Cool VL Viewer forum

http://phoenixviewer.blogspot.com/2012/ ... -beta.html

Jessica Lyin' is at it again, saying just how massively impossible a task it is to maintain a viewer that runs faster, has an intuitive, user-friendly GUI, and is far more stable, because it's "old" tech. Oh, and apparently it's illegal to share certain source code even though it's open source and free to share.

I mention this because the Firestorm snobs have decided they're done with updating Phoenix and will no longer be offering updates. But neither are they willing to share their open source code so another programmer can pick up and continue Phoenix under a different name and logo. If they were to do that, everyone would flock to the new viewer and Firestorm would wither and die, or so I imagine Ms. Lyin' and her merry gang of Linden bootlickers fear.

But lest you think I posted this only to call out one elitist clown, I do want to learn if what was claimed on the blog is true. The libraries Jessica Lyin' speaks of: is it illegal to share them? I smell manure on this one. If it's illegal, then why haven't Henri, Siana Gears, and the developers of Imprudence been arrested and sent off to Gitmo for torture? Why aren't drone aircraft buzzing overhead? (That's now standard U.S. policy for dealing with people the government doesn't like.) I hope someone can answer this honestly. Jessica Lyin' and her suckups can't be counted on to tell the truth.

Their complaint that they can't redistribute FMOD is correct. And they used to download it during the install process but it is no longer available for download. Since they can't distribute it and users can't download it from that site anymore, they incorrectly claim that it can't be installed and one must use OpenAL (the open source option for audio) instead. (And I don't know why they won't support OpenAL.)

Henri's installer does not download the FMOD libraries and he is not distributing it; he simply gets the FMOD libraries from the Snowglobe package that is available for download from Linden Lab's site. And then with each update we no longer need to download extra stuff, the installer gets it from Snowglobe on our own computer. Note that Linden Lab has a license to redistribute the FMOD libraries so it is perfectly okay to for them to offer and us to download FMOD libraries as a part of Snowglobe. Now if Linden Lab stops offering the Snowglobe package for download there may be a problem but I'm sure Henri will figure out a dozen ways around it.

If I missed anything, or there are developments I haven't seen, please let me know.

FMOD is not an issue (you can redistribute the library as long as the software you redistribute it with is freeware and that you let the library untouched). Voice and KDU are, but I don't distribute them together with the viewer (they are extracted from the official Snowglobe archive by the installer). There is therefore no copyright issue with the Cool VL Viewer.

As for Phoenix, it's a dead, deprecated viewer riddled with bugs: forget it !