On Thursday 28 September 2006 01:28, Daniel Iliev <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote about 'Re: [gentoo-amd64] How To Play WMV?': > Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: > > On Wednesday 27 September 2006 21:55, Peter Davoust > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > TOP-POSTED about 'Re: [gentoo-amd64] How To Play WMV?': > >> On Wed, 2006-09-27 at 19:29 -0500, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: > > Yeah, it really doesn't matter to me when proprietary formats aren't > > available. I figure if it's not important enough for the > > producer/distributor to use accessible formats (Speex, Vorbis, FLAC, > > Theora, etc.) it's not important enough for me to spend time watching. > Well, I'm sorry but I disagree. Let's not go fanatic about any ideas. > Free software and open source are the greatest thing in the IT world (my > personal opinion), but should I not use NVidia's drivers only because > they are not GPLed?
No, you shouldn't use them because they aren't free software. There's a number of ways that software can be free without being GPL-ed. ;) Seriously, though; I use the nvidia drivers, because they work on my chosen platform: 64-bit linux. Of course, there's also the argument that you shouldn't use them due to security issues. Theo and the gang that make the world's most secure operating system don't allow binary-blob style drivers because they can't be audited for security and even if you learn of an issue *you can't fix it*. > I would say anyone who uses software emulation > instead of hardware acceleration only because of the license is a > fanatic. I respectfully disagree. This hypothetical person appears to value freedom over convenience, which is their choice, I suppose. Though, it seems that if they didn't protect their freedom, it might not be their choice... I fully believe that, eventually, software slavery will be just as illegal as slavery is now, and that history will see RMS as the ridiculed "first software abolitionist". While I still indulge in it from time to time, I don't believe the people that abhor it are fanatics. > I noticed that there is some kind of flash application that becomes more > and more popular on sites [1] providing something like "funny clips > exchange service". In order to watch the clips one needs Flash Player. > AFAIK there is no Flash Player for amd64 gnash plays some (not all) flash files on my ~amd64 machine. Unfortunately the "funny clips exchange" sites don't seem to work with it. Not sure if that's a versioning issue or another deficiency in gnash. > and there is no Flash-8 for > linux. IIRC, there's also no flash 8 for 64-bit windows? So, I should not use half my processor just so you (or whoever) can send me funny video clips? I think that's mighty egotistical of whoever is sending the video clips / providing the service. > No doubt it is wrong, but I'm far from the idea that the clips > people send are not worth seeing because of technical or license issues. Well, we disagree then. I'm just not going to compromise on my chosen computing platform: 64-bit Linux, to watch videos, no matter who they are sent from. > So I want to have flash/wmv/whatever running under Gentoo instead of > depriving myself. Sorry, I didn't mean to imply my choices should be yours. It's just that I can't help much in setting such things up, and I did want to let you know there was an alternative. To get flash working, you'll need a 32-bit chroot [1]. Guides for setting up that environment are available as part of the official Gentoo amd64 handbook, with alternate instructions on the Gentoo wiki. To get win32codecs working, you can simply install mplayer-bin (with the proper USE flags, of course), but you won't get any advantages you might have gotten from a source-based install. Although, the above is a short-term solution; in the long term the only way to have these technologies working on a free OS is to use, support, and develop free software equivalents, and at the same time refuse to use, support, and develop non-free software using the technology. -- "If there's one thing we've established over the years, it's that the vast majority of our users don't have the slightest clue what's best for them in terms of package stability." -- Gentoo Developer Ciaran McCreesh [1] Actually, I've seen a Debian package that claims to allow 64-bit konqueror to use 32-bit flash (and other nsplugins) but I don't know if that package is available for Gentoo.
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