Second Life viewer 2.0 -- Go where you are wanted.

'Oh, sick I am to see you, will you never let me be?
You may be good for something, but you are not good for me.
Oh, go where you are wanted, for you are not wanted here.'
And that was all the farewell when I parted from my dear.

Mr. Housman would be boggled were he alive to witness my torturous use of a stanza from his A Shropshire Lad.

I have yet to download the beta viewer that the Lindens rolled out today with much puffery and circumstance. That's because after reading the Linden blog, the comments there, the subsequent new threads in that gawd awful blogorum, and reviews on other sites by people I know and trust -- I am truly wary of it.

What I realized after doing the reading, as Miss Emily Orr said so eloquently in her blog, "... but damn it, I'm in the middle of trying to get a store that I can stand up and running and I DO NOT NEED TO DEAL WITH THIS CRAP. (emphasis mine)

Frankly, the only people I saw who spoke glowingly of the new viewer were... people who don't do business in SL, i.e. residents that come to SL for "social networking"... people who have the time to learn all the new bells and whistles, who like bells and whistles and love Farmville and Mafia Wars don't have much interest in the underlying architecture of what allows them to be in SL.

For "business minded" people in SL, i.e. content creators, merchants, estate owners, we enjoy our share of socializing -- at least I hope other people do, otherwise they risk monumental burnout. But I digress.

However, it's already a technical challenge to be a business person in SL. There is a level of tedium in navigating SL as a content creator or service provider that I have not experienced in RL business, mostly to do with glitches in the existing architecture. Last night it took me a half dozen tries to rez something -- anything -- out of my inventory. Several times.

Now I'm not a nuts and bolts IT professional, but I seem to have a better than average grasp among my co-workers on new technology, and adapt to change pretty quickly. However, I'm actively working to expand MNC/MNF right now, and I just don't have the luxury to spend on the adjustment curve this new viewer is going to require right now. Especially when they have buried tools I use regularly, and brought to the platform's forefront what looks to me like a lot of cosmetic frou-frou.

Basically, I don't have time to be Linden Lab's guinea pig.

For the time being, I'm sticking with what works for me. I gave Snowglobe a try last week on my PC at work, and was pleased at how less laggy that was, so I am considering right now downloading that viewer here at home on my Mac.

After I finish a few more things on my business to do list.

"with rue my heart is laden..." Apologies to Mr. Housman.