You guys see the newest blog?

Upgrading clients won't be necessary from here on out

thoughts?

actualy not much news from Linden Labs scares me but that does .. can't explain why though (yet) as i'm not totally sure why it scares me, but it does.

Very exciting!

I hope they add a feature allowing the user to say for a particular version, "Don't want it. Don't ask me again."

I get really tired of having to click "No I don't want the optional update" every single time I log on.

Yea, that is a pain in the butt, maybe they can put the upgrade option in a menu somewhere in the client.

It'd be really great if you could pick and choose what features you really want in the first place. Don't want that voice? Leave it unclicked and it won't download.

Otherwise, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Just a side note... this is the first time I've tried to post a blog comment, but I see my comment has been held in moderation for over 10 minutes now.

Do they do that for everyone? Or just first-time posters?

Or have I been tagged as a ne'er-do-well?

ETA: Got my answer... amazing how easy that is when you click on the big blue links! It's just that I'm a first-timer, so apparently I am not yet on the LL s***list.

Great, so does that mean I have to deal with customers whose transactions fail because they choose to stick with a faulty client? I can see it going something like this:

Customer: "I paid 300L for my widget and I never received it."
Me: "What version of the client do you have?"

Customer: <checks> "Version from 3 updates ago."
Me: "Oh thats the one that doesn't handle fund transfers correctly. You should upgrade."

Customer: "Oh well I don't want to because I heard that one has <insert feature here>, and I don't want that."
Me: <sighs and shakes her head>


As if selling in SL wasn't hard enough...

<contemplates a sign stating no refunds if not using the latest client.>

sounds like you'll have to choose EVERY time you log in.


YAY!


it was nice to dream, if for only a moment.

Is it me or does it seem just like another thing now we are going to have look and figure out?
Anyone else just getting burned out by trying to figure out stuff here or is it just me?
Probably just me

it seems pretty cut and dry to me. which part is confusing you?

does this mean well never have to use the "chatterbox"?

I wish I could be optimistic, but it probably just opens the door to a whole new variety of bugs when an old client has to talk with a new sim, or a new client with an old sim, or anything in between. This is a far more complicated situation than simply requiring that everything has to be the same version, and LL can't even make the simpler situation work properly.

And of course the majority of people never update if they're not required to.

Anyone that runs a bot will be very pleased since they won't have to tinker with it anymore after a mandatory update and can just keep it running.

I know that at work when we send out optional updates, we get a shed load of calls from people who don't know how to deal with optional updates.

However how about JEVN vendors or the hippo tech rental systems? How are they going to cope with people having different clients because they update their systems as LL update the client, could mean a lot more work for these guys.

If it was just a "Features choice" then I'd be happy about this, as it stands I'm a bit concerned that this may cause chaos as there are certain optional fixes. I'd imagine there will be a lot more residents needing answers though.

I am not confused. I am just frusterated that its just another thing I have to do in order to use SL.
It just seems to be another thing to figure out.
They say there is update, you've got to hunt it down and you finally find it after reading in forums this will help with such and such problem.
You find the application after much searching, download it, only to crash or experience another problem.
If you don't find it or download it then the risk of other problems. It's like lets not make the world and second life any more user friendly that gets to me most but we will charge you and charge if you want this or that but we don't really have to give the customer much let them figure it all out and do all the work too.
Just another thing on learning curve to add to all the other things.

gotcha.

how 'bout this. i'll hold your hand and we'll walk through the porthole together.

Not quite. Remember that the viewer is primarily a mechanism for -communication- with the various pieces of grid infrastructure, and for displaying on your screen the world around you, and the various pieces of data within the interface. The client itself does not contain the transaction system, for instance.. that's server side.

When your customer clicks to buy an item of yours, his/her/its actions are sent server side in a sequence of messages crafted according to a predefined protocol. The message template defines this protocol. Any time something in the viewer or server is changed such that a change in the template is also required, a viewer update is necessary.

They are simply moving away from the constraints imposed by this approach, and to a more open messaging protocol, where the grid-side services are capable of understanding what the older viewers are saying, and responding accordingly.

This is significant, but in a good way. It's not cause for alarm and panic.

The original example may not have been chosen too well, but even so there's a precedent.

Remember the "render-pipeline update First Look" series? One of them had a bug where if you dismissed the "You have paid.." you also dismissed the "Accept / Discard / Mute" dialog from vendors. People kept reporting this problem for quite a while after a new first look came out that had the bug all fixed.

LL never cared and never did kill the use of the old first look even after the problem was fixed, yet still being reported, leaving it up to vendors to replace undelivered purchases like they always do.

I doubt that policy is going to change for the better now and there will be times where something doesn't work/doesn't render proper in an older viewer.

Maybe they'll make an option somewhat like Microsoft does for Windows updates - you can choose one time to turn on autoupdating, and not have to worry you are missing out on updates; in SL terms, if there's an update available when you login and you have autoupdate turned on it will tell you there's and update and that you should click ok to update. If you have autoupdate turned off, you won't get such a message. Updates would always be announced on the login screen. Those with autoupdate turned off would need to take responsibilty for checking that and or the appropriate update page on the website to see if there's an update they want.

People who like an old version will be wanting LL to fix bugs in the old version. The bug reporter will need to be doing a proper job of recording what version a bug report concerns. When you go to file a bug report in Jira, you will have more versions to pick from when you file a bug report. People will be bound to file bug reports in the wrong place, causing possible confusion.

On the other hand, if we are to derive full benefit from the open sourcing of the client, then we need to be able to maintain compatibility with open source clients, who may not be able to make updates as rapidly as the fairly large team of professionals at Linden Lab can.

I share Kitty's misgivings, but who knows, maybe it won't make enough additonal problems to make much practical difference, and even work out for the better in ways other than just letting people keep using old versions of the LL supplied clients.

hehe

That does sound like it would happen!

coco

well, if someone paid you L$ for an item but did not receive it, no matter wut version they were using, i would hope you'd just give them the inventory item and not a refund.... but still lecture them about upgrading too. LOL

They should also allow Version 1.0 for the anti-progressives to use..............
Some peoples attitudes show they never want to download any more fixes..............

Hmm, it seems by the new post on the blog that this will all be rather seamless. Sections of the grid will be updated which you can then visit. You will get a note of release notes of the upgrade and an option to upgrade when you enter an upgraded area. You will also be able to shut off the notification system, so this seems rather cool.

We actually preferred to be called "Cautiously Progressive". And if someone wants to use an older viewr, and it's technically possible, why not? Whatever works for you.

Yes, this is exactly what I had in mind when I posted. It was a *huge* headache, and something I don't want to go through again. I already spend 60% of my time in game handling customer service. when something like that takes it to 90% i may as well close shop.

I don't think the plan to not upgrade so that you don't get new features is going to work very well. One, what happens when there's a new feature or bug fix that you want? You'll be forced to upgrade if you want it. Two, although less common, there will be mandatory upgrades.

It seems like it's just a way to skip upgrading for the moment so you don't have to wait to login.

One thing the Lindens might want to do is add an LSL function which grabs the version of an avatar's viewer. Vendors could be upgraded to not allow a transaction if the buyer has the wrong version.