1. OpenSim was not unwanted by Linden Lab - at least at first. Linden Lab was cooperating with IBM and other OpenSim developers.
2. There are many infrastructural, behind-the-scenes issues with Second Life that OpenSim does not have. It is a more modular, scalable infrastructure framework.
3. OpenSim isn't even in the ballpark with Second Life when it comes to user activity. Nobody is arguing about this.
4. OpenSim has a number of features that Second Life doesn't have, very important features, some of which are must-have for enterprise users, schools, and non-profits.
5. OpenSim allows users full control of their environment. For business and schools, for example, that means full control of their grids. For creators, it means full control of their mini-grids and the content they create on it (content which they typically upload and sell in Second Life, or in commercial grids like InWorldz).
6. As a result of the features that OpenSim DOES have, certain categories of users -- the kind of users that need land and control -- those users are moving or expanding to Opensim. The pace of this isn't slowing. Second Life is losing land, and OpenSim is gaining it.
7. Some communities are also moving over to OpenSim, for the same reasons -- more land, more control, more freedom.
8. There will come a time when the migration will reach a critical mass, and there will be enough stuff to do in OpenSim for everybody.
9. Yes, OpenSim development is messy -- it's what you get when you have volunteers working on a project this massive. But, again, the pace of development here seems to be accelerating, and becoming more user-focused, with individual grid and hosting companies contributing code and bug fixes, and major users like Intel and the US military dedicating programmers to work on OpenSim.
Will OpenSim eventually BECOME the metaverse? Maybe. Or maybe something else will come along. Right now, it's the most developed platform and ecosystem out there. That's not to say that Microsoft, Google or Yahoo won't come out with something else and leapfrog over it.
I believe that an alliance between Linden Lab and OpenSim will strengthen our approach to the metaverse, and help ward off a proprietary alternative.
I don't want to live in a metaverse owned by, say, Microsoft or Google -- overpriced, in the first case and riddled with advertising and tracking in the second!