This is the question posed by Randolph Harrison at Capitalism 2.0. He caused a storm of controversy with this post which suggests it is. He received his share of criticism from Second Lifers, including a raft of people claiming to run profitable businesses.

I have just stumbled across Warren Ellis' thoughts on Second Life entitled Second Life Sketches. They're an interesting read for this non-Second Lifer and have me thinking about test driving the linux client, though I suspect that my video card might not handle it.