Philip Rosedale dijo poco antes de reorganizarse la jefatura de LL:
"....
Bigger than the web. The Architecture Working Group (AWG) is putting their money where their mouth is. We have high goals here: 60 million regions with 2 billion users. 100 million people using SL at any one time, 20 thousand avatars per region. Obviously a closed system where Linden Lab (LL) hosts everything can�t be that. That�s the main motivation here."
La motivación es una cosa, pero la tecnología necesaria y lo (a mi juicio) la política empresarial, son las que determinan si ese ambicioso objetivo se puede cumplir.
Los sectores más progresistas dentro de SL, con programadores como
Gigs Taggart, defienden abrir el código, pasar a otra tecnología de plataforma (Mono y C#), no están muy conformes con la elección de Havok para las físicas, y están trabajando en lo que llaman “SL Grid 08” . De un foro no público extraigo lo que viene a continuación.
Para conseguir ese SL Grid 08, quieren desarrollar una nueva base de datos, que sea mas potente, mas rápida y garantice la salvaguardia de los inventarios:
"...T
here is no intent to move to commercial database servers such as SQL Server and Oracle, because the underlying goal here is to build on entirely open technologies such as MySQL. One good side effect of this is that if the open technologies are lagging, they get pulled forward. Right now the client textures run on a closed, proprietary library, even through there is an open alternative. The open alternative was initially unsuitable, but through LL�s and the community�s actions it is quickly becoming better, almost to the level of the closed one. Pretty soon LL will be replacing the closed one with the open one..."
Ojala, es algo realmente necesario. Desde el punto de vista práctico, para los programadores del foro, adjunto lo siguiente:
"..
.There are going to be some bits of framework that need to be created and standardized. Just as the web needs to have DNS and TCP and other underlying parts, we will need a framework here. Luckily for us though, the web, and web technologies can be a resource for us. Some of the parts that LL is working on right now (and the community is starting to work on) are the Capabilities URLs (caps), chttp, eventlet and mulib. For collaborative technical documentation on these libraries, see the following:
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mulib
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Chttp
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Eventlet
These are small technical pieces that will help form the foundation of a new, more scalable and open grid. The new grid is based on web technologies, and a lot of it will run over HTTP. LL likes to call it “SL Grid 08” (optimistically). Some of the new grid might have elements of peer-to-peer technology, but the overall plan right now is to have a mostly normal server-client architecture. .."
Esto es importante. Consideran que el pasar algunos de los nuevos grids a tecnología P2P es una opción válida, algo que siempre se había rechazado. Para mí eso es algo fundamenteal. Sólo P2P puede reducir drasticament el lag, así como garantizar una red de sims distribuída. Deduzco, puedo equivocarme, que el futuro de SL va a pasar por tener grids de diferentes tipos. Los que ya conocemos, basados en las "granjas de servidores" en USA y otros países, en híbridos como los OpenGrids de OpenSim, y en P2P.
Creo que no tienen mas remedio, pues como bien dice Gig:
".
...he opensim project has a history similar to the libsecondlife library. libsecondlife is a client, and opensim is a server. The Opensim library started by reverse engineering the existing protocol—similar to libsecondlife—so right now it speaks the “old protocol.” But, as the new open standard evolves, it will start using the standard the same as LL.
The tentative goal is to accomplish a grid retrofit throughout 2008. LL has people working on the various small libraries I mentioned, with other people moving more and more of the server to capabilities-type web services. Zero Linden and our group are working actively on designing the new architecture and protocol that would allow these new use cases. See http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Architecture_Working_Group
Right now I�m one of the pilot residents invited to work on the AWG. Our immediate goal is to get the low level infrastructure standards and use cases figured out. The initial group included about 10 people with technical expertise from various areas of SL with, along with some people from various large technology corporations that have shown an interest in SL. "
Pero eso sí, teniendo en cuenta que:
"..
. Obviously LL has a business to run and may have to incorporate additional closed technology until a decent open source alternative exists. That helps explain why they might not open their server implementation in the near term. They are testing Havok4 physics engine now, and it�s not open. But, whenever possible, they do want to use open alternatives. There are some open source physics engines, but they are going to need some work to get up to par. One good thing about the Havok4 implementation is that LL has pulled apart the server so it is not so closely tied to Havok. This creates possibilities of open replacements in the future. Physics is pretty tough to keep responsive and yet still get a good level of separation that would allow something like plug and play. It�s not impossible though. Opensim has the option to use several physics engines in a mostly plug and play manner."
En fin, no me convence en absoluto. Veo a SL como en su momento Active Worlds, y estoy estudiando lo que creo que será el Metaverso del futuro, no OpenSim, que al nacer de tecnología inversa sobre SL adolece de sus mismos defectos.
Hasta que no pasen unos meses y lo haya podido testear bien, no comentaré nada más sobre esta alternativa.
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Lo importante del otro avatar, no es su shape, es su mente.
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Foro 
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