Cory Ondrejka's departure in his own words
by Tateru Nino 
Dec 11th 2007 at 9:45PM
Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Second Life
Shortly after we received Philip Rosedale's official statement on Cory Ondrejka's imminent departure from Linden Lab, a source close to Linden Lab passed us a copy of Ondrejka's internal email about the matter.
Trying to sum up 7 years of work at Linden is an impossible task. All nighters at the Linden Street office. Gaining 20 pounds but then losing 70. Flying 350,000 miles on Linden travel. Recruiting and hiring many of you. Creating a programming language that now had 2.5 billion lines of code written in it – note to self, next time spend more than one night designing language. Changing the world.
It has been an absolute thrill working with all of you on Second Life. When Philip looked across a rickety card table in November of 2000 and told me that we would do more than build a great product, we needed to build a great company, too, I knew it would be a wild ride. Through the peaks and the valleys, Philip's ideas challenged and inspired me. They often led to solutions I would never have considered and helped to make Second Life what it is today.
I continue to believe in both Second Life and Linden Lab, but Philip and my visions for the future of Linden Lab are divergent enough that he decided to lead in his own way. While I will miss all of you, I have confidence in engineering - in all of you - to adapt and excel going forward. You are a phenomenal collection of talents and I know that both Linden Lab and Second Life will be hugely successful.
Ondrejka is obviously being sensitive, proud and diplomatic. It also gives the impression of 'fired' rather than 'quit', but he's definitely going out in style, as a leader. This is a classic 'creative differences' situation, and Ondrejka's handling it very professionally, with positive messages, reinforcement and motivation.
Although, if I was on the engineering team under Cory right now - sure - I'd be feeling a bit panicked at this juncture. That's the vibe we're picking up at the moment. This is, perhaps, one of the most significant changes at Linden Lab in years, and it would be ridiculous to think that there won't be fallout from it.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SecretSteve said on 11:18PM 12-11-2007
Wow, what a graceful and classy letter. This is showing true leadership.
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Jeremy White said on 11:11PM 12-11-2007
Ok, I didn't want to say it, but I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say that the Second Life symbol over Cory's face makes him look CREEPY.
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Tateru Nino said on 11:18PM 12-11-2007
Guilty as charged - I'm afraid I'm responsible for our file photo of Cory. It wasn't _intended_ to make him look creepy - but it does a bit.
Desmond Shang said on 11:42PM 12-11-2007
Cory and Philip: both visionaries.
The loose comparison to Apple is inevitable. It's not the end, folks, it's just the beginning of the rest of the future.
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Prokofy Neva said on 12:10AM 12-12-2007
Yes, definitely a classy letter, but I think the public should know what these "engineering differences" are, especially because we're still *on* this wild ride.
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Crissa said on 2:35AM 12-12-2007
I'm sure when the dev pool finds out, we will to.
So far... Phillip and Cory haven't said. This letter is from Cory, to them - so if he didn't tell them, why should they tell us?
nimrod said on 1:30AM 12-12-2007
Prok something is wrong with me... I am agreeing with you! =O
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FlipperPA Peregrine said on 8:42AM 12-12-2007
Here's hoping for the best for Cory. He's always been a smart, fun guy to be around, as willing to crack a joke as discuss Second Life and tech in general. There are few people I know who can head up a tech team as diverse as Linden Lab's, get a product like Second Life out the door, and still be so approachable and friendly.
Besides, he has the best avatar in Second Life history!
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Aldon Hynes said on 11:33AM 12-12-2007
I'm with Prokofy and nimrod on this. We would be well served to have an open discussion about these "engineering differences".
I've been thinking a lot about the engineering issues for the future of Second Life (as well as OpenSim and related efforts), and I've put down a few thoughts in my response to this post at
http://www.orient-lodge.com/node/2660
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Maxx Monde said on 6:40PM 12-12-2007
After meeting Cory in 2005 at the first SLCC, I was impressed with his technical skill and oratory abilities. Any company that snags him will no doubt be enriched greatly.
I wish him the best of luck, and thank him for his massive contributions to Secondlife.
You rock, Cory.
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Taco Rubio said on 2:46PM 12-12-2007
A few of you have taken two statements and combined them. There is no mention of "engineering differences". There is mention of divergent views of Second Life's future, and then later he is telling Engineering (his team) that they will continue to do well.
the divergence could be about anything. Good luck Cory!
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Anonymous said on 6:39AM 12-13-2007
Betting that the following will happen:
Cory will either try to start his own virtual world, or he will get hired by google, IBM, or sun; all which are jumping into the virtual world thing.
would be nice if cory started a serious competitor to SL.
maybe LL would start fixing their fucked up system. Though that would mean LL would have to restructure. :)
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Klang Wopat said on 10:35PM 12-13-2007
As someone said, this appears to be a classic professional differences situation, perhaps over design, engineering, creative or management issues--or all of them. I've seen it happen several times before myself, and as Desmond mentions, look at Apple.
Cory is a hoot and an impressive guy. I'm sure we'll be hearing about him and from him again.
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Doug said on 8:56PM 12-14-2007
A company has to be able to survive this sort of thing. If the leaving of a CTO/CIO cripples a company there are more serious systemic problems.
Fact of the matter is Cory was/is great at grand strategic vision, but when it comes to the day to day management of the system and the deployment of new critical features...it's not been very good.
SL can't grow unless somebody with SERIOUS experience in managing mission critical data center level experience comes in and settles the dust enough to stabilize the environment. You cant roll out new exciting features when what you have in software and infrastructure feels like a deck of cards.
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Tateru Nino said on 9:02PM 12-14-2007
Linden Lab's been trying to hire someone of that caliber for most of a year now, with apparently no success. Specifically since February 15: http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/02/15/philip-rosedale-seeks-new-linden-lab-executive/
As far as we know, this post has yet to be filled.
Star.axe said on 1:42PM 12-19-2007
Sadly this seems to be the last nail in the second life adventure coffin, As much as I grumbled on LSL radical changes in the code's core, I still hold the highest respect for the language itself and to the one man who created it – Mr. Ondrejka.
If there is one thing Mr Ondrejka supported was fair play and high morals, especially on fair trade and protecting creator’s rights, it’s not the first time we see LL taking the dark path of unfair trading, mostly by simply looking the other way as copy bots and other illegal “toys” ripped and embezzled all the fun (and profit) out of second life members.
Yes, this ship is going to town. I simply recommend to all of you out there to bail out now - just like in any pyramid game.
With that I am still left aghast to see large companies from small and somewhat “left behind” countries still spills money in, second life in 2008 will be focused on setting a “bail out” path to LL original team members as they “sell away” second life to people with no idea of innovation and artistic creation, less then making some more money on the backs of the poor souls that failed to exit.
But really, this is just a personal view of the situation, my question is – will it do major harm to you if you simply convert all those LL to real $, and simply let them wait in your paypal account until the storm will pass (or the world will raze to the ground …)
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