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useResa
July 7th, 2007, 08:49 PM
Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com/) is a virtual world with currently over 7 million residents.

Currently there are some initiatives at Second Life on promoting Linux and Open Source.
Attached images of the Ubuntu Pyramid (set up by a Dutch woman), the Open Source Information Center and the Linux Initiation Center.
However, none of the major distros is currently actively present.
Should the Linux/Open Source community -- and Ubuntu specifically -- make more use of this new marketing opportunity?

What say you?

tc101
July 8th, 2007, 08:37 PM
Can you run Second Life from Ubuntu? If so, could you point me to something that gives instructions.

IYY
July 8th, 2007, 08:45 PM
Can you run Second Life from Ubuntu? If so, could you point me to something that gives instructions.

Just go to their official website, download the client, and run the executable file. Their Linux client is actually faster than their Windows one (for me, at least).

Toadmund
July 8th, 2007, 08:51 PM
Gad!
I never seem to have enough time in my real life to devote time to a virtual life.

Ahhh, to be unemployed, broke, but lots of free time.

useResa
July 8th, 2007, 09:07 PM
Can you run Second Life from Ubuntu? If so, could you point me to something that gives instructions.Just go to their official website, download the client, and run the executable file. Their Linux client is actually faster than their Windows one (for me, at least).
IYY is correct, You can download the Linux client here (http://secondlife.com/community/linux-alpha.php).
Download the file, extract it and run the file called secondlife.
Personally I have made a Custom Application Launcher that points to the file in my top panel.
The screenshots taken are from SL on Ubuntu Feisty.


Gad!
I never seem to have enough time in my real life to devote time to a virtual life.
Ahhh, to be unemployed, broke, but lots of free time.
Well ... I find this a bit judgmental ... I am not unemployed but have recently made time available to try out SL.

Here I came across people trying to promote Ubuntu, Linux and/or Open Source in general. This is what got me thinking.
Why do distros not promote themselves (more) in such initiatives. There are plenty of people out there that like to know more.
At least that is what I have noticed.

smiggs
July 8th, 2007, 09:28 PM
might be a bit premature to be pushing Ubuntu in Second Life their Linux client is in alpha hardly the best advert of Ubuntu if the first piece of software they try to use crashes repeatedly. At least wait until they reach beta...

Fenryr
July 8th, 2007, 09:40 PM
I've already been participating in 2nd Life for a while now, the linux client works just fine, and IS often faster than the Win version..Gettin' in is easy, as another poster mentioned, just go to their site, download the client, and register...Nothin' to it, it's mostly done through the browser anyway, and Firefox works just fine...

I didn't know that we actually had a Ubuntu area inside, though, I'll have to check that out...If anyone wants to look me up, my SL handle is Blackwulf Barbosa...Seems that Fenryr was already taken, the bastards...*l*


BTW...TOADMUND...You DO sound a bit on the judgemental side...Lighten up, ok? There's nothin' wrong with extending one's life to include the Web, I met my WIFE in here several years back...ALL of one's life is 'real', so there is no sense in making arbitrary, artificial, and above all MISLEADING divisions between a 'real' life and an online life...It's all about EXPERIENCE, and how much you can cram in before you die...

Atomic Dog
July 8th, 2007, 11:11 PM
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... sounds pretty boring. My life has enough action, I don't need a virtual life to maintain.

...i mean heck, I hardly have time to mow the lawn now.

useResa
July 9th, 2007, 11:23 AM
I didn't know that we actually had a Ubuntu area inside, though, I'll have to check that out...If anyone wants to look me up, my SL handle is Blackwulf Barbosa...Seems that Fenryr was already taken, the bastards...*l*
Please note it is not an official Ubuntu area, the Ubuntu Pyramid (use search for places and type in Ubuntu, can't miss) was set up by a Dutch woman as a means to promote Ubuntu.

Therefore my question .. should Linux distributions not make use of this to additionally promote their products more officially?


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... sounds pretty boring. My life has enough action, I don't need a virtual life to maintain.To each his liking ... if it seems boring to you, fine.

Nevertheless it is an environment with over 7 million participants .... should Ubuntu (or any other Linux distribution) not make themselves more present at such an environment.

Swab
July 9th, 2007, 02:30 PM
Would we need to invest real world money to setup shop? Also where can I find this Ubuntu Pyramid?

useResa
July 9th, 2007, 07:27 PM
Would we need to invest real world money to setup shop?
If you actually want to set up a shop, you need land. And land you -- indeed -- need to buy or rent. Rent -- depending on the location -- comes down to approx 5 US$ per month.
So yes ... you need to invest real money.


Also where can I find this Ubuntu Pyramid?Use the search functionality, open the places tab and type in Ubuntu and click search. The Ubuntu Pyramid will be listed, select it and click Teleport.
Sorry I do not have the SLURL.

PartisanEntity
July 9th, 2007, 07:39 PM
Frankly I feel very sorry when I see human beings devote so much time and effort for something so 'virtual' for lack of a better word. SL doesn't mean anything to me at all, I cannot relate to the hype about it, it is similar to the hype I hear about WoW.

This does not mean that I have never gamed on the PC, when I was a teen I did enjoy many games, mostly war strategy and Quake when it first came out. But I could never get hooked on any game, I got bored of them quickly.

IMHO SL is a sorry copy of real life, or should I call it First Life?

Wiebelhaus
July 9th, 2007, 07:41 PM
if you want to set up something , I'll support you and I'm sure allot of others would jump on and show their support as well.

