Linden Lab CEO on Second Life's growth, future

Kingdon: In our experience, Windows 7 runs the Second Life Viewer just fine without any special considerations other than installing the latest video card drivers (which is what we recommend anyway) (Note: In some [undefined to date] cases, users may need to get updated video card drivers, and in others need to run in "Compatibility Mode" with either XP or Vista selected. While undefined, we are leaning toward attributing this to experiences on release candidate and Beta versions of Windows 7. A recent install, or an instance with all recent updates applied, should not have this need).

We plan to bring Second Life to mobile devices in the future, but rather than recreating the full 3D inworld experience you get with the Second Life Viewer, it will likely focus on the functionality most appropriate for mobile devices -- such as the ability to communicate with friends and colleagues who are inworld. Already, several developers have used the open source Second Life Viewer to bring varying degrees of the experience to mobile devices. For example, Genkii's Sparkle iPhone app enables residents use their iPhones to IM with friends in-world.

Sources and research: Emails with Mark Kingdon and Lewis PR, TechCrunch.com, blog.genkii.com, TheStandard.com, Linden Lab press release.

E-mail Ian at ian@thestandard.com. Follow Ian on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ilamont. Standard updates and asides are available at twitter.com/the_standard and in our newsletters, and you can join our LinkedIn group.