Fifteen alternate Second Life viewers

June 12, 2:28 PMSecond Life ExaminerApollo Manga

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Do you know that there are other ways of viewing Second Life than the standard Second Life viewer? There are in fact at least fifteen Second Life viewers other than those created by Second Life. The picture on the right is the logo of one of them, the Meerkat Viewer.

The Second Life Wiki lists the following alternate viewers, and has download links for each of them:

   Able Edition
   Dale Glass Edition
   Greenlife Emerald Viewer
   Henri Beauchamp Edition
   Imprudence    Marine Edition
   Meerkat
   METAbolt
   MonoVida Studio
   Nicholaz Edition
   omvviewer
   omvviewer-light
   Rainbow Viewer / Cool Viewer
   RealXtend Edition
   SLiteChat

The four that I've tried so far (Greenlife, Imprudence, Kirsten's, and Meerkat) aren't radical departures from the standard Second Life viewer. The casual user probably wouldn't notice any difference at all. What the alternate viewers try to do is to add or improve functionality that many people feel is missing from or not implemented satisfactorily in the standard viewer. They are made possible by the fact that Linden Lab has made the source code for the viewer open source, allowing anyone with the requisite programming skills to to create their own versione, subject to licensing restrictions,.

If you're dissatisfied with the Second Life viewer, I suggest looking into some of these. You might find one that meets your needs. You can install any or all of them on your computer without interfering with your standard Second Life viewer. You can find a list of alternate viewers and their features at the Second Life wiki.

Over coming weeks I'll be trying some of these viewers and will report back from time to time about them. If you try any - or if you already have - please let me know what your experience is, what you like, what you disliked. You can either write it as a comment on this blog, or you can send me email at examiner@avatarplanet.com.

For additional news stories about Second Life and virtual worlds in general, visit my website avatarplanet.com. Now you can follow Apollo on Facebook!