Scobleizer - Latest Comments in Second Life +is+ an OS

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Kip Yellowjacket — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 07:13:25 -0000

BlogHUD is a nifty tool for in-world blogging (http://www.bloghud.com).

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Jackdude — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:02:10 -0000

Aussiedude - you're a dork

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Aussiedude — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:09:52 -0000

... an OS? ...sorry but your wrong. It's not an "Operating System". An Operating System is code that manages how your software connects to your computers hardware.

Does SecondLife do that?
Answer: No. It doesn't have any control over that, the Operating System running the SecondLife client app handles that.

SecondLife can load and display media and even run interrupted scripting programs. But that doesn't make it an OS anymore than Flash/Actionscript, or XHTML/Javascript. Sorry, it just doesn't. Until Linden makes a version of SecondLife that is installed to the computer as the official OS and handles the drivers for hardware and file storage etc, then SecondLife will never be an OS.

My best advice, look up the term "Operating System" in wikipedia or something. The OS is thown around a lot, it's starts to get annoying when I see people using it even when they don't know what it means.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Maxwolf Goodliffe — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:48:03 -0000

Well if it is a platform (i agree) then it needs to be open like most of the Internet is today. Here at the company I work for you strive towards this goal.

We can export builds from SecondLife and put them into other game engines or work with them in 3DSMax or your program of choice.

We make a LiveCD called D-GiG that you can run that lets you deploy quickly your own simulator and configure it from your web browser that uses Linux.

It's all free, open source.

DGiG LiveCD OpenSim based simulator:
http://wiki.magrathean.ca/i...

Videos of sim exporting:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Sumax — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:48:41 -0000

Very interesting points pro & con... Is SL the next OS, I think the point has been made clear by many, NO! It doesn't (yet) have the management complexity to handle a fraction of what an OS runs. Could it be the next GUI, perhaps! There was a time when we had to load MSDOS before installing our GUI Windows (not to imply Windows is just a GUI). It's only natural to continue development & the current foundation is a good one. Why break something that's working well only to have a whole new beginning.

The idea of developing the now open source SL GUI to provide more productivity or whatever universal use people want is a sound direction. I don't see much of a difference when a user has to download & install IE or Firefox or whatever app vs. an SL install.

The day maybe a long ways off, but the likelihood of a 3D SL type GUI being bundled into our OS base is pretty much a certainty. They’ll probably call it something like MS3D…

I remember back in the 80's this silly media called a CD-ROM. Everyone said it's the next big leap in installation & multimedia... Then for about 1/2 a decade it seemingly died out, left the headlines, or was used as an example of what everyone thought is the next big thing that never was... I find this interesting since the following 1 1/2 decades were effectively driven by the CD-ROM. To that I say keep your eye out for the NC, it may need to die several times before it’s ubiquitous in our lives…

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Anongirl — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:36:15 -0000

@ 76: "If the installer asks if you want to be a furry, it’s not an operating system."

That's the best line out of all of the comments.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

IRBMe — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:31:46 -0000

Believe it or not, most operating systems running int he world don't even have a user interface. They run on the web-servers, t he file-servers and other servers that run a flavour of Linux, UNIX, Solaris etc. usually, and are behind everything we do in the world. Whether you're depositing some money in the bank or phoning somebody on your mobile phone, some server probably running one of the aforementioned operating systems will be involved in some way.

Proposing that this.. game.. could be the next operating system is proposterous. An operating system is comprised mainly of a kernel, the component that manages the hardware, provides virtual memory, file systems, multithreading/context-switching and other services; a programming API that programmers use to interface with the kernel; a collection of programs that make the operating system useful (e.g. see the GNU toolset); a way for the user to interace (be this a terminal, remote SSL session, FTP session or a GUI like X11 or Windows Explorer).

A game does none of these things, except maybe function as an awful GUI. What you're proposing is replacing a desktop environment with a user interface like that which this SL game provides. Even that would be an incredibly stupid idea.

Please at least have a clue what you're talking about before making ridiculous claims like this.

You're retarded. That is all.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

WELP — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 01:37:30 -0000

Hey. You're retarded.

