Laggy? Update your graphic card drivers

Lag in SL is not as simple as it may seem at first.

I have met people in-world that have their draw distance set at 512m (that's 2 sims!) on the mainlnad and complain that they can barely move.

Since there is a lot of 'stuff' on the mainland reduce your draw distance as much as you can (CTRL + P, select the Graphics Tab). I usually have my draw distance at 96, and sometimes 64 is really busy places.

Also, ensure that you have the latest drivers for your graphics card! SL imporved a huge amount for me -- so much that I enabled all kinds of cool features including rippling water - SL looks better than it ever has :)