Second Life Server Updates Week 20

Server updates are coming slower than in 2013 and 2014. The Lab seems to be settling into an update every other week. This week the RC channels saw and update roll out, but not last week. The main channel did not get a roll out this week, but did last week.

Always Evolving...

Always Evolving… by Sombra Monroe, on Flickr

My thinking is that after 3 or more years of intense weekly bug fixing, the Lab has to be running out of bugs. In the last 30 days only 229 issues have been filed. Some number of those are duplicates. Of those 200 have been handled. There is probably some way to separate out viewer, web, and server issues. But, I haven’t tried. A quick count across the first page of issues gives me the impression about 20% of the issues are sort of server related. So, that is about 40 issues for the last 30 days and presumably 30 something of those are fixed. 

While there are still 1,400+ unresolved issues on the BUG list, it is hard to tell how many are about the web sites, viewer, and server. Almost all of those 1,400+ unresolved reports are showing needs more info. This usually means there is not enough information available for the Lindens to reproduce the error. If they can’t reproduce it, they can’t fix it.

I have no information or words from Lindens to suggest they are pulling people from bug fixing to working on projects. I suspect they have, but I don’t know.

This Week

The RC channels, all 3, rolled to a new RC release. This release has; backend bug fixes, changes to logging, and Reply-To email addressing changed in postcard sends from the viewer. This last is an attempt to look less spammy to mail servers on the net.

Since this is a server side change I assume all viewers will see the effect of the change when you are in an RC channel region.

Deadshine

Deadshine by Leonorah Beverly, on Flickr

Experience Tools

We know from Simon Linden that work is continuing on Advanced Experience Tools. They are currently working on the key-values database. But, what else they are working on they aren’t saying, other than that there are some fun things coming. Now whether a programmer’s idea of ‘fun things’ matches mine or not…

Group Chat

There is a rare group chat bug that stops the flow of messages to some users. The Lindens think they have a fix. It was being tested this Thursday (5m/14d/15y) at the Server Beta UG meeting. As these fixes roll to backend servers with no scheduled update cycle and the fact that they keep such information confidential to get more realistic feedback (avoid pseudo symptoms), we can’t know when these new changes will roll out, but soon.

3 thoughts on “Second Life Server Updates Week 20

  1. If the Lindens run out of bugs, the Linux Viewer currently is completely broken and does crash right after start up or has no sound at all. It can’t hurt to fix that. Yes, yes, I know, they do not want to work on Linux anymore.

    So here is an idea that I had: If a Linden Lab developers are too expensive to have them work on Linux, why not outsource the task to somebody who is willing to work for a lot less. Isn’t that what Philip Rosedale does with the Worklist? So lets take a specific bug like “Sound is not working for the Linux Viewer” and post that on one of these big freelancer portals. I am sure there is somebody in the world that is willing to fix that problem for very little money and there are the tools/websites to distribute those tasks and handle payments. Linden Lab then just has to incorporate the solution into the viewer. There must be some money available for that, I mean I alone pay 150 USD per month to Linden Lab for my land and generate more than 500 USD in revenue with my business and I am just one Linux user. But even if they don’t want to spend any money at all, I am sure there are plenty of people in SL that would even crowdfund that approach. You could do really cool stuff even. Imagine a kind of Jira that works similar to Kickstarter, where Linden Lab and residents can donate money to a pot to fix a bug. Once somebody is willing to work for the offered amount and fixes the bug, they would get the money.

    • Because they have few bugs to fix doesn’t mean they are sitting around… they have other projects to work on.

      We have been down the crowd funded road before. Mesh Deformer…

      The request for the open source community that uses the viewer to step up and contribute code is pretty much what you are suggesting. If they want to keep the code for their third part Linux viewers… that is their choice.

      • No, that is not what I am suggesting. The Lindens basically ask Second Life users to fix bugs in the viewer for free, so Linden Lab can make money with it. What I suggest is, that the Lindens pay relativly small amounts of money to somebody who is willing to fix a specific bug. For example, they post a bug like “Sound is not working in the Linux viewer” on a website like Elance.com or Philip Rosedales Worklist or any appropriate external site. Some developer in e.g. India is willing to work on that for 100 USD. He fixes the bug and the Lindens incorporate that into the viewer. Done. The viewer is open source, so no business secrets are lost. The Lindens spend a lot less money on the developer compared to an in house solution and everybody is happy.

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