Supported Viewers

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What Versions are Supported

Starting in March 2009 with Second Life 1.22 Viewer, Linden Lab will officially support the current release, the previous release, and most current release candidate. See the announcement on the Second Life Technology Blog.

For example, at the release of the latest version of the viewer (Second Life 1.22 Viewer), we will support:

• Second Life 1.22 (see the Release Notes)
• Second Life 1.21 (see the Release Notes)
• and Second Life 1.22 RC11 Release Candidate. (see the Release Notes)

Phase Out Period

After a new release, we will provide a 30 day phase-out period during which versions older than the current version, or one version back, will still be allowed temporarily to connect to the Second Life Grid. This is to communicate about features that may be deprecated in a new release, and to incorporate community feedback.

Blocking Unsupported Viewers

After the 30 day phase-out period has elapsed after a new viewer release, we will not allow those unsupported viewers to connect to the Grid. Residents using unsupported versions of the viewer who attempt to login will be prompted to upgrade to the latest version.

This accommodates the current upgrade behavior of most Residents. And given the rhythm of viewer releases, it means that even the most upgrade-averse Residents will need to install new software approximately every six months.

Mandatory Upgrades

Mandatory upgrades (for an urgent security issue or policy changes) which require all residents to upgrade to the latest version of the viewer in order to operate correctly, will override this policy. However, such mandatory upgrades are only to be employed when absolutely necessary.

Rollout

We will roll this policy out with the 1.22 release of the viewer, but we will provide an additional grace period of 30 days before we start to enforce it. After the 60 days, Residents with viewer 1.20 will not be allowed to connect and will be prompted to upgrade to a newer viewer. By that time, the population of 1.20 should be approximately 1% of the total.

Future Considerations

As we engage with enterprise customers, or education institutions with locked down desktops, we will need to evaluate whether or not the effective cadence for upgrades (roughly 6 months to complete three release cycles, except in the case of mandatory upgrades) is unsupportable for these customers. If so, we will work out a revision of this policy to accommodate these cases.