I missed an important point that was explained by Aiwendil. You can't redistribute the art (maps, models, textures, etc) and you also can't run a public server with that art.
About the things that are missing, I'll give you an example with swords :-D
Let's say that in game we have "The Sword of Cutting +1". This item is made of:
- looks - 3d model, textures (you have this)
- type definition - textual description of the sword, damage rate, speed rate, the fact that you can use it with your right hand, etc (I don't think you have this)
- instances - how many swords of this type are in game, and where (you don't have this)

However, as I said the database that you can download, has a few axes, maybe some swords too :-P, but those are created for testing purposes.

Since I was bored, with Laanx server being down, I built my own server following this guide http://planeshift.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/planeshift/trunk/docs/compiling.html
What you get:
- latest server and client executables, dynamically built (so they occupy less space)
- a small number of test maps
- a small number of npc's on those maps, doing neat things
- a small number of quests for test purposes
- a small number of rules (for ex you won't be able to craft things as ingame, or create the same spells)
- you can load the real game maps and just move through them (bare of any npc's or objects)
- neat thing: you can play GM (you have to, in order to teleport to realgame maps)
- you can play with adding content, adding quests
Well, there are probably another million things you can do with it. For example I'm looking through the code to see if I can create an application that checks the server status in the same way that the real client does.
Have fun!

Edgar Eranor the dremorian has told me this story of yesterdays events that he witnessed: He was minding his business running some errands for someone at the Inn when he noticed all these noises of battle. They seemed to come from the sewers, or from the plaza, he was not sure. Then he was just leaving the Inn to go to the temple when a large and disgusting Tefusang ran in front of him chasing some scared citizen. He followed the Tefusang as it stopped chasing and  turned around and entered the Inn. At first the beast didn't seem to be aggressive so Edgar approached it and began to study it. He had a strange, sudden, realization from the expression on it's face and some other hints in the beast's behavior that it was controlled somehow by a human mind! It may seem strange, but I assure you that this is what he felt. He then proceeded to ask for the hand of the beast in marriage, to try to appease the monsters rage. But alas! he didn't manage to finish his sentence when he was struck in the head by one of the great claws of the beast. He was unconscious for a while, a strange near-death experience, and as many people in this realm have told of, he managed to return from the realm of the dead. However he did get something from all of this: a Tefusang tooth! He likes to show it to anyone interested.

maybe I should report this as a bug?

Is this a joke? In the download client section there is some text about the Linux version of the client but there are NO links.
What is this?