MS allows port of its software to Linux (The Inquirer) [LWN.net]

Ignore this story

Posted Apr 11, 2003 19:24 UTC (Fri) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

> Microsoft has licensed InterVideo to port Windows Media to Linux

This is an exageration (see story snippets at end of post). GNU/Linux
distros aren't allowed include this under any circumstances.

Even if it was available for desktop GNU/Linux users, I'd strongly
advise against using it. To buy/use MS products you generally have
to register over the internet. When you can't see the source code, how do
you know that the installer isn't gathering a list of all your mp3s and
movies and uploading that list to MS?

For non-programmers: It doesn't matter that *you* can't fix this. What
matters is that *someone* could fix this, if the code was Free. When
software is Free (GPL), the community doesn't allow nasty practices like
what MS do.

I don't have the link handy but if you search slashdot.org you'll find an
article by two guys who decoded the info that WindowsUpdate sends to MS,
they found it contains a list of *every* program install on that computer!
(This is not illegal since MS quietly changed the usage policy of
WindowsUpdate a few months before they began doing this.)

From the inquirer:
"It looks like the software will only be available
for consumer electronics devices"

From vnunet.com:
"InterVideo to port its Windows Media technology to Linux for us in
consumer electronics such as set-top boxes and personal video recorders"

Ciaran O'Riordan

No, DONT "Ignore this story" totally; poke the edges & sniff if (guard your nose tho)

Posted Apr 11, 2003 19:51 UTC (Fri) by naughty-artkitekt (guest, #10552) [Link]

That mirsotorf "quietly" changed the terms of the contract should MAKE it illegal.
Certain things can change, but when they do this to the OS of your choice or
be-foisting, and tell you cannot move the OS to a new or older piece of hardware,
THAT is robbery. They LEGALLY get to force you to upgrade.

If you buy a Honda, and find a buyer who can live without the seats or the rims
(maybe they already have favorite aftermarket stuff on hand or in plan...) then
you CAN sell the car.

If you cannot move the OS, then you are being SCREWED by microstorf. What
the HELL idiot in law or in power or in congress allows *holes like ms to decree
such a thing. Oh, we can change the keyboard, the monitor, the mouse, the
printer, the video card, the ram, but let the case or CPU be change, "oohhh it's a
new kompoooturh. Weesa no allowsa that'sa."

These control freaks need to be disbanded before they collapse global stability.
Hardware manufacturers need to pull ms anal-probiscus from their rearrus. Linux
and Apple, if unhindered by ms artificial place in the markets, could gain or regain
positions of prominence.

As for DVD or audio or multimedia playback... this is just more Sham Source or
Shared Sham in a different set of clothing. It's not JUST Motown or Hollywierd
they're after. They're after the floodgates of apps that will open when misinformed
developers flock to Linux-land, thinking they have a new market to sell DVDs and
multimedia content, only to find out THEY TOO are being fleeced by ms "cuz we
got there first, and we will provide technical and other assistance for the next few
years of Linux Regime Change my mirstforc."

Yep, just an ms -hell-mirey (hail mary) to SCREW over Linux. NOTHING good or
harmless comes from ms if you're concerned about national security, software
development by entrepreneurs not looking to be bought out by or run out of
business by ms.

It's time for ms to step aside. How much money does ms or gates need,
anyway? Other people are aching for a piece of this huge pie, and ms is just
gradually becoming the hussein of software. No, wait, they already were, except
the US government and patent and DOJ and others let ms steam roll over the
LEGITIMATE competition. Forutnately, the NSA is keen to play with Linux.
Fortunately OREGON is onto HL 2892 to save the state money. Now, to shut
down or curtail the bsa bs about "they already have choice to chooz Linux if they
want too..." Bull. If it's hard to even GET ms to use .xml, .dbf, and other formats
MOST other apps can fairly easily read or open, then data accessibility will, if ms
has its way, be via mostly ms products, assuming they can knock off Oracle and
other db compets, or knock IBM down again.

WHEW, end of this screed.

David Syes

Microsoft Media Player on Linux ?

