Fluendo makes proprietary codecs available to Linux users

January 16, 2007 Leave a comment

From the release:
In response to the growing demand for proprietary multimedia codecs on the open-source Linux platform, multimedia software development company Fluendo has released GStreamer codec plugins that provide native support for a variety of proprietary media formats. Available from Fluendo's web shop, several of the plugins facilitate encoding as well as playback. In order to provide these codecs without risking legal conflict, Fluendo has properly licensed the relevant patents on the various formats from their respective holders.
Currently, many Linux video applications facilitate Windows Media video playback using Windows DLL files and Wine, which provides suboptimal performance, particularly with streaming video. Additionally, proprietary codec support in many current open source media players potentially constitutes patent infringement. Fluendo's codecs could potentially provide better integration for streaming Windows Media playback in Linux web browsers as well as through GStreamer-based desktop applications like Totem. GStreamer, developed in part by Fluendo, is an increasingly popular open source multimedia editing and playback framework designed primarily for use on open source operating systems. “We have had these codecs in development for quite some time, to ensure they are of the highest quality possible and that all legal aspects are properly covered,” says Fluendo cofounder Pascal Pegaz, “By offering this drop-in solution we hope to increase the competitiveness of the GNU/Linux and Solaris platforms.”
Developer Christian Schaller also comments on his blog and elsewhere adds:
I see a lot of people confused about why we are releasing these codecs when there are things like the open source ffmpeg codecs etc. Our goal is not to provide the community with codecs which there is absolutely no support for already as that would be foolish. Our goal is to provide a 100% legal option which I know a lot of companies who have or want to deploy linux desktops have been looking for. These companies like open source, but they also have policies in place which hinders them from deploying solutions which have clear patent issues hanging over them in their country of operations. This is unfortunately the case with most multimedia codecs and even though we have spent a lot on resources on Xiph codecs here at Fluendo and are now working with BBC on Dirac there is still some way to go before the need for non-free codecs are gone.
So for those in a situation where they can freely use gst-ffmpeg and similar options, more power to you! For those who the lack of licensed codecs has been a hindrance or problem for adopting Linux (or Solaris) desktops at your company or institution or even private use, then we hope our plugins will be a good solution.
A few comments. I definitely agree that the current state of Linux multimedia is not acceptable long term. A quick blog search will bring up a number of posts on this topic. While part of the argument comes down to the “what do we want to give up” meme that I've consistently repeated recently, I'll approach this from a different angle for now. While I wish Fluendo a ton of luck on this endeavor and appreciate all the work they've done on GStreamer (which has come a long way), I'd be surprised if this is a significant success unless they get some OEM distribution uptake. Now, obviously that can't currently come in the gratis community releases, but that's fine – people are willing to pay for a working OS. Linspire has already gone this route and supports almost everything (from mp3 to wmv) right out of the box. While I've seen good reviews, I've not tried the product myself and haven't heard how successful commercially it's been. With an integrated solutions already available, I'm not sure people will be willing to spend $30 for a completely separated non-integrated product. The average user wants things to “just work”, and do so out of the box. So will distribution vendors come aboard? That remains to be seen. Like it or not at the main stream level we need to somehow deal with non-free codecs. While I am 100% fine going the mplayer/ugly/ffmpeg route personally, that is not an option for companies or aunt millie. I see this move by Fluendo as sort of a toe dip. If it gains enough traction with users and enough acceptance from the Open Source community, it will be a bit of an evolutionary step in the process. This is a complicated issue and I've left some of my opinion and ideas out of it for now – what do you think?
–jeremy
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Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

