Textures: temporary until purchased?

[LoneWolfiNTj]

Pardon the likely noobishness of this question, but I'm very new and building and scripting, so there's lots I don't know. I was playing around with applying textures to objects a few hours ago, from image files on my home computer, using "add" and "apply now", but I discovered that when I logged out of SL then back in, the textures had all disappeared.

So I tried "add", selected the added texture by single-left-clicking (which lights-up the "download" button), clicked "Download" (for L$10 per image), then clicked "OK". But the result was the same: the textures disappeared on me exiting-then-reentering SL.

So I applied the textures that previously got added to my inventory by the "Download" button by clicking the "Inventory" radio button instead of "Local" on the apply-texture box, selected the textures from my inventory, clicked "OK", exited SL, re-entered, and now the textures stayed put.

So, are textures from "Local" just temporary? Are they stored in client-side "texture caches" rather than on server-side? Only images that I pay to upload can be permanent and be seen by others? If so, when even have a "Local" radio button on the apply-texture box? What's the use of textures that are temporary vaporware? I can't see a use for that, and I found it very confusing

[Rolig Loon]

Yes, that's exactly what "local" means.  Read

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Rolig_Loon/Local_Textures

Creators use the "Local" option to test versions of a texture, rather than paying $L10 apiece for uploading WIP versions that they will only toss later.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Rolig Loon
Additional information

[LoneWolfiNTj]

13 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

WIP versions that they will only toss later.

Ah, I see. Yes, makes sense. Test local, then pay L$10 to upload only when one has textures that look right.