Debian status [LWN.net]

Debian status

Posted Jun 5, 2025 9:34 UTC (Thu) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454)
In reply to: Debian status by NRArnot
Parent article: OpenH264 induces headaches for Fedora

IBM could do a lot of things but its Linux desktop business is not worth the pain of fighting in court companies that do have a significant desktop business and love patents (ie Apple).

The only solution is to avoid feeding the trolls, refuse to buy things that rely on H264 & H265 (ie iPhone / Apple TV) and replace them with AV1-capable solutions (right now, good Android TV / Android hardware).

The trolls will continue to pile up patents on H 264/ H 265 till it its ecosystem shrinks enough to be unprofitable (and please do not point to the FUD-ing around AV1, it’s only FUD-ing till the patent holders dare suing AOM, which is about as probable as IBM suing H264/H265 holders to invalidate their crap).

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Debian status

Posted Jun 5, 2025 9:51 UTC (Thu) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (1 responses)

> The only solution is to avoid feeding the trolls, refuse to buy things that rely on H264 & H265 (ie iPhone / Apple TV) and replace them with AV1-capable solutions (right now, good Android TV / Android hardware).

I wish I could buy stuff that doesn't rely on iCrap OR Android (or anything like that). Unfortunately, it's almost (if not completely) impossible to get a decent "free to air" TV any more, and I'm fed up to the back teeth providing tech support to people who don't have a clue how to navigate the home page. They want the default to be the channel they were last watching, and at most a button for the tv guide.

The in-laws won't be around by then, but I'm dreading what will happen when they get round to shutting down "free to air" - it's currently in the works ...

Cheers,
Wol

Debian status

Posted Jun 5, 2025 10:27 UTC (Thu) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link]

Unfortunately, when patent trolls are so well funded, and the regulators do not care, there is little alternative to selective buying to make the trolls understand patenting games are not worth the effort. I’d rather give Fedora or Debian money but if you care about video codecs you need to finance the guys that actually deploy commercial alternatives (ie not Apple). The only thing patent trolls will understand is loss of market share.

And the “good” guys are not so good and they also indulge in patenting so you also need to read the spec sheets to make sure their device is actually AV1-oriented.