As you can see from the photo, the new viewer is quite different and attempts to provide broader/quicker access to assets and functions using the black navigation bar on the right, which can be collapsed. Each of the small icons on the left side of the nav bar take you to a different sets of commands and options.
So far I think Second Life residents are unsure about the new software, just like they were about Office 2007 when it was released. But the new viewer is a smash hit with me. I can now quickly find options and commands that were once obscure, I sometimes had to use Google to find them since the Second Life website and wiki and not extremely useful.
One of my favorite new features is, well...the Favorites bar. I hated searching through all of my landmarks before for just the top 4-5 I use frequently. The Favorites bar allows you to set a few landmarks to this list. Very cool.
In the Inventory, items now have more prominent icons that tell you what the item is. Very useful.
The People function tells you who is nearby and allows you to see them and access their profile very quickly without the radial selection function from before, which has now turned into a rectangle box on its side. I like it.
Communicating with Voice Chat has one of the major improvements, and that is a toggle switch to use instead of the older keyed microphone function, similar to using a walkie -talkie. This is nice when making an extended comment and your pointer does not slip off the talk button or you accidentally click on the lock button and delay a professional meeting for 3-5 minutes, especially if newbies are present and talking.
Speed? Can't tell if Second Life viewer 2 is more laggy than the previous, but it may impede performance a little. But, my machine runs well on the Ultra graphics setting so a machine/graphics not this good may indeed see a bit of lag from this viewer. But, the time saved operating inworld may be worth it if true.
Two thumbs up for the Second Life viewer 2.
