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RealNetworks & Helix Community to Build OpenSource Media Player

Submitted by stro on Wed, 2003-08-06 15:59. Gnome Multimedia

Today at Linuxworld RealNetworks announced the launch of the Helix(TM) Player project.

The open-source Helix Player, with the addition of the RealAudio(R) and
RealVideo(R) binaries, will enable Linux, Unix and Solaris users for the first
time to enjoy a similar level of media playback and SMIL 2.0 support that
millions of consumers do today using the free RealOne(TM) Player on Windows
and Mac.

Helix Player will feature a GNOME/GTK interface along with a Mozilla browser plugin. THe player will also support Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and more.

Re: GPL ?

Submitted by AnonymousA on Thu, 2003-08-07 20:31.

> We can trust him. The man is incorruptable.

I for one don't like the idea of everything being controlled by one or two highly opinionated people, which can lead to all kinds of problems. RMS is too authoritarian. Everything has to fit his vision of computer science, which follows a selfish "my way or the highway" approach. The GPL was a response to his peers in the AI Lab, who apparently wanted to develop software for companies in addition to their research work. He didn't design the GPL for the benefit of society as most people think, but rather as a means to satisfy his own ambitions and goals.

> Without copyleft, companies benefit from *not* sharing

> because CompanyA can have a better version of GCC

> then CompanyB. Sharing gets rid of their advantage,

> they'll only share if they have to.

WITH copyleft, there's no incentive for companies to think twice about open source. Its not very hard for a company to get a codebase built quickly, and with such hostility from OSS software, why should a corporation use it at all when it can write its own proprietary, nonstandard code? Other than hype, I can't think of any other reason.

> Copyleft forces everyone to play fair, it's about

> pragmatism, not idealism.

From the perspective of working on software under a non-copyleft license, xGPL licensed software makes getting the task done a hassle. Copyleft is often more of a threat than even proprietary software is to such projects. At least with closed source, I'm already certain that I'm unable to use it, but with GPL licensed software, the code is there, but I'm forbidden to use it. Since the niche has already been satisfied for "most" users, there is no motivation to develop the same software again for compatability with the license, and so the task will never get done. ever. So to get any software, I have to surrender to GNU and play by their rules, their politics. And no, I'm not a closed source developer. Now, thats not very fair, now is it?

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