Hell Freezes Over, I switch to Firestorm

This SL screenshot taken in my house, may look fairly ordinary, but to me it isn't. 

Check the full size version, it's 3840x2114 in size.  No, I'm not running a 4K monitor, I'm using the double size screenshot feature built into SL viewers that actually works on Linux in Firestorm.  Yes, Firestorm  Long time readers may know that almost always used one of LL's Beta builds, though I've sometimes tested older Firestorm builds on my alt.  

I've complained about the double size screenshot feature not working on Linux intermittently before.  At first it didn't work, then it did, then it stopped working...again.  Then came THIS BUG!  Which causes any LL SL build AFTER 3.7.28 to fail to start on a 64-bit Linux.  ANY 64-bit Linux, not just Fedora.  Not only that, but the last build that works on 64-bit Linux has some regressions in regards to textures blurring in and out, and obvious RAM issues.  It is seriously crap, even compared to previous SL viewers in the 3.x.x series.  Why oh why LL doesn't do a proper 64-bit build is beyond me, Linux users have been complaining about it for years. 

I got so fed up, I grabbed the 64-bit Havok-less Firestorm build and tried that.  In the past when I  used Firestorm there were typeface issues, for some reason Firestorm didn't use the same ones that LL's builds do and it had legibility issues.  But now it used what I considered the proper typeface and everything was hunky dory for the most part, once I put the thing in Viewer 3 mode.  Sure there's a few qurks I don't like.  For example, sidebar buttons don't work like they do on LL's viewers where a single click brings them to front (Probably a configuration thing), and the "Stand" button is not where it should be (but they know about that one).

But all that is minor stuff compared to having a build that works, and crashes less often in it's 64-bit form.  (The 32 bit Firestorm version has some of the same memory issues the 32-bit LL clients do.)

CC McCrankypants and the Evil of Jira.

I am VERY cranky today. at both Linden Lab and the SL userbase.

For one, this bug hit me today after a Nvidia driver update:

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-29423

Want to see what it looks like?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBkoUQ9-_7E

It makes SL totally unusable.  Addendum: Also affects Firestorm and a heck of a lot of other 3D applications... so it's an Nvidia thing I think....this time.

And then there's the new inventory copy bug I found in Main Release a few hours before the above hit me.

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-29418

Some of you may be thinking:  "But CC, I thought you used Snowstorm"

I did until these two bugs hit me:

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-29139

That's the gap/line in the neck one, which is anathema to one such as I.  The CC is all about the pretty, and that bug maketh the CC less pretty and it must be destroyed.

And then there was THIS one, which messes up inventory search by preventing scrolling down in results.

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-29358

I rely on inventory search.

All of this makes the CC VERY CRANKY.  Don't the Lindens test this stuff out?  Am I the only person who runs the viewer on Linux that is a fashionista that actually uses the inventory and changes their outfits and takes screenshots?

Really Linden Lab, you ought to offer bounties to people to test stuff out.  Offer various rewards to  people that run Snowstorm, reward people when they find bugs, not just those who fix them.  Can't fix a bug unless someone finds it first.

Now some of you are thinking:  "CC, I run Phoenix, this doesn't matter to me."

Yes it does because you're part of the problem!  Stop using Phoenix!  That old codebase is creaky and un-maintainable long term, that's what  phoenix devs say themselves.  Sooner or later LL WILL cut off V1 codebase viewers, they should have done so long ago.

And again some of you are thinking:  "But CC I hate the V2 UI, that's why I u se Phoenix."

Oh please, you can make Firestorm use V1 UI, if you need to, but I actually prefer V3 UI.  It simply behaves like other applications.  Sure it's got discoverability issues (I have a couple of JIRA's on that too), but it's much more like a "normal" application than the V1 pie mess.  One of the reasons for the V2 UI change was to make SL more "normal", for people coming into SL.  Though the SL userbase being filed with oldbie crankypants, had got used to the quirks old crappy V1, and encouraged some newbies to switch to Phoenix because they didn't know how to use V2 themselves.  BAD Residents...BAD BAD.  Don't encourage viewer fragmentation!

I'm going to say this again.  If you must use a TPV, it should be the latest Firestorm release.

But I have a better idea than that...use Snowstorm instead:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Snowstorm_Project

All SL viewer code is derived from that.  Even Firestorm code is descended from Snowstorm.  You want bugs fixed, start with the grandfather code...in Snowstorm.  And how do we find the bugs so they don't reach main release in either LL's own Main viewer or Firestorm?   We have to USE Snowstorm, it's the only way.  So Please, SL userbase, I'm on my hands and knees begging here...use Snowstorm