As of today, Kitely no longer supports the Second Life Viewer. We had to take this step because Linden Lab, the creators of the Second Life Viewer, have released a new version that no longer works with OpenSim. Since the Second Life Viewer automatically updates itself, most people will get this viewer “improvement” even if they don’t want it.
If you’ve been using the Second Life Viewer to access Kitely then you will need to change to a different viewer. If you have any other supported viewer installed then your existing Kitely Plugin will automatically detect this viewer and use it. If no other supported viewer is installed then Kitely Plugin will help you install our default viewer, the Firestorm Viewer.
Linden Lab’s decision is a desperate attempt to curb the growth of OpenSim, which they view as a threat to their business model of charging very high fees for virtual land. It’s easy to understand their reaction when you consider that Linden Lab charges $295 / month for a private island, while a similar island can be had for about $60 / month on professionally run OpenSim grids (and even cheaper on Kitely’s on-demand system). However, Linden Lab are trying to close the barn doors after the horses have already bolted: there is a vibrant community of developers that have created third-party viewers, such as Firestorm, that have chosen to continue to support OpenSim.
To give you a sense of how much this is a non-event for Kitely, here are the most commonly used viewers on our grid in September 2012:
| Viewer Name | Visits |
|---|---|
| Firestorm Viewer | 56% |
| Imprudence | 21% |
| Kokua Viewer | 8% |
| Second Life Viewer | 5% |
| Zen Viewer | 2% |
| Other | 8% |
We can live without the Second Life Viewer. Buh-bye!