Remind me when this pathetic game of yours manages memory (it doesn't even have to use virtual memory, just paging), has any sort of multi-threading (pre-empted or otherwise), runs drivers, handles interrupts, or otherwise does anything an OS does.

Just a bunch of technical gobbledygook that means nothing, right? Continue to live under that delusion because you, like all other SL players, are delusional that anyone cares about your stupid game.

"This is why I think Microsoft needs to pay deep attention to it and why my son says it's the most addictive thing he's done so far."

Look at how stupid you are.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

TT — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 22:06:28 -0000

God...this is more comedy than I can comprehend. You're so obsessed with this game that you've deluded yourself into believing that it could be even tangentially related to the next OPERATING SYSTEM.

Step back. Get a grip. This is ridiculous.

How does this game even come close to doing what an OS does? Where do I access low-level system primitives? What would a Second Life driver even look like?

Here's a quick heuristic to identify if something is an operating system. If the installer asks if you want to be a furry, it's not an operating system.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Taran Rampersad (Nobody Fugazi — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 20:37:15 -0000

Concur with Sean's statements regarding SecondLife being (presently) too centralized and proprietary. Of course, that could be seen as sacrilege on Scobleizer.

2 million accounts, though... well, out of 1.6 billion people online, 2 million isn't all that much. Call me at 10 million.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

seanfitz — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 09:56:26 -0000

Now you can indeed blog from within Second Life - http://bloghud.com/.

My belated 2 cents - Second Life itself won't be an OS - as others have pointed out it's too centralised and proprietary.

But I do think it's definitely the precursor of the 3D web, and maybe, just maybe, the precursor of a future OS.

And it's just recently hit 2 million accounts, double the one million mark hit less than 2 months ago.

It's definitely going to be something!

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Tiny Giotto — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:19:19 -0000

Indeed. It is more than just an OS, it or at least the concept of it has the potential to steer the next major change in direction of the internet.

Everyone loves the web, most people like games, hell one more dimension is always going to be a good thing.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

James — Wed, 17 May 2006 18:12:34 -0000

Until an true 3d interface is made, (eg, interacting with 3d in 3d, not 3d in 2d) it will continue to be faster and easier to stick with the twenty-something year old 2d desktop concept.

So, as of today; no.
Now, if I had some sort of 3d holigram on my desk I could poke at, it would be a completely different story.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Prokofy — Sun, 14 May 2006 19:01:33 -0000

I thought about this for awhile. And I think you've got it backward. I think the question you'll want to be answering is: Can the Operating Systems Become Second Life? Or: Can Operating Systems Get Second Lifed?

The operating systems were just the old world's 2-d tools, and they'll have to fold into the new 3-D metaverse. So I'm hoping you're going to want to secondlifize Word and fold it into SL.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Francis Dupuis — Mon, 08 May 2006 16:06:54 -0000

I love the comments, they are almost identical to the comments I used to see when windows was first finding it's feet in a DOS world...I mean really, who needs a graphical interface to run wordperfect?

Someone asked, 'why do I need a browser in a 3D world?' In turn I ask, 'why do you need a projector in a boardroom?'

Find the answer, see the future.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Micala — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 13:42:24 -0000

I've been in SL for about a year now, actively and I really think SL is like anywhere else in this world .. and it is what you make of it.

Obviously if you can only be there once in a while for short amounts of time and have no desire to create content or be involved, you're not going to get as much out of it as a person putting in a lot of time creating things or spending more time there.

I'm no scripter, but I have become a pretty decent builder in SL and have been paid decent amounts for projects. So not only is SL a way to meet new and interesting people, it's an open arena for creativity and I think that's the biggest draw for me.

If you're checking it out, look me up. I'm Micala Lumiere there.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

len — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 09:52:07 -0000

Silly rabbits. Tricks are for kids.

The tipping point for 3D is here because you have a generation of 3D savvy game players coming of age. An operating system? I doubt that but 3D is coming back. Pick any technology that was a 'loser' ten years ago but worked and has a loyal following, and it comes back as 'new and different' with all the usual pundits crowing.XML is SGML. HTML is GenCode and so it goes. See "The Magic Christian".

