Other virtual worlds

In my humble opinion, Second Life is the best platform out there (especially for educators) but in all fairness I should make you aware that there are other similar projects. Many of them I haven't tried because they only run on Windows, and I haven't installed any Windows OS on my Macbook yet. Nonetheless, let me briefly introduce you to a few of them:

Kaneva is one that I haven't been able to actually see in action other than a YouTube video, but it looks a lot like Second Life, except with fewer options. I do like the idea of a 3D home with videos you choose playing on the wall.

Sony Home is actually only available on Playstation 3, so I doubt educators would be using it anyhow, but this seems like a very controlled environment. My favorite features of this one are the upcoming "trophies" you will get to show off in your virtual home, the possibility to watch movies or movie trailers with friends, and the ability to take a group into a game together where you actually work together instead of against one another.

Zwinky doesn't appear to be a virtual world at all, even though that's what it looks like on the TV commercials they run relentlessly during SNL. It seems to be something you install in your web browser that pushes content (like ads for 50 cent) to you. I don't see much value in this.

Habbo Hotel runs within a web browser, and though it isn't very impressive graphics-wise, it does seem to offer a similar kind of community to Second Life. It's nice to think of not using up all a school's limited bandwidth to have a virtual worlds experience. However, once again, customization is the issue that I think will keep educators away. Isn't this really just a big chatroom with some extra bells and whistles?

Club Penguin seems to be similar to Habbo, but geared towards younger children. If you want to do anything more than walk around and chat, you have to buy a membership.

There is much like Second Life in its appearance. On the plus side, it already has voice integration, and it allows users as young as 13 which makes it easier for educators to use. However, it doesn't offer nearly the level of content creation or customization of SL, which makes it a good place for a chat but not much else as far as education is concerned.

Active Worlds - seems like some educators are using it for neat projects. From the way I understand it, you can only really create things if you own a world. I will need to check this one out further.

Thinking Worlds is one that is PC-only, but I did get a chance to check this out a few months ago. Rather than being a world, it's really a tool to create worlds. So if a community of educators with similar content got together, I think they might really be able to take advantage of this platform to create some neat experiences.

For a comparison of Active Worlds, There, and Second Life, check out Oz Spade's website. I also recommend reading Onder Skall's "Alternatives to Second Life".

What did I miss? What have you tried and what do you think?