If you have been experiencing numerous odd ball bug's in SL recently, this should come as no surprise. Since the Lab changed their Back End Server Roll Out Policy last year. What we are now seeing, is a very unique operating environment. I will refer to as, "Fast Track Approach for Rapid New Server Technology Deployment" In the long run it makes sense. However in the short term, can lead to some unexpected hiccup's.
Let's start by looking at the current situation. At this time the Lab is running five separate versions of their Server Software, all of which are Debian based Linux, in house custom developed by their network engineers and programmers. Three Release Candidate's ( RC ) and one Stable are on the main grid, and the Mesh version on the Beta grid. LeTigre, Magnum & BlueSteel are the RC's, you can read more about them here.
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Beta/LeTigre / http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Beta/Magnum / http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Beta/BlueSteel / http://blogs.secondlife.com/thread/55078
The Mesh Beta grid does not pertain to this article.
The result's I have been noticing the past week or so include, unbaked Avatar texture's ( lot's of grey resident's ) Attachments not remaining on your Avatar after Teleporting or Sim border crossing's ( loss of your hair and jewelery, weapon's etc.. ) and flickering adjacent Sim's.
I have never experienced any company running 4 server versions in a production environment. Are these folk's crazy? No !! quite to the contrary. In almost 6 years as a SL resident ( CUSTOMER ) I have not seen this level of communication between the Server and Client teams. What I do see, is a number of brilliant people, striving to make a good product, a great one.
Looking at it in the long term, it is a very logical decision. Impliment as many new features as possible in the shortest period of time, while squashing bug's within the same time frame. As problems are brought to light in the 3 RC's, and individually solved, they are rolled into the Stable Server. It may be a pain in the ass, but I feel this will soon pass.
2 Thumbs Up for the LL Server Teams.
JayR Cela :_)
2 comments:
The difference is that Lil Linden is heading it - and he is very competent, observant and communicative.
Hi there Hitomi :_)
I'm just working on a new post, seems like Mesh is quietly being rolled out onto the Main Grid, I could use some help testing
been a bit busy RL, but I'll try and contact you in-world tomorrow
*bigg huggs*
JayR :_)
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