Get Imprudent: New User-Friendly Open Source Version of SL Viewer Now Available

More than two months after Jacek Antonelli and team launched an initiative to create a more user-friendly, open source version of the Second Life viewer, cheekily dubbed Imprudence, the first release candidate is available for download.  The UI improvements are not yet available, but, he says,

[T]his version does contain a wide variety of small improvements created by SL Residents — JIRA patches that LL hasn’t (yet) accepted.

Since it's not an official viewer, the team selected a new logo to replace Linden's eye-in-hand:  seen here, the "shaka" wave from Hawaii.  "As the symbol of this project, it stands for the relaxed and welcoming atmosphere we should always keep."  Being from Oahu myself, of course I think that's the best sign Imprudence is on to something important.  Or as Barack Obama and I might say, were we there, "Good kine li' dat, bruddah."

Go here to read the Imprudence developer notes and download it--Mac, Windows, and Linux clients available.

Comments

[Mitch Wagner]

I gave it a try last night. Liked it. Don't see much difference between Imprudence and the official viewer at this point, except Imprudence doesn't support audio of any kind. They're working on it.

Imprudence is supposed to be more stable than the official viewer.

I think I got one or two more FPS out of Imprudence than I usually get out of the official viewer. Might be because of the audio, though.

Then I went back to the official viewer. It crashed.

[Hamlet Au]

Heh, thanks for the advance write-up!

[Veeyawn Spoonhammer]

I dig it! I searched for a group in-world but they don't seem to have one yet, do they?

[CyFishy Traveler]

I'm always looking for stable alternatives so Beginning and I can meet more easily. (Running two different viewers is less hassle than running the SL viewer twice.) I previously used OnRez as my alt viewer, but had to abandon that after an upgrade.

Imprudence worked quite nicely up until it got hung on an error message I couldn't dismiss. Fortunately, it did so without taking my entire machine hostage, so I was able to extract myself more easily than usual. I'm looking forward to seeing how it evolves.

[Tweed Woodget]

I tried it for a while but it has crashed on me with no warning and no explanation a number of times, plus no audio. I will watch with interest as the project progresses since I like the idea of alternatives to the standard viewer.