Posted Apr 12, 2003 11:15 UTC (Sat) by manuel.flury (guest, #7880) [Link]

Do you believe that anybody wants to install such a crap when Linux has one
of the best software available to play movie and sound ?

I'm talking about MPlayer ( http://www.mplayerhq.hu ) of course, which is now
installed automatically with the Mandrake distro for instance.

Media Players on Linux ?

Posted Apr 12, 2003 13:25 UTC (Sat) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

> Do you believe that anybody wants to install such a crap when Linux
> has one of the best software available to play movie and sound ?

There's another good point. Who needs Windows Media Player?

I haven't used windows in years and I don't miss it. Sure, my GNU system
can't play .wmv movies but who cares.

If I came across a movie that was only available as a .wmv, I'd mail the
admin of the site and ask for an mpeg but this has never happened.

> I'm talking about MPlayer

did the licensing issues get sorted out?

I find xmms to be really great (stable/reliable/capable).
'gst-player' from the GStreamer project looks very promising but isn't
too stable yet. Xine works too (good for playing .mov movies). There's
also Totem, I think it's Xine based, can't remember.

Ciaran O'Riordan

Media Players on Linux ?

Posted Apr 12, 2003 15:00 UTC (Sat) by naughty-artkitekt (guest, #10552) [Link]

Hi all. Ciaran. FIrst I want to apologize about my "No, don't..." because I feel it
corrupted your title and it grates me that I did that.

As for DVD, until the DVD/CCA & others realize they can provide an encrypted
and still free or charged for playback capability for Linux, I guess I'll for now
become accustomed to/contented with unencrypted educational DVD content.

As for MPlayer, it wa suggested to me last month by a tecchie at OPB (Oregon
Public Broadcasting) who more or less told me that RealPlayer is too fraught with
upgrades issues, maintenance hassles, and the sheer cost of licensing. Moreover,
I understood that the way RealPlayer/Real's servers work in intensive multimedia
and audio enviornments is a drain on resources (physical body work), people who
have to babysit R/RP.

I was told that since ms' media player is very inexpensive or free or along those
lines that it would be VERY unlikely that that station, or maybe others I guess I
can infer, will make available any audio format than .wmf. This is a drag because
the State of Oregon has HB 2892 available on .rp, and it's 1h:16m out of a
1h:47m file, and my RP was set at dialup speed, tho I am on cable modem. Not
one drop or jiggle the entire initial play nor in the 2nd playback I listened for
maybe 10 minutes.

I did, however, try to install MPlayer on my Mandrake 9.0 box, but it was
dependency nightmare for me. (I'd rather just have the whole library amega-RPM
and risk my disk...) I gave up. I decided I'd wait til the next release arrives or either
MPlayer or Mandrake arrive. I have a discount toward 9.1, I think, since I tend to
order the ProSuite. Some RPMs I get deps issues with and I can hunt them down
and manually drop them in place, and things often work. But, some things just are
"well, now you need THIS dependency, oh now you need THIS dependency...sort
of like like the Vidal Sassoon shampoo commercial (with the pseudo Brady Borgs
(Brady Bunch and later Star Trek feminine Borg-ish echoic voiceovers)... and the
Brady grids all over the screen) of the late 70s early 80s... "And NOW you can tell
YOUR friends, and they they and tell THEIR friends....and then they they and tell
**THEIR** friends...And so on.. and so on.. and so on... and so on...."

Well, I only slept 4 hours...

Well, on that reminiscence, I'll cease here

And good-bye, and good.... um

Regards,

David/screedster

Media Players on Linux ?

Posted Apr 13, 2003 7:43 UTC (Sun) by amikins (guest, #451) [Link]

One solution is to not use an RPM based system. => RPMs by their nature have issues with things like that.

If you have broadband, a source based distro (One of the Sorcery children, Gentoo, Debian) would rectify issues like that for you, and they're generally /easier/ to work with than non-source based distros, once installed.

Media Players on Linux ?

Posted Apr 14, 2003 0:45 UTC (Mon) by mattdm (subscriber, #18) [Link]

Debian isn't a source-based distro. It too uses a package manager, very similar to RPM.