The New Second Life Viewer 2.0 Public Beta has arrived today after T Linden’s Keynotes at SL Pro 2010. The new beta viewer page for viewer 2.0 was released to the public just after 9:45am PST (5:45pm UK time) this morning. The 23rd of February 2010 will be a historical date for Linden Lab and SL residents with the new future generations of 2.0 etc. Great work Linden Lab!
The last few hours or so I have been testing it and here are my latest screenshots of the viewer 2.0 public beta. I have alot of mixed feelings about it so far. So far it looks very nice.
Screenshot of new User Interface
Screenshot of new Help Menu and World Map sidebar
Timeline of SL Viewers
- The first client was Version 0.1.0 back in November 2002 (Closed Beta)
- The next big version was Version 0.5.0 which was released on March 31st 2003 (Open Beta)
- Version 1.0 was released on June 23rd 2003
- Viewer 2.0 Public Beta launched 23rd February 2010
There are alot of new features and menus to get used to in the new viewer 2.0 and it will take some time to get used to it all.
New Features in Viewer 2.0 Public Beta
The next generation Second Life Viewer is here! Download Viewer 2 and experience new features such as:
- Integrated Web-Based Media
- Easier, Browser-Like Navigation
- Side Panel for Frequently-Used Features
- Improved Search
The Impact
The resident help groups will now have to spend time updating their SL tutorials and SL newbie resources. There have been alot of recent news about this upcoming viewer 2.0 for many months now and now its out to download there will be alot more discussions on it. Feedback will now start spreading inworld/on the internet like the SL Forums, SL Answer and on social networking sites like Plurk, Facebook and Twitter etc. It’s exciting and its going to be interesting how it developments in the coming weeks and months.
Find out More
- Viewer 2 Help
- T Linden Blog Post on Viewer 2.0 Public Beta Launches
- #SLViewer2 Tweets
- Viewer 2.0 posts via Google
Survey: Do you like the new Second Life Viewer 2.0 Public Beta ? What do you think?
Daniel Voyager 
Thanks for giving me a heads up on the availability of the new viewer, Daniel. It was fun chatting about the new or changed features with you in-world. After a bit of play time and a short adjustment period I decided to post some thoughts on my blog. You can read them at http://poultryreport.blogspot.com/2010/02/random-thoughts-on-sl-viewer-20.html if you want. I hope you get a chance to post your thoughts soon. Take care! Huggs.
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Most welcome, Uccello! 🙂
Thanks!!!
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I personally do not care for change, as many Second Life residents… we get comfortable and do not want the boat rocked. There are changes in the viewer that many including myself do not care for.
I have taken this “to the streets”, and have gotten “patches” for the oldest versions of SL. I have personally dispensed the download links to SL v.1.22 & 1.23 to many hundreds of new SL residents. I am proud to say that I have even gotten those new residents that came in with Viewer 2 to delete the viewer and upload the viewer whose format that is better in my eyes.
Talking with LL support, they have admitted to me, that they cannot go only to the new type of viewer, as that would take many residents with older computers out of SL.
I have multiple Desktop style Imacs here at home, as we login to SL from here, and function in world 3- 5 friends at a time. The oldest Imac ( a G5 Tiger- only 4 years old) can’t download the new type viewer.
My campaign against the Viewer 2 has extended to RL commentary and links to all of the viewers before Viewer 2, that LL has assured me will not be discontinued.
Residents of SL that came in with the new Viewer, and have taken my advice to try the original viewer type have thanked me, and agreed they are happier with older viewers. According to their feedback, they especially like using v. 1.22.11!
After I explain, to these new residents the reasons that older residents and I disagree with the new viewer formats, I watch as they wholeheartedly “take the bull by the horns”, and actively assist in meeting new residents to moving them back into the SL viewer that we feel has the best “search” options, and features we approve of.
LL can try, but they can’t move everyone to Viewer 2. Not when there are patches available, and approved 3rd party viewers, and not when there are passionate residents out there “spreading the word” and passing out links!
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At the moment I’m using both viewer 1 and viewer 2 for doing stuff. Viewer 2 has a very long way to go yet and should of not been taken out of beta so fast. I got a feeling that SL residents (including me) someday for use third-party viewers more and more.
Viewer 2 at the moment seems to be getting a kick from all sides (dislikes). Only a tiny & of the SL population like the new viewer. That may or not change in upcoming months/years!
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Second life 2.0 is one of the worst viewers out there… for better viewers come to this website http://inflife.net/
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