The economic impact of open source on Europe

January 16, 2007 Leave a comment

Matt has some summary information on the report I mentioned here. Here are a few snippets from his post:
Rishab Aiyer Ghosh and UNU-Merit put together this insightful report on the impact of FLOSS (an unfortunate acronym for free/libre open source software) on the European economy. It was financed by the European Commission's Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry.
Why does it matter? The paper starts by suggesting that the information economy accounts for ~10% of the GDP of most developed nations, and more than 50% of their economic growth. Think about that. If even remotely true, it means that the kind of IT we espouse matters a great deal. It's fundamental to our future economic growth. Do we want closed or open economies? I think the answer to that is obvious.
There are a couple of observation made in the post that I agree with. While the study points out the F/LOSS adoption is higher in the EU than it is in the US, commercial adoption is almost certainly higher in the US. The post covers some additional top level highlights, such as % of code contributed by individuals vs. firms vs. institutions, the direct impact of open source on the European economy, innovation, % of software developers in the U.S employed by proprietary packaged software firms (it's lower than you guessed) and more. The conclusion:
So what does this mean for Europe? The report challenges us with the following scenarios:
Europe faces three scenarios:
CLOSED, where existing business models are entrenched through legal and technical regulation, favouring a passive consumer model over new businesses supporting active participation in an information society of “prosumers”;
GENERIC, where current mixed policies lead to a gradual growth of FLOSS while many of the opportunities it presents are missed;
VOLUNTARY, where policies and the market develop to recognise and utilise the potential of FLOSS and similar collaborative models of creativity to harness the full power of active citizens in the information society.
I'm looking forward to reading the entire report even more now. Just have to make some time.
–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

Where does open source code come from?

January 16, 2007 Leave a comment

From this article:
The European Commission has published its final report on the Economic Impact of FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) on innovation and competitiveness of the EU ICT sector.
Weighing in at 287 pages it will take some time to digest, and contains enough data and statistics to fill a blog for a whole year.
One interesting nugget in the report (which I've not had a chance to fully read yet) was a “top ten business contributors” list, based on number of Person-months. To be honest, I was a bit surprised by the list. Sun was number one, which was no surprise. Rounding out the top three were IBM and Red Hat, also very much expected. The rest of the list:
4 Silicon Graphics
5 SAP
6 MySQL
7 Netscape
8 Ximian
9 Realnetworks
10 AT&T
That's where the surprises came in. Many companies I'd have expected to be there are suspiciously absent. SAP was also a surprise up that high. I'll have to look into what else aside from MaxDB they've donated. Just goes to show that code isn't always coming from the places you think it is. I'd guess I'll be posting more about the report as I get a chance to read it.
(originally from Matt Asay)
–jeremy
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Filed under Linux, Main Page, MySQL, Open Source, Red Hat, Sun

SCALE 5X and LinuxWorld Summit – It's going to be a busy week

January 12, 2007 2 Comments

Well, I've just confirmed bookings for both SCALE 5X (where LQ is a sponsor) and LinuxWorld Open Solutions Summit (where I'm on the speakers list). Considering the events are only a couple days apart but 2,795 miles apart, it should be an interesting week. I do have one day to “sleep in my own bed” in between the two events, so it should work out fine ;) I attended SCALE 4X last year and it was a great event. I'm really looking forward to both of these. If you'll be at either one and would like to meet up, drop me a line.
–jeremy

Filed under Linux, LinuxQuestions.org, LinuxWorld, Main Page, Open Source

Down with HTML email

January 12, 2007 1 Comment

I may be in the vast minority here, but I see anything that decreases the viability of HTML mail as a good thing ;) Then again, I mostly use pine (occasionally Thunderbird on the laptop and Chatter+ on the Treo). The LQ Community Bulletin, which has well over 100,000 subscribers, has always been plain text and will continue to be plain text. Along with the great pains we take to do things right (which I won't even get into), that's probably why we have exceptional delivery rates and such a low number of unsubscriptions. I think people are tired of being marketed to non-stop. It's not that HTML email can't be done right, it's just so abused that I think at this point most people wish it would go away. Now, we're one step closer.
–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Microsoft, Open Source

Moved LQ to XCache

January 7, 2007 Leave a comment

I just moved part of the LQ infrastructure (the main site) from APC to XCache. I haven't necessarily been unhappy with APC, but I've seen a lot about XCache recently so I figured I'd check it out. We have some other performance improvements planned for LQ in the near future, but every bit helps. If you notice any difference, let me know. LQ gets a good amount of traffic and we're planning for solid growth this year, so ensuring the infrastructure is scalable and performant is critical for us. If there's a big difference either way, I'll report back here. Next up is to see if Xdebug works with XCache enabled (last time I checked, it didn't work with APC enabled).
–jeremy

