Brian Cameron wrote: > > James: > > Now that is a great explanation of the situation, I think. If you > can make it through that dense paragraph, that is. :) > >> Totem uses the gstreamer backend and is a native GNOME application, >> while mplayer and xine are thorny issues for legal reasons in many >> cases. > > Any GPL based application without an exception to allow you to link > in non-free media codec has GPL license issues with distribution. > > Most GStreamer based GPL applications have such a license exception, > while Mplayer, Xine, Ogle, etc. do not, making them harder to distribute > with interesting media support enabled, even if you have license to > the media codec itself. > >> Sun's accessibility, >> marketing, legal and usability teams are reasons Totem have been >> selected. Many Linux distributions continue to provide Totem, and >> Totem's supposedly lacking attributes are due to lack of inclusion of >> patented gstreamer codecs. The Fluendo service provides licensed >> gstreamer codecs. > > I wouldn't say totem's UI is perfect. However, it's getting better > all the time. > >> For business adoption, inclusion of Xine and MPlayer >> are not an option. > > They could be an option, if the business wanted to negotiate licenses > for needed plugins, and if they had no plans to distribute the code. > However, most businesses would find negotiating such licenses > cumbersome. Though Fluendo is offering more and more legal codecs > for sale, making this less and less of an issue. Hopefully other 3rd > parties may also make available more legal solutions for non-free > media on Solaris and Linux in the future. For example, if you own an > iPod, then tell Apple how important it is to port iTunes to Solaris. :) > > Brian We don't need Apple to port iTunes. There's no proven market value in doing it to even Linux yet. There's plenty of capable players. The issue is finding a sponsor to a particular framework or player which is willing to pay for the license upkeep on the user's behalf so it can be bundled on media instead of being fetched as a per-service product. My paragraphs are designed to overload readers, so sue me.
James
