From last Friday’s Third Party viewer Dev’s meeting we learn the Firestorm Dev’s are looking at what will be in their next release. As it stands now the Mesh Importer changes are likely the latest they will include. Tentatively the Firestorm Viewer will go into feature lock Oct 18. Figure two to four weeks of testing then a viewer release. So, a good guess, operative word ‘guess’, is a new Firestorm Viewer in early to mid November, if things go as planned, which you can’t count on.
Bonfire – what I love in summer
The last Firestorm release was mid August. The one before that in May. So, November is the target for the next release based on the team’s plan of making a release every 3 months. Seems they are staying pretty much on schedule.
The Lab is releasing new versions about every 2 to 4 weeks. This means with Firestorm’s schedule they tend to lag behind. But, to say they are behind on features is, I think, misleading. I think the same is true when speaking of tech. But, in some sense they are running behind the Lab.
Remember. A lot of bugs that make it into the Linden release are fixed in TPV’s and the fixes then make it back into the Linden viewer. So, the idea of who is ahead or behind gets complicated. Chances are the Lab will have cutting edge changes and TPV’s will be more stable, but a bit behind. I’m a cutting edge kinda girl, so I tend to use the Linden viewer more than the others. You may find, and many do, the TPV’s are a better choice for you. Or you may like the Linden viewer, as I do. At least for now.
You were correct, Firestorm tends to run behind on features. That’s not a criticism, just reality. The Firestorm team has a lot of extra features and bug fixes to check once they merge their code into a new Linden viewer base code and that puts time constraints on their ability to be more current. They do a great job with the people they have.
I agree, they do a great job.
Overall I am very impressed with SL’s third party developer community.