I’ve had a day or so now to play with the new release of the Second Life viewer, and I think I can safely give an opinion.
For the basic functionality of the software — providing a stable, usable interface for the Resident with the world of the Grid — Build 1.18.5 does its job quite well. This is based on experience with only the two preceding builds, but I’m tempted to say this new client is more stable in the long run than those others. What makes it difficult, besides my relative lack of experience with earlier clients, is that my DSL line tends to blink for about a minute at a time at irregular intervals. Of course, it usually chooses to cut out at the most inopportune times….
Leaving that aside, I have no complaints at all. In fact, in a session this morning, the movements of my avatar made were smoother than I’ve seen before — though this could be attributed to a low sign-in rate and nobody else in my sim (grin). However, dropping in to Franks Place for some music and chat while I took a break from this article, I found the lag rate still acceptable. Franks is usually pretty busy; if this is a result of the new client, it’s nothing to sneeze over!
But what about the much ballyhooed Search function? Well….
