Viewer 3 is now the official Linden Lab viewer for accessing Second Life®, but there are other viewers available to you.
Why would you want to use a different viewer? There are generally two reasons: for functionality or a user interface not available in the official viewer, or to use a viewer based on the original Second Life viewer, Viewer 1. For many of us, there is a third reason: we are active in other virtual worlds in addition to Second Life, and want to use a single viewer for all the worlds we visit.
A Third Party Viewer is any viewer that wasn't created by Linden Lab. Three of the currently most popular Third Party Viewers are Firestorm, Imprudence, and Phoenix. All three are on the list of approved Third Party Viewers, the Third Party Viewer Directory (wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Third_Party_Viewer_Directory). Viewers listed in this directory have self-certified that they comply with Linden Lab's policies, giving you some assurance that they won't be a security risk to your computer or Second Life account. However, you should be aware that Linden Lab does not verify that these viewers are in compliance.
You can have both the official Second Life viewer and several third party viewers installed on your computer. The don't conflict with each other. You may find that you prefer one viewer for certain activities and a different viewer for other activities. For example, until recently I was using the now defunct Kirstens Viewer for Second Life photography, the Phoenix Viewer for building in Second Life, and the Imprudence Viewer for other virtual worlds. The viewers in the Third Party Viewer Directory fall into three general categories:
- Graphical viewers: These are the viewers that most of us use, in which we see Second Life imagery on our monitor.
- Text-based viewers: These viewers only use text, not graphics. They allow you to speak with others and to manipulate your inventory, but you don't see anything. Text-based viewers are generally used when a person is not on computer or internet connection that is sufficient for using a graphical viewer but needs to enter Second Life, for example to attend a meeting. Some are intended for use on smart phones rather than computers.
- Special purpose viewers: These may be either graphical or text-based, and are intended for a specific purpose such as inventory control.
The following are the four graphical third party viewers that are most commonly used. They are listed in order of crash rates, with the least likely to crash highest on the list. All have versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
· Imprudence (blog.kokuaviewer.org): This viewer has the distinction of having the lowest crash rate. It's based on Viewer 1 and is no longer compatible with some Second Life features. It's also one of the best viewers for using in virtual worlds outside Second Life.
· Phoenix (www.phoenixviewer.com): This has long been a favorite of many in Second Life. It's based on Snowglobe, a now defunct version 1.5 Linden Lab viewer that many of us favored when it was current. Phoenix was my favorite viewer before I switched to Firestorm.
· Singularity (www.singularityviewer.org). This is based on Ascent, a Viewer 1.4 based viewer.
· Firestorm (www.phoenixviewer.com): Firestorm is based on Viewer 3 and was created by the same people who created Phoenix.
If you're one of those people who prefer the classic Viewer 1 interface, you're most likely to prefer Imprudence, Phoenix, and Singularity. Be advised however that at some point in the future these viewers will become obsolete as Linden Lab incorporates new features into Second Life that cannot be implemented in older style viewers. If you want a viewer that won't become outmoded anytime soon, you should usea viewer based on Viewer 3. At present for most people, this means using either the official Second Life viewer or Firestorm.
I've begun using Firestorm as my standard Second Life viewer and will have more detailed information in coming articles about its features and about configuring it.
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