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I am a comuter techinician at a college. I do not use SL. I only update as needed on the MAC version. Can someone help me with my questions as it seems impossible to actually contact SL or Linden Labs?

Is there a difference between Second Life and Second Life Viewer?

Is the Beta Version a test version not fully checked for "bugs"

Is it best to run the update or remove the current version and install fresh?

My most important question follows.One Professors uses this progam extensively. They tell me that the program CANNOT be used if a new version exists and is  awaiting an update. They report that I must update the program to fix bugs or else the program will not run. I am told that SL frequently has many updates.This concerns me becuase I have 16 laptops and have to do the updates indiviually at this point because I have no way to push this en mass right now.

Thank you for anyone out there that can help me learn more.

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There are multiple viewers that will  run SL.  There is a standard viewer that is offered at the SL website.  For your objectives that one is probably the best to use .  There are frequent updates, but that viewer is supposed to update itself automatically.  When one ot the professors logs on to SL, the download would happen in the background.  After the DLD  is complete the professor would get a notice that an update is ready to install.   If the Professor has admin rights, the professor would jutst approve the install.  On  my PC, install talkes less than a minute.  If the professors don't have admin rights, you would have to do the install for them. 

I don't know that the new viewers are always required updates.  That does seem to have been the case recently. 

At the present, the intstalls have been coming about once every 2 months.  

I am not sure what you mean by the Beta version, but I don't think you would want to use something with that designation.  Anyhing like that would probably have more frequent changes.  

There are third party viewers that will have updates, but the updated may not be required.  Here is a link: 

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Third_Party_Viewer_Directory

In general, it is not necessary (or desireable) to remove the previous version before updating.   There are config files that survive the normal update and carry over previous settings.  There are usually also log files that may contain important conversations or other data.  Keep that in mind if you do a clean update.

One common step in troubleshooting is a clear update, but I would only do this in the case of run failires.

Here is a web page I maintain.  You may find the troubleshooting section useful.

http://thinkerer.org/SLintChan/SLiHoboKitonWeb.htm

 

 

 

 

 

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Thank you for the assistance. I did not know you could set to Second Life with another Viewer.(Not sure why you'd want that anyway unless it's just like another skin) I did see something on SL site about a Beta Viewer. True I do not want to use a Beta anything. As I said before I'm not and end user. I just know enough to install,uodate, and troubleshoot.

 

Thanks again

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Second Life is the actual virtual world, and the Server hardware and software that runs it.

THE Second Life Viewer, is an officially supported piece of Client software that runs on your computer allowing you to access the Second Life Virtual World

a Beta Version (general computing term) is any software version that's in the testing stages, these often have new features and fixes for particular problems, but may contain new bugs, crashes, and other problems. use at your own risk. unless specifically requested by the professor I'd avoid them for class computers.

 

there currently is not  an updater I'm aware of that lets you do a single push update(you might try contacting one of the education groups inworld or on the web, they may know of one... Virtual Ability is a starting point), so your best bet is a fresh install, and wipe out the appropriate settings folder on the client computers (they will be recreated). Alternatively, if settings and logs must be maintained, then right now your only choice would be to allow each individual machine to use the autoupdate feature, and take the bandwidth hit for each machine downloading it's own copy... that's something you'd have to discuss with professor making use of it for their class.

you might also want to mention to the professor that instead of forcing the current version, it might be better to make the students aware of update needs, as the mac client for the current version has several issues, and has had historically  poor support compared to the PC version.... meaning that the latest version could introduce problems that the professor should check for first before having you or the students update. switching to the PC version would be preferable if the class is going to require the latest version at all times.

ETA:
other viewers exist, which add some features, but unless the professor specifically mentions one by name I would not consider them. To my knowledge none of the Third Party Viewers includes an auto update, and all must be installed manually.

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I just wanted to add a little on top of the information the other ones have given.

I agree with Thinkerer; the best route for you is probably the official production version of the viewer and let the auto update take care of new versions if that is possible. I'm on a Mac, and have never managed to get the auto update to work. This could be because I usually log in with a user account that does not have admin rights in the system. I would expect your users do not have admin rights on their macs. I have never had the auto update run when I've been logged in with admin rights, so I do not know if this will work.

- Luc -

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  • 3 months later...

Hi Thinkerer -

This is not totally related but maybe you can help me as well?   I have  two macs. one brand new the other 3years old.  Viewer 2.7 works on both fine,  anythng after that does not work at all.

Unfortunately I upgraded on one and can't get 2.7 back.     I can no longer use SL.  I have tried to find a way to report this very serious bug,  but apparently I am not a "member" eligible to repor bugs on the  bug tracker.  I also tried viewer 2.8 and above on a third (newer) mac - same results - it runs at 5 frames per minute at the exact same time that a mac running 2.7 runs fine. (so it's not lag)

How can this info get to Linden labs?  Do you know?  IS there a fix?  How can I get version 2.7 which does work?

 

I hope you can help.  Sorry if this is a pesky communication.  Just don't know where to turn

 

Thanks

Zara

 

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MiniSchnauzer Monday wrote:

I am a comuter techinician at a college. I do not use SL. I only update as needed on the MAC version. Can someone help me with my questions as it seems impossible to actually contact SL or Linden Labs?

Is there a difference between Second Life and Second Life Viewer?

Is the Beta Version a test version not fully checked for "bugs"

Is it best to run the update or remove the current version and install fresh?

My most important question follows.One Professors uses this progam extensively. They tell me that the program CANNOT be used if a new version exists and is  awaiting an update. They report that I must update the program to fix bugs or else the program will not run. I am told that SL frequently has many updates.This concerns me becuase I have 16 laptops and have to do the updates indiviually at this point because I have no way to push this en mass right now.

Thank you for anyone out there that can help me learn more.

Lol and you would be a computer Technican? this questions are so stupid i would throw you out of the course and let you search for a better job instantly without a chance you can longer explain. Every questions are more then basic knowledge of a computer technican.

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