The second life client-viewer : a case study in using open source

Second Life as an extension of web technology into the Virtual World arena, has had an enormous growth over the last year. Resulting from user demand, at the start of 2007, its creator Linden Lab has released the client software as open source software. It has now over 7,000 files and makes use of libraries or scripts from a number of areas such as Microsoft Platform SDK Microsoft Direct X SDK, Apple QuickTime SDK, Cygwin and ActivePython. These are needed for various internet and file operations, graphics, video and audio, mathematics algorithms and related tasks. This paper examines the current Second Life open-source client, itemises its components, identifies various compilation problems, and gives practical solutions to producing working builds. The overall work points to two main conclusions. The first is, unsurprisingly, that knowledge of the client software is essential to develop Second Life interfaces and to integrate it into the "first life" web environment. The other one is that, although open-source and thus collaborative, the project still has many problems of "missing" files, incomplete documentation, compiling orders and version control. These poblems exist in other large open-source software as well, pointing to the necessity of building robust infrastructures to facilitate better coordination and faster progress in open-source projects.