[LL announcement: Major improvements coming, Project Shining]

This is actually HUGE news! server side rendering will be a boon to the average user. Nearly all of the lag that we experience is related to bandwidth and client side rendering.  Historically most of the lag complaints have not been entirely LL's fault but instead have been related to inadequate clients to handle the demands of SL. This could enable the use of SL on any device from older PCs to smartphones to Google Glasses.

OTOY

There was a thread in the old SL forums when this company announced this that led to speculation if SL would ever go this way. It was a far off dream back then. Now in retrospect it appears that this step is neccessary to SL's future survival. If it does not do this it will be left behind. Server side rendering will cut down on massive amounts of "unknowns" and serve to make the SL experience far more consistent from one user to the next.

In fact it will be super cool if this step leads to the ability to finally upgrade the SL avatars.

 

 

[WTF is SOPA!]

I wonder precisely who's idea this was?  It sounds completely overreactionary and unworkable in practice. Like using a bomb to scratch an itch on your face.