[Opensim-users] TechCrunch Article

[Justin Clark-Casey]

On 17/02/12 07:00, Drew Hart wrote:
> Techcrunch, in writing about Linden's purchase of LittleTextPeople had this note:
>
> " Second Life in part revolves around its ability to let users create virtual objects and sell them for real money. The
> whole world is built on *old, inefficient code*, and if Linden tries to update it those virtual objects can break,
> triggering massive backlash from buyers and sellers." (Emphasis mine)
>
> I am just curious - is this statement true?  Is it true of Open Sim?  I feel like it's not true, but I am curious for
> comment.  And are we sacrificing quality to ensure backwards compatibility?  I guess this is a philosophy issue.  Thanks,

I think there is some truth to this.  It can be very difficult to evolve a system where you have to ensure that every 
object created since the year dot has to continue to work.

The problem is particularly acute for Linden Lab where they have a financial relationship with the creators and users of 
those products.

In OpenSimulator it's a bit different.  Backwards compatibility is an extremely valuable thing to have but there are 
going to be times where it won't be perfect, particularly when long-standing bugs or inaacuracies are fixed.  To some 
extent, the tradeoff here is between limited developer time and the value that is placed upon perfect backwards 
compatibility compared to better future functionality.

The situation is not necessarily that dire, though.  There are often workarounds that can get you very near to the 
functionality that you want within an existing system.

I'm actually quite optimistic that OpenSimulator and systems like it have the potential to evolve as time goes on, even 
if there are bumps along the way.  I think that evolving a distributed system with an existing community and culture is 
more likely to succeed than trying to create a new one from scratch.

>
> Drew
>
> http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/16/littletextpeople/
>
>
>
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Justin Clark-Casey (justincc)
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