The last straw - uber-g33ks unite.

We have been fobbed off and messed about enough.

It strikes me that linux users are some of the brightest on the planet.

Linux is the primary platform for hackers to go about their business is it not.

Now the way I see what could happen here is:

1). Lindens Fix the so called - alpha client - so it is at least in line with the current win version

2). Lindens release the code for linux alpha to the linux community can fix it for them.

3). The users of the worlds primary platform of choice for uber-g33ks and hackers unite in order to bring about the, shall we say ..... inconvienience at the least to a well known virtual world.

Just my idle musings??? Hmmmmm food for thought.

Don't hold your breath. It might happen eventually, but you'll suffocate first. The first option is more likely, in a realistic timeframe.


Thank you for playing. Here is your consolation prize: _______________

Oddly, I don't consider tinkering with Perl scripts as hacking. How many Linux users you know who bothered to sit down and write their own I2C river or go interface to a SCSI Media Changer, or write any driver for that matter. Saying that the average linux user is a hacker is a pretty bold statement that screams of self-indulged ego petting and has little to do with reality. The average linux USER is a USER, just like the average windows USER. They install some packages, request supporting getting something configured, and do their web surfing and email browsing. Their skills might be slightly better then the average windows user in that the average windows user doesn't do VB, and often the average Unix user at least has some knowledge of some scripting language. But that is about as far as I can see a distinction.

If you plan on offering up your own skills to do the porting/fixing work, l then please clarify. If you are offering up someone elses, then don't bother. It just sounds whiny.

Without looking at hte underlying technologies and architecture of SL I cannot say whether or not I possess the skills (of which their are many from many disciplines, might I add).

I am not trying to stir up a hornets nest here, I am however attempting to achieve some level of recognition....not for me but for all of us, we are being neglected here.

I want what we all want - SL for linux - and I dont care how we get it.

Hmm, I suspect you would hve a better chance if you gathered a group of people together to agree to sign an NDA and do the porting work as volunteers then. A bit like Blackdown's work on the Java port. Something organized that feels safe to Linden Labs. Getting LL to release the source is likely not going to happen before they are ready, and I suspect they don't see enough interest in the dollar figures comming in from the Linux community to care to much in that area about putting funding at it. So something more on-par with a fairly low to zero risk investement for them with as much to gain by the community as possible. Bare in mind, we have no way to know if there is specially licensed source in the viewer, so we can't pass judgement on why they havn't released it. There could be a number of legal ones. A private group working on a volunteer basis under a legally binding NDA helps to curb some concerns in that area.

So far as skills concerning the interfaces, you can basically see the majority of the library interfaces being used by just listing the lib/ directory. While I havn't touched the SDL and GL items in a few years, I do actively deal with ogg/vorbis still, and theora for that matter.

...

In contrast, I DO care how we get it; like I care how I get money, or love, or success...

Freedom (=Linux) is also about granting freedom to others, to me... Not taking theirs to expand mine.

BTW, it seems that A Tale in the Desert 3 seems to have a Linux version out. Though that game seems to be very very very small (only a couple of thousand subscribers), and probably less sophisticated than the SL game engine.

http://atitd.com/dl/downloadnow.shtml