OpenSim Grows Slightly: About 2K New Users Since January

OpenSim has gained about 2,000 new users since January, according to the latest data released by HyperGrid Business. In January, HyperGrid's Maria Korolov reported that the open source spinoff of Second Life had about 15,000 users (roughly the same as it had in 2009). Last month, she reported, "The total number of active users on the top 40 grids dropped to 17,303 this month, 61 actives less than August’s 17,364 users, mostly due to the fact that ReactionGrid has shut down its OpenSim grid and no longer appears in our stats." (ReactionGrid, which counts major organizations like NASA and Microsoft as clients, has moved away from OpenSim for a web-based 3D solution, and thus represents a significant loss for the OpenSim development community.) Those losses aside, OpenSim saw very small growth, but some growth all the same. However, OpenSim will probably need active users in the six figures to make it a truly viable consumer-facing service.  

To be sure, 17,000 is a larger total userbase for a web-based 3D world like Cloud Party, which still has just 1000 monthly active users. However, while Cloud Party has the potential to reach the hundreds of millions already accustomed to playing 3D games or virtual worlds on the web, the market for people willing to download and install a resource-heavy, non-game 3D client -- Second Life or OpenSim -- remains in the hundreds of thousands.

Tweet

Comments

[Iggy]

Now that Jokay Wollongong is switching providers from Reaction Grid (which is focused on Jibe) to SimHost, I will learn what the newest versions of OpenSim can do.

Reaction Grid needed a lot of prodding to upgrade their version of OpenSim. Now for Jokay's grid, at least, we'll see more rapid progress.

I also have to ask, which "consumers," Hamlet?

OpenSim is perfect for educational users like me who want to employ a simulation for a limited time and for a limited number of users, then share content for free.

This is not everyone's cup of virtual tea, especially if they want the sort of hair, accessories, and physics that SL offers.

Also keep in mind the InWorldz and Avination are closed grids. I group them with SL, not the hypergrid-connected grids I favor as the model for an emergent Metaverse.

[ZZ Bottom]

Metaverses are still in its begining!
As long as there is still imagination there will be always new users and new metaverses showing!
ICloud can be the future is they do it right!
SL can be the future if they wish so!
Open sims can be the future?
They are already the future for a few, as long as some beliave that they don't need to emulate Sl to be there, Open sims will be the future as well!
Sooner or later, we all will become older enough to realize the metaverses potencial in its full!
All the rest is just smoke on the water!

[Cyberserenity]

Opensim needs the hypergrid. I just do not want to log in and create a new avatar. I want to use my avatar with my clothes and skins. If the grids get connected they will be more attractive.

Virtual worlds are not for everyone but many of us out there like them.

[Gordon]

This means, if you exclude the active users of the walled garden grids from the total amount, there are less than 7,000 active users in the hypergrid-connected grids. This sounds not very promising after all that years OpenSim is running now.

[Hamlet Au]

That's a very good point!

[Lani Global]

It is *impossible to count* the number of users of OpenSim.

This is because OpenSim is an open source software that does not automatically report any data on the number of users to any entity.

OpenSim is Software not a Grid.
OpenSim does not require a grid to function.

Yes, some OpenSim grids voluntarily report the number of users when asked by reporters. There are many OpenSim grids which prefer to remain private and do not report to anyone.

[Masami Kuramoto]

Hamlet Au wrote:

However, OpenSim will probably need active users in the six figures to make it a truly viable consumer-facing service.

At a rate of €2.21 per region*, concerns about viability wouldn't cross my mind. Even Cloud Party can't beat that.

(*one full region surrounded by eight openspaces, all linked to OSGrid and hosted in a commercial server farm: €19.90 per month, €0 setup)

[Ajax Manatiso]

Gone to InWorldz a number of times. Can never find anyone outside the landing area. Freebies have big trouble getting into inventory -- most often requiring a reboot to ever get there. Uploading textures usually get corrupted. And then you are lucky to be there 45 minutes before your first random crash. (And btw -- running a 6-core machine with 16GB memory and a 12mbs connection -- if you are wondering)
STILL not ready for prime time.

[Masami Kuramoto]

Ajax Manatiso wrote:

Gone to InWorldz a number of times. {...} STILL not ready for prime time.

Technically, Inworldz is not an OpenSim grid any more. They have replaced pretty much the entire codebase with their own proprietary stuff. At least that's what they claim.

[ZZ Bottom]

Never been in Iworldz but i have to ask, wich viewer did you used to login in there?
So far as i understand only their own viewers or Imprundence are advised!
And i can add that yesterday i went back to OSG, after months on Sl, log in with imprundence and wandered a bit around!
It Shows all so much faster, all things are so much detailed then in any Sl sim, all regions aget uploaded in much less time and the scripts!
So kiss my A** those who really are saying that open sims cant handle!

[Galatea]

"It is *impossible to count* the number of users of OpenSim. [...] There are many OpenSim grids which prefer to remain private and do not report to anyone."

In which case, for the purposes of those of us not invited, they might as well not exist. That makes counting them easy. Indeed, trying to include them in such a count would be highly misleading, as they're effectively cut off from any kind of OpenSim ecosystem, which such numbers are meant to reflect the size of. They may very well exist, but it's ultimately irrelevant...

[Masami Kuramoto]

Galatea wrote:

They may very well exist, but it's ultimately irrelevant...

Anything outside AOL used to be irrelevant too. That was right before AOL became irrelevant.

[ZZ Bottom]

And if any really wishes to see the power behind OSG community, just one of the many grids avaiable, just visit Charmed region duing this period!

[Ener Hax]

"However, OpenSim will probably need active users in the six figures to make it a truly viable consumer-facing service."

it's software and already viable when used in classrooms, like Sim-on-a-Stick, which just won an award in Perth

my real world company has sold over $300K in services using OpenSim - but as a development tool, not a social virtual world tool

it is not only analogous to SL for viability, there are more possibilities

[Masami Kuramoto]

It's quite ironic that decentralization, OpenSim's most defining feature, is now constantly being abused to dispute the platform's viability.

[James OReilly]

What's Really Hyping? Google Trends
http://ow.ly/dHUXX

Feel Like Balking? Join Angry Noob - Tell Us Your Story & About Improvements
http://ow.ly/bDHLb

[James OReilly]

Who cares about Maria Korolov's Seller-side honeytrap about wasteland?

It's a Buyer's market, not a Seller's market
IT Service Management http://ow.ly/ecUpr

[SlightlyAmused]

osgrid doesn't have all those users. Those numbers misrepresent the over all picture. People create accounts but don't stay around due to the nasty attitudes of the long term residents. Hard to be around such negativity.