After 2 long weeks, Linden Labs has finally open-sourced the client for Second Life, the popular virtual world online “game” which has been a hot topic among the mainstream press. After the announcement several weeks ago a lot of excitement has grown around this daring move by Linden Labs, which may prove to be a huge boost for the case of open sourcing online game clients which benefit from community development and modding. There are currently quite a bit of project involved with Second Life already in the works, including a Solaris x64 port, a PowerPC port, packages for Mandrive and Debian, as well as an Ubuntu package.

Second Life client finally GPL’d

Second Life developers Linden Labs have announced that they are open sourcing their client software, possibly as a way to shift focus from the rising media backlash after their months of super-hype among the mainstream. A super bold move which has been wished for by fans and amateur hackers of Second Life since the beginning of time*, Second Life users will have direct access to the client to mashup, hack and crack new features into the anything goes world. Though it’s not clear if the announcement was accelerated by the recent media backlash, which began several weeks back throughout the blogosland or whether this was a planned announcement, I think it’s great that Second Life is taking this step, let’s just hope it breathes new life into the world and means less 48 year old men in diapers and football helmets propositioning every female avatar in their vicinity**.

(*) Second Life time that is.
(**) This never happened to me, honest.

Read more: Second Life goes open source

Second Life, the 3D social networking virtual world where users are able to create alter-egos of themselves, living out their days running virtual brothels, hunting ranges and multi-level marketing schemes, has passed the 1 million subscriber mark. Though, this also counts free accounts, which take a whopping 15 seconds to open, over 400,000 accounts have logged in within the last 60 days, a good sign that many accounts are active. How Second Life will fare next year remains to be seen, but for now, it seems like the Linden-family are going strong.

Second Life reaches 1 million subscriber mark

Though gold farmers could probably care less, I would think that Linden Labs and all fans of Second Life are starting to wonder what the future may hold for their respective virtual businesses. With members of the house and senate just now starting to learn what a video game actually is, some are stumbling upon the news that virtual economies are growing to the level equal to that of some states’. Naturally, wherever there is money, even virtual, exchanging hands there are politicians, which doesn’t make the news surprising that the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress are starting to investigate the ways which virtual economies can be taxed. A report on where players can be taxed will be completed by year’s end, with virtual taxation bills popping up just in time for World of Warcraft’s 10 millionth subscriber. Typical of the IRS, always swooping in and killing any hopes of fun wherever it may be.

Read more: Virtual economies attract real-world tax attention

The Second Life News Network, currently under construction, is aiming to become a major player in the Second Life media industry, by providing fans of the massive real-life simulation game with “breaking news reports and timely, unbiased information related to events in Second Life”. As the Second Life population grows, the one source for Second Life general news reporting, Metaverse Messenger is finding that competition is beginning to make their once comfortable monopoly disappear. How popular SLNN will be among the residents of Second Life remains to be seen, but, we’re always up for someone bucking the system and breaking down monopolistic barriers, wherever they may be.

Read more: Second Life News Network (Via: Second Life Insider)