Yes, I've built them too and still do for a hobby; it's like painting in the Z and time, it is great fun and composing non-linear music and events is a new art form and challenging. VRML97 and X3D work just fine because I don't need it to be that easy, just hackable.

Otherwise, there is a well known lifecycle for 3D worlds if you are still of the 'killer app' mentality:

1. WOW!
2. Wow. Wanta see this?
3. Let's go play in 3D.
4. Whisper chat please.
5. Ummm... I don't have time for that these days.
6. Where are all the people?

1B. WOW!
....

On the other hand, if you need real time simulators for training, persistent 3D worlds are very effective.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

farlane — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 12:34:18 -0000

Will Second Life become the next OS? I'd have to say "No", as I can't see any non-open source OS making significant inroads.

Does Second Life provide a window into what the OS of the future might be like? I'd have to say "certainly" as we're moving into an era where our "drive" is as big as the internet and our peripherals are beyond counting.

Mark/Darius: Thanks so much for the info on Croquet. Looks like a fascinating project.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Larry Borsato — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 09:34:13 -0000

Does it really matter if it's an OS or not? If that abstraction helps then that's great. It's an environment that you immerse yourself in; so much more that just an OS. Would you even seriously compare it to XP or OS X?

Hmmm. Maybe it's time to re-read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

John Robb — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 05:23:39 -0000

World of Warcraft has a lot of this too.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Charles Box — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 01:01:35 -0000

So this is The Sims meets Lamda MOO?

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Sebastien Lambla — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 00:59:52 -0000

Darius,

what problem does it solve? What does it bring?

I understand the social implication of such worlds. I fail to see how this technology, OS, APIs, languages and what not, brings anything to the table? What are you trying to build that you can't do with today tools?

Collaboration in a 3d world? IM solve this problem. Physical presence has no impact whatsoever, except for specialized industries like CAD and architecture.

As I said, I understand why a teen wants something more powerful to create than what myspace offer. And I can see where a blog application inside it can be a decisive word of mouth advantage.
Marketing platform? Absolutely. Commerce platform? Maybe, although all the others failed, while having nearly the same business model. (Also note that virtual currencies that are exchanged against real currencies can end up causing conflicts with tax laws in such countries as france... Others faced that issue in the past).

That said, I fail to see the revolution. And throwing smalltalk and p2p technologies into an application doesn't make it more revolutionary. As I said and others have mentionned, 2nd world in 96, activeworlds and nexit in 97, blaxxun in 98, even vworlds from microsoft many years back.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Darius Clarke — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 00:50:51 -0000

Oh, and Croquet has its own built in parser so Domain Specific Languages work seamlessly in the same environment & IDE, naturally. Programming in the debugger is a natural as well. Just fix the error and keep running the same routine with out missing a single step next.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Darius Clarke — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 00:44:18 -0000

I agree with Mark. Croquet ( http://www.croquetproject.org ) will have what Second Life doesn't. Peer to peer network (so no tax to play or work, any two or more computers will do), a real OS, a real programming language (Smalltalk, by which anyone can evolve the syntax or the IDE w/o waiting for standards, and distant pair programming with any number of people), business proficient communication with the rest of the online world, including business quality security, and a direct link into the academic community for research. Seems like all the things that made the original internet essential. Plus ad hoc group collaboration like Second Life, and mash-ups at the in-memory class/object level (no zillion of different, non-standard file formats) and immediate live environment change with each method change so no compile/link/test cycle.

Re: Second Life +is+ an OS

Sebastien Lambla — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 00:27:59 -0000

Robert,

We've been through the exact same thing with the 2nd world back in 96, or blaxxun, or cryo, or or or or...

So it's a 3d world that can be extended, scripted and taken over. Fabulous. How is that making it an OS? The fact that i can write an application to run using their 3d environment is no different from having one running on .net or java, and neither of them are an OS as far as I know?

As for the addictive and creative nature of it, once again, yes, fabulous, but we've been there already. There's absolutely nothing new with this concept. My first company was in the online world business circa 98.

I fail to see the market. Or the thrill. Or what is new in it.

Please enlighten me.