Viewer Thoughts

Regular readers of this blog know that I often write about the Viewer and that I like the UI introduced with Viewer2. In fact, I guess I'm something of an evangelist or even an apologist for v2/v3 from The Lab. So the other day when Rod Linden mentioned that some changes were coming up (and are now here in v3.1) I was rather non-plussed. Now Tateru Nino writes on her blog that she heard from Rhett Linden that the Sidebar I like is going away and then she points to a post on Nalates Urriah's blog that has pix of the new UI.

While I'm not happy with a number of ways v3 works (such as changing environment settings) or how the Basic mode has been partly folded into the Advanced mode (I'll have to get used to think about where I click as I look about since one-click-navigate now kicks in), I keep coming back to what I tell folks who complain about the Official Viewer: Try it.

When v2 arrived I didn't like it at all. I tried every alternative viewer available and recommended them to others as I found that aside from the UI being familiar, they often offered interesting and sometimes useful features. But as I help new Residents (okay, noobs), I felt that it would be best that I became familiar with v2 so I could be a better guide.

So for two weeks I used only v2, even uninstalling other viewers so I could avoid temptation. What I found at the end was that most of my objections stemmed simply from the idea of change. Someone moved my cheese and I reacted viscerally. On the whole, v2 was no better or no worse that any other viewer. It had it's quirks, as did they all, and I knew that if I needed a special feature I could fire up another viewer to use them.

So what about vX (whatever it's designation is going to be)? I have to admit that there were bits in Nalates' pix that I didn't care for at first glance. But I'm willing to wait and to give the new iteration a chance. How about you?