February 23rd, 2008
Is open source giving Second Life a second life?
Linden Labs, whose Second Life is so cool yet so lacking in profits it’s been lampooned in an IBM ad, sent out an e-mail alert this week boasting that open source is giving the company, well, a second life.
The alert lists a host of open source contributions made to Second Life over the last year:
- An open source Second Life client written in AJAX.
- A mobile Second Life client.
- A custom viewer allowing more mixing between Second Life and the real world.
- A patch enabling you to use Second Life with your 3-D glasses.
Linden Labs has also created awards for open source contributions and said its acquisition of Windlight opened up more Second Life code to open source licensing.
The criticism IBM makes in its ad is the same one many people make for open source generally — show me the money. Actual money.
Got any money to show them?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to Linux and Open Source via Email alerts or RSS.
