Rumors are floating around about Linden Lab banning not only third party viewers but people using them. So I decided to investigate.
I am not a geek so I do not really understand the technical aspects of the question but will try to explain what is happening;
A long time ago someone recommended that I download a viewer that was not SL but worked the same way and better, I was not sure what to do so I decided against it.
There have others that I heard of in the meantime but was reluctant because of the copybot issue that was being talked about so much.
Recently I began to hear raves about Emerald. Being older and somewhat wiser I decided to try it. It was made from open source with input from some Lindens I understand.
I loved it!
It is just like using SL but has some neat helpers. I understand from serious builders they really like it because they can create smaller prims and try textures before uploading them among, other things. I really liked having the draw line bar right there on the menu bar so I could adjust the distance quickly when I wanted without opening the preferences. There are other enticing features.
That is just one viewer. There are a host and most of them were built with the open source information that is in the sl wiki and is still there; (http://wiki.secondlife.com/
The “brown bag” meeting sessions to discuss and get input from residents regarding a change in the policy have started and may help clarify the future. No viewer or anyone who is using one will be banned from sl, unless, as always , there is a violation of SL TOS.
Gemma Cleanslate