Filed under Linux, LinuxQuestions.org, Main Page, Open Source

MySQL refines its GPL licensing scheme under MySQL 5.0 and MySQL 5.1

January 4, 2007 2 Comments

According to this blog post from Kaj, MySQL VP of community relations, the company is changing the wording of the GPL license for both 5.0 and 5.1. From the post:
MySQL has today refined its licensing scheme from “GPLv2 or later” to “GPLv2 only“, in order to make it an option, not an obligation for the company to move to GPLv3.
Specifically, this means that copyright notice in the MySQL source code files will change from referring to “either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version” to “version 2” only, in the MySQL 5.0 and MySQL 5.1 code bases.
Six years ago in the summer of 2000, when MySQL AB licensed its software under the GPL, our founders David Axmark and Michael Widenius made this choice because the GPL was a license followed and respected by everyone. We have kept to it, because the GPL is the most palatable license, and poses the least friction for our user base.
It should be noted that MySQL AB is on GPLv3 Committee B, which advises the FSF. Basically what this move means, is that any GPLv3 fork of the MySQL code would need to happen at the last version of the MySQL code released under the old wording. It would need to be a clean break and no sharing of code would be allowed. The move seems to be a continuation of the sentiment some businesses are having with the GPLv3. To be completely honest, I've never liked (or even understood) the “or later” clause. Why would you agree to release your code under a license that hasn't been written yet. Right now, and for their entire history, the FSF has rocked. Even so, what if something crazy happens and the GPLv10 includes wording you are vehemently against? If your code has the “or later” clause the GPLv10 will apply. It's a blank check or sorts, which just seems like a bad idea. Maybe I'm missing something.
–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, MySQL, Open Source

LinuxWorld Open Solutions Summit

January 2, 2007 Leave a comment

Looks like I'll be on the “Ask the Experts” panel at the upcoming LinuxWorld Open Solutions Summit in NYC.
Bring your toughest open source problem to our crack team of LinuxWorld.com contributors, open source developers, and IT security and administration professionals! From software selection, configuration, and hardware, and bandwidth requirements to the unpredictable human elements that make an IT project succeed or fail, you'll get working answers and pointers to open source projects, documentation, and online forums that will turn every problem into an opportunity.
I don't have a ton of detail beyond that yet, but I do know fellow panelists include Jeremy Allison and Donald Becker. If you'll be near New York City (or need an excuse to go to NYC) on February 14-15, I highly suggest you check out the LinuxWorld Open Solutions Summit.
–jeremy

Filed under Linux, LinuxQuestions.org, LinuxWorld, Main Page, Open Source

To binary or not to binary, that is the question

January 1, 2007 1 Comment

A new look at an issue I've covered before. From the article:
The Ubuntu developers are in the process of deciding whether to enable binary-only drivers by default in their installation process, under certain limited circumstances. This decision process has prompted the latest wave in a conversation that's nearly as old as Linux itself. Some see this step as a compromise on the principles of freedom, and point out the numerous practical problems with binary drivers: lack of portability, dependence on the vendor to fix security flaws, dependence on the vendor to continue supporting your hardware, etc. Others take a pragmatic perspective, draw the line that Ubuntu will not cross, or point out that Ubuntu developers also care about the principles of freedom and intend to educate their users on the reasons for choosing open source drivers and hardware vendors that offer open source drivers.
Ultimately the question boils down to “What action is most likely to get us what we want?” Both the pro-binarists and the anti-binarists want more open source drivers, and both want more Linux users.
The conclusion Allison comes up with is one I agree with: One thing that does catch the attention of pretty much any company is money. Money and market share. I've mentioned before that I don't think we've reached the stage in the Linux community yet where we can demand Open Source drivers for everything. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do everything in our power to educate companies until they see the light. Having some distros take the hard line and others allow binary drivers is probably realistically the best path. It's one that hits on a core Open Source tenant; Choice is Good.
–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

Voting Has Opened for the 2006 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards

December 31, 2006 Leave a comment

With the new year right around the corner, voting for the 2006 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards is now open. There are 21 categories this year. Based on feedback we dropped a couple polls that had either consistently low turnout or landslide (90%+) victories and also added a couple new polls. We have set a record for number of votes each and every year we've done this, and I expect the same this year. I think we improve the process every year, but it's not too late to suggest improvements for this years poll (and even if the suggestion doesn't get implemented this year, it may impact how we set things up in the future). This is your chance to have your opinion heard. Vote now!
–jeremy

Filed under Linux, LinuxQuestions.org, Main Page, Open Source

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