On Tuesday 16th February Oz Linden who is the Vice President of Engineering at Linden Lab announced on the Second Life Forums that he would be leaving Linden Lab on Friday 26th February 2021. Oz joined Linden Lab back in 2010 and Oz has done so much to make Second Life better over the years.
Oz has been thinking about retirement for some time and now that Second Life has moved into the cloud Oz has decided it’s the right time to move on. Oz mentions that in strong possible terms that his decision has nothing at all to do with the change of ownership of the lab.
See below for Oz Linden farewell thread post via the Second Life Forums…
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About 11 years ago I was working for a big multinational that had acquired the startup where I’d been for several years, and decided I needed a job with more fun and more job satisfaction. I put out the word on my professional network and got a response from a colleague who was a Linden at the time. I interviewed with several people at the Lab (half my interviews were in-world using an account I’d had for some years), and after much thought I joined the Lab as the Director of Open Source. It turned out to be one of the best career decisions I ever made.
My job evolved over the years, but through it all I got to work with brilliant, passionate, and committed people and got to know many residents. I’ve never worked anywhere that was as much fun (a Linden who returned to SL after some time away said recently that he’d forgotten how often the SL team laughs in the course of a normal day). More importantly, I got to work on a product users really enjoy using and that makes a big difference in the lives of many of its users – for me there’s no greater source of job satisfaction.
Some time ago, I reached the point that I could afford to think about retiring but decided to stay to finish moving SL to its new cloud platform. I can’t imagine a better last act in my working life than ensuring that Second Life has this better platform for its future growth. Now that project is done (well, except for a few loose ends), and it’s time for me to move on to the next phase of my life.
I want to emphasize in the strongest possible terms: my decision has nothing at all to do with the change in ownership of the Lab; the timing really is a coincidence. If anything, I regret that I have overlapped with them for only a few weeks; in that time (and in the time leading up to the change) I have come to respect and appreciate the skills and energy they bring to the company.
There aren’t many jobs that come with a new nickname; this got me one I’ll always cherish, but it’s time for me to set aside my Linden last name. I leave Second Life in great hands, and have every confidence that it has a great future.
– Oz
PS. My official last day is Feb 26th.
Oz Linden will be deeply be missed for sure and personally I wish him the very best for the future.
Daniel Voyager 