Just when you believe Linden Lab the creators of Second Life do not actively listen to the paying residents they never cease to amaze you. Whilst facing one of the biggest PR Disasters of recent times, Linden Lab have taken a miraculously large step back and have reassessed their desire to enforce Dazzle, with no alternative option, upon the residents of Second Life.

As I documented in April, Dazzle caused major concern across the Second Life network. Its bright user interface could be held accountable for eye strain and migraines, also not ergonomically suitable for those users with varying degrees of colour blindness. The complaint was not specifically against Dazzle it was against the inability to easily revert to the old style, or for a user friendly option to skin the client, if Dazzle affected you with the health issues mentioned above. With a massive amount of votes and comments on the two Dazzle specific JIRA entries (VWR-5059 & VWR-5080) it now seems that Linden Lab have actually listened to the worried residents.


In the latest Second Life Blog post Ramzi Linden has announced the release of RC11 with 39 crash fixes and the news that Linden Lab will not ship the Release Candidate until it has working skin-ability.


"To start, we are now developing a solution to VWR-5059 - “Ability to switch between the new/old theme” - and will ship that before finalizing the official Second Life Viewer 1.20.

Therefore, in the coming weeks please look for a couple other iterations of this Release Candidate, but perhaps not as frequently. We will deliver an RC12 and RC13 before finishing this 1.20 Release Candidate cycle."

Linden Lab may have taken their time but I am sure I and the hundreds of non Dazzle supporters are both in favour and in shock at this latest development. Potential PR disaster almost averted.