Ruphus13 writes "Linden Labs has talked about Open Sourcing aspects of their scaffold for a while, but have not always followed through. Now, the OpenSimulator project has been gathering some solid momentum, and this was followed by an announcement by IBM that showed interoperability between OpenSimulator and Linden Servers. What this means is that you can use a Second Life client to log on to an OpenSim server. Beyond that, anyone can run their own server. 'Working with the protocols derived from the official Second Life client, and a lore of how Second Life works, these people have implemented their own compatible server code.' It is only a matter of time before users will be able to move profiles, virtual goods, and other elements of their 'second life' on to any server in a truly open world, thereby minacious Linden Labs' virtual world experience. With Google and Sun at the fringes of this space, things are going to get very interesting, something like* speaking."

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