23meg
July 9th, 2007, 07:43 PM
Mark made a blog post about it today:

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/128

Wiebelhaus
July 9th, 2007, 07:47 PM
Mark made a blog post about it today:

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/128


ohh snap , looks like someone beat you to it man.

juxtaposed
July 9th, 2007, 08:00 PM
The whole second life thing looks kind of cool, but it seems to me like it would just get kind of odd because there would be many of the people who are obsessed with it and give it more meaning then it deserves; like the kind of people who would be like when they played world of warcraft on south park nonstop :P

useResa
July 9th, 2007, 08:04 PM
Mark made a blog post about it today:

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/128ohh snap , looks like someone beat you to it man.
No worries ... it was not a contest ... and I was aware of this ;-)
Nevertheless ... if you like to support check out the link in the article and/or visit us at Second Life

Toadmund
July 12th, 2007, 06:51 PM
BTW...TOADMUND...You DO sound a bit on the judgemental side...Lighten up, ok? There's nothin' wrong with extending one's life to include the Web, I met my WIFE in here several years back...ALL of one's life is 'real', so there is no sense in making arbitrary, artificial, and above all MISLEADING divisions between a 'real' life and an online life...It's all about EXPERIENCE, and how much you can cram in before you die...

ME...Lighten up?!?
I merely stated that I have no time for a virtual life, there is already enough to do in real life, and that if I was unemployed or did not have a crunch of time, or at least a time slot, bah whatever.

Just keep your own panties free of knots, OK?... Or at least virtually un-knotted. ;)

brodiepearce
July 19th, 2007, 12:12 PM
Has anybody else been having trouble getting the 1.18.0.6 client working? I've tried extracting it from the alpha download, and also a .deb at this site (http://debian.cafuego.net/dists/dapper-cafuego/secondlife/), but both of them just produce a Second Life window that does nothing but display black.

I also can't exit it in the normal fashion, I have to kill it by killing the "do-not-directly-run-secondlife-bin" process. Before I downloaded the 1.18.0.6 client I was using 1.17.2.0, which was working perfectly.

This is the last few lines of code that come up in the terminal before it stops completely:


b7fa7000-b7fa8000 rwxp b7fa7000 00:00 0
b7fa9000-b7fb0000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 1165326 /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache
b7fb0000-b7fb7000 rwxp b7fb0000 00:00 0
b7fb7000-b7fd0000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 983055 /lib/ld-2.5.so
b7fd0000-b7fd2000 rwxp 00019000 08:05 983055 /lib/ld-2.5.so
bf953000-bf968000 rwxp bf953000 00:00 0 [stack]
ffffe000-fffff000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [vdso]

useResa
July 19th, 2007, 03:17 PM
Has anybody else been having trouble getting the 1.18.0.6 client working?Well I can only speak for myself, but the client works without problems for me (using Feisty).

I have heard (in SL) of issues but AFAIK most of them were related that both SL and Beryl were running simultaneously. Killing Beryl solved the cases most of time.

brodiepearce
July 20th, 2007, 02:58 PM
Looks like my problems might be due to conflictions with SCIM. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=458299

useResa
July 20th, 2007, 04:17 PM
Looks like my problems might be due to conflictions with SCIM. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=458299OK, but -- sorry for my lack of knowledge here :( -- can you also explain why this is not the case for every user?
Is it videocard and/or installed software related?

brodiepearce
July 21st, 2007, 01:15 AM
I really don't know either. But SL is crashing at the exact same spot for me, and I have SCIM installed so I'm just assuming that it's the same problem.

stepan2
July 21st, 2007, 04:13 AM
i tried out second life and was basically really mad at it. I was in some territory that had like 9 users . where did al lthe other people go? ???

iceportal
July 21st, 2007, 04:33 AM
I used to use Second Life, both under Windows and Ubuntu. It's no great feat either.

However, I quit Second Life due to my moral and ethical obligations.

No, I'm not a bible-thumping Christian. My religion really has nothing to do with my feelings about Second Life.

I joined SL back in January of 2005. It was the most amazing virtual world I'd ever been in, and I began writing scripts immediately. I stuck around for about 2 years (I quit about a month ago), scripting and developing and advancing the software community in SL, while exploring the issues involved in SL as a whole.

However, I recently quit, and I will not be going back. There are many reasons for this. I won't get into all of them, but one of the biggest is that the entire system is proprietary and corporate. The admins favor the corporations that join up and pay big money for sims and special priveleges, while the regular users are ignored. Over the years, software stability has decreased more and more and more, while they add "features" before ever fixing the bugs. It's sloppy software and the grid servers are offline an obscene amount of the time. Censorship runs rampant, freedoms are taken away, governments have too much grasp over the function of the world, and the amazing ingenuity and inventiveness that once existed is now practically gone. It's a capitalist world, where most users are either looking to spend money or make money, and if you're not interested in either, there isn't a whole lot of room for you.

Granted, new users (who didn't know the 2005 Second Life) will find it fun and amazing, as I once did. But stick around for long enough and you'll start seeing the slow decay of a once-promising virtual universe.

But... My opinions aside...

The fact that there are over 7 million users is enough to warrant a decent effort to advertise Ubuntu (and Open Source) within SL. But please, I beg of you... Get someone who is experienced in SL to do the promotion. Get someone well-versed in LSL to write your scripts, and a professional builder to build any structures. We want TOP QUALITY work to promote our OS. And we should NOT pay for it, unless payment is justified.

Sadly, I will not be helping. I've decided never to step foot in SL again, and I'm not going to break that vow unless I have no other options.