On 4 February 2015 at 20:43, Mike Auty <ike...@gentoo.org> wrote: > Whilst the default *is* still in place (and particularly after the > recent news article detailing that users should be using libav), could > we please keep commits like the following until *after* we've made an > agreed upon decision please? > > http://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo-x86/profiles/package.mask?r1=1.16328&r2=1.16329 > > Anyone using mpv (because mplayer does not work with libav, and they > were directed to use mpv by the news article) will now be hit by > blockers attempting to reinstall ffmpeg. > > It's fine to have disagreements, but airing them in front of the users > like this is not an ideal situation...
That would suggest political motives or something of the sort. But that is far from the truth. Newer mpv versions were masked for many months, for no apparently valid reason, except that the libav versions on which it optionally (!) depended were masked. Since we introduced the libav useflag, we have now a way to finally make mpv-0.7* (using the upstream recommended ffmpeg as default) visible to ~arch users, without the need to unmask it. Users who wish to use libav with it, can do so by unmasking the useflag and the relevant libav version. (While before they would have had to unmask both mpv and libav. The resulting change is minor.) Fewer users will now need to unmask mpv-0.7*. Besides, it is a reminder that upstream recommends ffmpeg, which comes as a surprise to many. And as a result, we can unmask the newest version of smplayer, which can now function as a GUI frontend for mpv as well. I would say this is an overall improvement for our end-users. I don't want to get into the politics of it, but just look at it from a practical perspective. -- Cheers, Ben | yngwin Gentoo developer
