Oh my, the doom is near, everyone off to the bomb shelters, man the lifeboats, the sky is falling! OhMyGodTheHorrors! Or at least that's what you might get as the gist of this strange piece on the SL Herald. What it boils down is that opening the source is nothing a company that's out for profit should do. Uh? Hello? Reality check?
Really, this thing is a pet peeve of me and it irritates me like hell, all the doom sayers running around and blaming Open Source for everything, claming how they know what Open Source is. Because they get it wrong evey time again. And in the greater scheme of the Internet it gets ridiculous.
Lets start off with some simple facts: the whole Internet is built on tons of open source. Allmost allways has been (yes, the time before TCP/IP was driven by proprietary stuff, but ever since they came up with the great idea of RFCs, it went open more or less by default). You know, the Internet, that thing with capital I that allmost nobody ever uses for commerce. That thing where allmost nobody spends any money. That thing that doesn't fuel a whole industry. That thing that's totally uncool and nobody cares about. You know, that obscure scientist network of some crazy universities that really nobody in the real world ever uses. Ooops, that was so 1970s, I gues you all need an update?
(anybody who finds any bit of sarcasm in the above paragraph can keep it)
Will SL change with opening up the source of the server programs? Sure as hell it will. Will there be lots of people who will drop off the train due to that? Yeah, as much as it will hurt, it will happen. Take a look how the internet works. Everybody looked recently for Netscape? Yep, gone. And they were the cool kids, once. Get over it.
Will there be businesses trying to rip off the whole stuff and put themselves as the big innovators? Sure, they will do. Well, they will try. Probably they will make as a clumsy figure as Microsoft does with the Internet. But guess what? Even Microsoft makes money off the Internet, nowadays. Guess what, it looks like even the clueless find their place in that crazy online world, eh?
Will the opening of the server code fuel new attacks and cracks and ripoffs? Damn, yeah. It's unevitable - Lindenlab doesn't have enough clue of what they do to actually deliver a source that could be halfway regarded as secure. Look at all the weird behaviour of the system - it has all signs of some over-evolved system that cries for a rewrite. Guess what, even Lindenlab knows that, that's why they run the Architecture Working Group ... (and I bet the server code that will be opened will be at least in part be based on the results of that AWG and not be the crud we currently run on our sims).
But regarding the silly doom-sayers arguments for why it is bad: well, get over it. The whole internet is based on the very same problems. Everybody and their dog can run a webserver today. And guess what? They do. Even the bad guys. Yup. "Bad guys happen on teh Internets! Horror!"
Did you ever read the spam you get? Most of it nowadays is some kind of phishing scheme where someone tries to pull you on their malicious website to either deliver a lovely trojan to your machine or grab your login data for some money related site or whatnot. And well, look at what even Microsoft starts to do: vendors fight against it, provide better security (Vista is a piece of shit, but you have to grant Microsoft that they tried to tie it up with regard to Internet usage - they just failed, but hey, it's Microsoft). Look at what the opening did to all the programs used in everyday use on the Internet - and yes, it is allways a fight between attackers and security people. It's not too different to what happens in real life, though. Just talk to your local police station one day ...
Does closing source help in any way? I mean, that's what all those doom sayers claim, right? Bullshit. Pure and utter bullshit and wishful thinking. Sorry to be blunt, but there is no way to put it nice that you are completely off track with that thinking. Take a look at Microsoft Windows and the Internet Explorer and Outlook again. See something? Or don't see something? Yep, you don't see the source. It's as much closed source as possible. And what happens? It's a swiss cheese, that's what happens. More holes than your broken garden hose.
Closed source doesn't protect at all. Never. Attacks are a direct function of participation. The more people use a medium, the more attackers will show up over time. It's just a law of communities - if you have a big enough community, you get jerks and morons first, thiefs and ripoffs soon. That's why communities should build up ways to handle them - we have it in real life and it is called law and police and politicians (allthough the latter ones are usually the worst ripoffs). Yes, SL is severely lacking in this regard. It's still dreaming the dream of anarchic community - and that never works, because humans are not built for that kind of living. It takes just one egotard to blow a whole idealistic community to the moon. It's sad, but it's what happens in real life all the time, so why the hell do you expect SL be any different?
As much as people like Prok will hate it, Code is Law. I explicitely say Code is Law, not Code is Justice - for the simple reason that code is as unjust as the next programmer. You can cry as much as you want, you won't change the fact that the code and protocols that define the Internet (and sooner or later a 3D virtual world protocol will emerge, it's inevitable - look at the Web with HTTP, look at News with NNTP, look at Mail with SMTP, look at blogs with Atom or RSS) will define what is and what is not possible. And the guys who run the servers call the cards.
It's how technology works - you need ways to interface, you need ways to interconnect. That's what is so great about the concept of RFCs: they distill the exact technical best practice: if you want something to become a standard, provide two independent implementations that show correct interoperability. That's all the RFCs care about, nothing more, nothing less. It leaves the social aspects up to those who are best prepared to handle it - the relevant communities. It's up to your politicians to make the real world laws accomodate for the changes in our lifes. You did check the tech agenda of your upcoming candidates, right? You didn't? Well, tough, don't blame the Internet protocols and Open Source for shortcomings of your legal systems, then.
And that's why open sourcing the grid code sooner or later will happen - either by Lindenlab or by someone else. Because a 3D virtual world over the internet is an obvious direction to take. It's still in infancy - still has to grow a lot more to work. But the early bird catches the worm, so if Lindenlab is the one to put out the first implementation, and for example the OpenSim people deliver the second - independently developed - implementation, and they get both systems to interoperate, they will make the cut. They will define a standard protocol for 3D virtual worlds on the internet. Strange how suddenly much of what Lindenlab does (open sourcing stuff, actively supporting libsecondlife and OpenSim, working on the AWG) makes suddenly sense, right?
Everyone who currently runs a business based on the economy of Second Life has to be aware about one important thing: it's a moving target. This whole thing is in flux, is changing and heading towards a resolution that is allmost ineviteable on the Internet. Lindenlab can't chose whether there will be a 3D virtual world protocol - there will be one. Someone will make one. But they can decide whether they want to be the active part in it, or not. And I guess if you base your company on something like Second Life, you better look out for the future and start to think how to position yourself. In an inevitable development - would you want to be the leader, or would you want to hobble along or try the catchup game? Or maybe want to be pushed aside like the last old concept on the Internet? Look at Activeworlds. Look at Blaxxuun (or look at VRML in allmost any context). Yep, they still exist. Yep, the companies still make money. But do they define the next new thing? Nope. If the virtual world interoperability protocol will show up, they will have to look at it and implement it to accomodate - or won't be part of the party (and I am damn sure that party will be helluva big).
So you think Lindenlab should stay out of it and just run a protocol island like Activeworlds and all will be good? Sorry, no way. I might be wrong, but my gut feelings tell me that even the game producers sooner or later will have to start and think about avatar transportability. It's just too obvious if you watch at what happens, how people use all the stuff and how more and more of peoples life goes online. It just takes a few smart brains and a good idea to kick those proprietary island dinosaurs out of the evolutionary tree. You see, competition is a bitch - you can't decide what your competitors do, you can only decide what you do. So you better outsmart your competition, or be history.
Lindenlab obviously chose to be the leader of the pack. They obviously (because only under that premise do their actions make sense) try to define the future instead of being one who has to change to accomodate to the future someone else will define. Will they succeed? No idea, sorry, my crystal ball is broken. But sure as hell they try. And all of us are in for a very rough ride until that time comes. Take what you can get while the ride is on. Look out for the future and be prepared. And please: don't expect technology to solve your problems. It won't.