New Second Life release candidate 1.18.6
Linden Lab have just released a new release candidate view for Second Life, the first in the 1.18.6 series.
This one incorporates the start of the new login system that there has been much ado about in development circles recently, as well as age-verification. That's a big deal.
Okay, so you might have some concerns about that, both in broad and how some of the finer details work - certainly many of Second Life's technical residents did, and Linden Lab says they want to keep both much of their goals for this new system as well as its implementation details a secret for now, specifying only that part of it has to do with anti-fraud systems.
Resident developers suggested immediately that based on their analysis of the new system that risk was increased for users. Perhaps the risk is reduced for Linden Lab itself, and the rest is collateral. This is our first look at the new system and it's hard to say right now.
There's bonus updates to the crash-reporter as well - which would seem to be a good thing, as almost everyone I know tells me that the crash reporter crashes most times that it runs.
We're also having a bit of hands-on the new age-verification system now, and we'll have more for you on that shortly.
1.18.6(RC0) is available right now for download (we use and recommend the use of a download manager) as the new official viewer. Windows users can expect about a 35MB download, Linux users around 45MB, and Mac users around 67MB (essentially double, because of the Universal Binary format).
Release candidate viewers access your live account on the main Second Life grid (Agni). Potentially they may cause hair-loss in pets, and should be kept out of reach of children.
[Update: The login form used by the new viewer as an interim measure lives here - when you use the form, it generates a login token (essentially a UUID) that viewer uses to authenticate your initial connection to a simulator. This is all then presented back to the viewer as a temporary hack-URL]
