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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: www.faifzilla.org

Submitted by AnonymousA on Thu, 2003-08-07 22:44.

> The first draft of the GPL appeared in 1986, six years

> after all the MIT hackers had been hired away

hired away is the key word here. He was angry that most of the MIT hackers were hired away by Symbolics. Do you honestly think that he would not still be angry six years after those events?

I truly respect his devotion to Lisp hacking, and so on, I won't deny that. But you can't deny the fact that the GPL was heavily influenced by this and similar events in his life.

As quoted from Richard Stallman, " An enemy, a company formed by a betrayal, gave us an ultimatum essentially. They said, "from now on, if you want to use any of our code, any improvements we're making, you've got to abandon the MIT version of the system and essentially join our camp.""

This is exactly the ultimatium that RMS is giving to the BSD camp. Now, tell me, how is RMS any kinder than the businesses that betrayed him?

As for Apple, I seriously doubt OSX would have ever gotten anywhere were there only GPL'd free software OSes

> Are you unhappy because BSD-licensed code cannot use

> GPL'd code?

Yes, I am unhappy because it makes getting programming projects done very difficult, when with any other (non copyleft) license, there would be no "compatability" hassle. Aside from that, the GPL is parasitic in the same way that closed source software is parasitic.

> I don't see this as much of a problem.

Of course you don't. Because it doesn't affect you. Of course RMS doesn't see it as a problem either. Just like Symbolics didn't see the destruction of the AI Lab as a problem. Its an ongoing cycle of people taking away other people's freedoms.

Either way, this discussion could go on forever, its getting pretty pointless now. I'm going to bed.

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