windows program, but runs fine under WINE/WINEX.

It shouldn't be hard, I think there are just a few points (like the 32 bit per pixel requirement dialog message) need sorting out, and it might already work!

I think some people got it to work, actually. I'll be damned if I know one whit about WINEX, tho!
Try searching the forums, maybe someone posted more details about it.

Second Life runs pretty much out of the box for me with Point2Play from TransGaming. It crahes horribly on the latest release (Cedega 4.x) but works without complaint if you backstep to WineX 3.3.x. Go figure. It's a free download if you don't mind compiling and setting it up yourself, but it's well worth the tiny monthly fee to support TransGaming's efforts.

The only problem I have with SL in this config is my avatar doesn't render quite right. The weird part is that everyone else in SL sees the incorrect rendering. However, from what I've been reading that's more likely due to my nVidia 6800 PCI-Express card than it is WineX. I look forward to the PCI-X 6800 problem being resolved.