Second Life Goes Open Source

Linden Lab announced this morning they are making the source code for its Second Life viewer software available to developers to make enhancements, modifications and add new features.

The move has been expected and marks a massive strategic move on the part of Linden Lab from a closed, proprietary system to one that may integrate with the web and other applications.

“Open sourcing is the most important decision we’ve made in seven years of Second Life development. While it is clearly a bold step for us to proactively decide to open source our code, it is entirely in keeping with the community-creation approach of Second Life,” said Cory Ondrejka, CTO of Linden Lab. “Second Life has the most creative and talented group of users ever assembled and it is time to allow them to contribute to the Viewer’s development. We will still continue Viewer development ourselves, but now the community can add its contributions, insights, and experiences as well. We don’t know exactly which projects will emerge - but this is part of the vibrancy that makes Second Life o compelling.”

Linden Lab will tightly control the integration of any new features into Second Life.

The source code and additional information is available from Second Life’s website at: http://secondlife.com/developers/opensource.

Janaury 8, 2007