Linux Foundation launches the Open Metaverse Foundation

[SiliconWizard]

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/open-metaverse-foundation

Your thoughts?
 

[magic]

Isn't 3D still plenty buggy on Linux?

[Benta]

Seeing the Mark Zuckerberg "Metaverse" ads on TV, most people are in paroxysm through laughing. Especially after seeing the Musk "Super Success" with Twitter,
I'd say: don't hold your breath. And OS software guys: don't go down this rabbit hole. There are better things to pursue.

[josuah]

This looks like nothing but fundraising to me, which is a bit controversial given the foundation nature of this
project.

I am puzzled to see a project claiming itself technical and foundation focus on lifestyle (i.e. technology-focused lifestyle) and business.

A technical topic would use no buzzword an identify the broader core problematic that the particular case of whatever they call "metaverse" (difficult to identify what problematic is under this): embedded software.

Running from battery and providing real-time features for the Linux kernel
-> allow turning more things off within the Linux Kernel and shrink the core of the kernel
-> give the Linux Kernel more microkernel abilities maybe?
-> https://archive.fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/linux_kernel/

Note that the first link of the Linux Foundation article, starting by https://c212.net/ to end-up toward https://www.openmv.org/ contains tracking information (i.e. spam blockers flag it as advertising or tracking).

I do not understand which game Linux Foundation is playing, except maybe trying to level-up in business, widely forsaking the goal of promoting collaboration around the development of the Linux kernel and sibling software projects.

[SiliconWizard]

This looks like nothing but fundraising to me, which is a bit controversial given the foundation nature of this
project.

I am puzzled to see a project claiming itself technical and foundation focus on lifestyle (i.e. technology-focused lifestyle) and business.

A technical topic would use no buzzword an identify the broader core problematic that the particular case of whatever they call "metaverse" (difficult to identify what problematic is under this): embedded software.

Running from battery and providing real-time features for the Linux kernel
-> allow turning more things off within the Linux Kernel and shrink the core of the kernel
-> give the Linux Kernel more microkernel abilities maybe?
-> https://archive.fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/linux_kernel/

Note that the first link of the Linux Foundation article, starting by https://c212.net/ to end-up toward https://www.openmv.org/ contains tracking information (i.e. spam blockers flag it as advertising or tracking).

I do not understand which game Linux Foundation is playing, except maybe trying to level-up in business, widely forsaking the goal of promoting collaboration around the development of the Linux kernel and sibling software projects.

Agreed.
This doesn't look good and I would be curious to have Linus Torvalds' opinion on that.

[Marco]

I think Apple will give VR a second chance, by virtue of the Apple distortion field a lot of the early sins of the industry will be forgotten (wires, what were they thinking). They could get people to wear watches again, they can get them to wear headsets.

If it takes off, having open source solutions be there to launch services is good for open source ... the timing is right I think.

[Bud]

You can imagine the possibilities if everybody had a telecommuting remote controlled robot within their homes, remote household cleaning is then a possibility without the wear and tear on your body.

I see nothing but problems with this. Guess what, you still must load the gizmo with all the cleaning liquids, rugs and paper towels, then unload the accumulated crap out of it.

[JohanH]

Isn't 3D still plenty buggy on Linux?

No. WTF does this comment bring to this discussion?

Seriously, this raises some concerns. But if this is made with the intent of creating open standards and interfaces (APIs), it might play a role. A bit unrelated, but FSF has long enough raised concerns about the walled gardens of social media and their non-interchangeable APIs. This can be compared to the wild beginning of telephone standards, when everyone were competing and finally had to agree to create common standards to be able to interconnect. I'm not sure how much this project is aimed at tackle such concepts, or if it's just some fundraising, which would be of great concern. Linus can't do much about it, I think, these are basically his employers.

[Infraviolet]

Terrible as the metaverse concept seems to be, an open source one sounds a lot less terrible than a proprietary one.

[SiliconWizard]

Terrible as the metaverse concept seems to be, an open source one sounds a lot less terrible than a proprietary one.

This is the same type of argument that Elon Musk uses for tackling controversional territory, doing it more ethically than others. I'm not convinced this is anything more than marketing talk, and the same goes for this Open Metaverse initiative.

Being open is better, but does it really change anything much? A major chunk of the whole Internet is using open standards at almost all levels, does that make it less problematic in terms of privacy and confidentiality? It's how you use it, not really how it is designed under the hood, for the most part.

The concept is terrible, and there's definitely a lot more useful, and less damaging stuff to work on with the same amount of money, so all in all this is bad news IMO. And as I said, I would like to hear Linus about it. I'm really curious.

[KE5FX]

I've had quite a few interactions with 3D metaverses in my time. I've played the most popular ones.

The most interesting one was a 3D program designed by some Japanese company I forget who now at least 10 years ago that had a 3D model of a japanese household and you could walk around in this realm and turn on or off light switches, appliances, etc within this 3D world. It was used as a method of home automation.

The graphics were quite impressive for the time. I thought it was neat that you could conceivably do household chores with a robot that you controlled remotely from anywhere in the world. You can imagine the possibilities if everybody had a telecommuting remote controlled robot within their homes, remote household cleaning is then a possibility without the wear and tear on your body.

People don't want to program a robot, so why bother? Just pay somebody to do your household chores for you remotely, no need to drive to each individual household then and you save on time and wear and tear on your body.

There is promise there its just not being realized.

It'd be an interesting approach to self-driving cars, if nothing else.  You'd subscribe to a service that outfits your car with sensors, cameras, and actuators.  Upon request, it would transmit the sensor and camera data to a central location where people would do the driving and navigating for you. 

Might be a good side gig for the folks who pilot combat drones remotely.  And it would be easier to realize than a housecleaning robot, since it would require little or no new tech to be invented.

[SiliconWizard]

The future is an army of slaves using high-tech toys, apparently.

[KE5FX]

If it were the future, the cars would be flying, and we'd be hiring remote pilots for them. 

Not saying a housecleaning robot would be a bad thing at all, but with cars, the required communications and control hardware is already starting to be widely deployed.  It would be a so-called "shovel-ready" project.

[JPortici]

Your thoughts?
 

i still have no clue of what the metaverse is and what is supposed to achieve besides being another second life, which failed miserably

[josuah]

The future is an army of slaves using high-tech toys, apparently.

This was alrady the future in 2004:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_2:_Innocence

Does that means it is the present?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Mechanical_Turk
https://www.ghostwork.org/

[Marco]

another second life, which failed miserably

It failed as a social media, it succeeded as a social sandbox game. Given the total obtuseness of the UI it succeeded beyond any reasonable measure IMO.

A social sandbox VR game might never be Facebook huge, but it could be Minecraft huge and that's a double digit billion game.