Meet Andrew Linden, Last of the Very First Lindens (UPDATED: Richard Linden Still Thrives Too)

Here's another face from Linden Lab's GDC party last week, as legacy as Rod Humble is new: Andrew Linden, the very last Linden Lab employee who is still a Linden Lab employee and who can trace his lineage back to the very first Linden Lab office [*see update], when it was actually on Linden Street. (A small side alley in Hayes Valley that's now far better known for the place that serves some of the best coffee in America.) A college pal of founder Philip Rosedale, Andrew Meadows is employee number 2, from 1999, when Linden Lab was in the business of making virtual reality rigs, not virtual worlds. As I mention in my book, he's the coder who made it possible for avatars in Second Life to fly (because Linden wanted to save time developing walk animations.) Now he's more apt to be in the bowels of Second Life code, tracking down bugs.

And the rest of the Lindens who were there with him? Second Life co-founder Cory Ondrejka now works at Facebook, programmer Ian Wilkes also works at Facebook, marketing/community lead Robin Harper is with Playdom, a company that makes Facebook games. Business developer Hunter Walk is a bigwig at YouTube, programmer James Cook (who gives this presentation demo of Linden World) is now at Google. (I'm missing a few, but these are they whose status I know from memory.) And, of course,  Philip Rosedale left Linden, the company he founded, to start a new startup called Love Machine, primarily a crowd-sourced employee rating system. Now you know what happened to the Lindens who were with Linden when Linden was on Linden.

Update, 4:00pm: Andrew Linden reminds me in Comments that programmer Richard Linden also still lasts at Linden: "[H]e can also remember the good old days at the original 333 Linden Street office. Richard is still writing C++ code too." Apologies for the oversight! I misremembered Richard starting with me at the second Second Life office... on 2nd Street. (Oh yes.) More background from Richard after the break:

"I joined Linden Lab in September of 2001," Richard reminds me in email. "I'm currently a tech lead on viewer development, working on anything and everything viewer related. As for my favorite feature, I'd have to say our avatar system (customization, attachments, animations, etc.) Despite its age, I'm proud of creating a tool that our Residents have used to create so much cool stuff."

Comments

[brinda allen]

Hamlet, Thank you so much for helping preserve the old history.
While I suspect most of the nooblets will never care, quite a few that I meet and attempt to mentor always seem to marvel at the history places (DaBoom, Stellers, Govenors Mansion, Moth Temple, etc.)
I believe a sense of history is what will help to preserve our "culture"... (I know, someone important last year or so said Secondlife has none!)

[Laetizia 'Tish' Coronet]

I always assumed Torley was one of the originals as well. Maybe because he used to be all over the place back in 06/07 when I was still a tiny Tishie.

[FlipperPA Peregrine]

Torley was actually a later higher. I think Kelly may be the second oldest tenured Linden who's still there.

[echo kinsella]

I've been in game since 2004 so I enjoy the time warp...thanks for sharing. :)

[Osprey Therian]

Andrew's always been my fave :-D

[Ezra]

Nice article.

I always love seeing that Linden World video. This is my first time viewing it since Minecraft came about and wow, what a resemblance in some ways.

[Raz]

for SL8B there should be a series of "Tales Around the Campfire" events, where the adventurers of SL can tell the stories of SL history.

[Hamlet Au]

Very true, Ezra! Imagine if SL had stayed more like Minecraft from the start.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

So if Google and Facebook and YouTube and Second Life were all interoperable....

It's like getting the band back together, innit?

[Kim Anubis]

Hooray for Andrew, one of my favorite Lindens! I always recall him overseeing an all day hands-on demo of how to build a snowman in SL at Maker Fair ... the Atlas of our world taking time to show newbies how much fun it is to rez a prim. That is the sort of thing that made SL great.

Here's one Resident who thinks of you and mentally thanks you often, even though you are always hidden behind the scenes. Thank you, Andrew!

[Richard Linden]

I beg your pardon.

[Montana Edo]

According to the profiles page, the 10 most aged Lindens are (in order): Andrew, Richard, Dan, Jim, Michael, Kelly, Don, Kona, Callum.

[Andrew Linden]

Yup James, you forgot Richard who can also remember the good old days at the original 333 Linden St office. Richard is still writing C++ code too.

[Kimberly Rufer-Bach]

Yay for Richard, too, and the rest of the Oldbie Lindens we count on! :)

[Hamlet Au]

Ack, very sorry about that, Richard, updated! I had thought you started with me on 2nd Street.

[Stephen Lewis]

Daaang, you guys must be OLD by now.

(formerly Xenon Linden, also old enough to remember the urine smells wafting from the gutter of 333 Linden St.)

[Pyewacket Bellman]

I REALLY miss the transcripts of Andrew's office hours.
Nice work on the sim crossings!

[Andrew Linden]

I've started publishing the transcripts of the "Simulator User Group" meetings (formerly known as "Andrew's Office Hours") here:

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Simulator_User_Group#Archive