Second Life's Open Source Fairy Tale

Developers have no guarantees when they open source an application. In many cases, they don’t know who will use it, nor do they know how things will progress.

The fairy tale version is that developers will flock to the recently open sourced application and begin to work with it, immediately adding value for all involved. For Linden Lab’s Second Life, the open source fairy tale is coming true.

Nearly three weeks ago, Linden Lab open sourced its Second Life viewer application. Rob Lanphier, Linden Lab’s director of open source development, said the development mailing list has been very active and there is an IRC channel that’s hopping 24/7 with people doing development.

“All in all it’s been incredibly wildly successful,” Lanphier told internetnews.com.

Lanphier said that when he started at Linden Lab four months ago, he tried to set realistic expectations and make people aware that open source doesn’t guarantee interest and success.

Full story: internetnews.com