Θα ήθελα την άποψη όλων αλλά κυρίως των Ubunteros του συλλόγου για τα 2 παρακατω αρθρα τα οποία κάνω αναδημοσίευση απο το http://www.theregister.co.uk
Αρθρο 1ο)
Applesoft, Ogg, and the future of web video
Will the real open codec please stand up?
By Gavin Clarke in San Francisco • Get more from this author
Posted in Music and Media, 3rd May 2010 05:15 GMT
Free whitepaper – Taking control of your data demons: Dealing with unstructured content
Two years ago, cosmonaut and Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth challenged open sourcers to turn the Linux desktop into a piece of art.
They should "out Apple" Apple, he said. They should fashion beautiful software and online services that reach a wider audience of consumer users.
Shuttleworth's Canonical has now launched Ubuntu 10.04, which goes a long way towards that Mactastic vision, offering new tools for music and video and all sorts of online services, all swaddled in a cool (and purple) UI.
The biggest change is a first not just for Ubuntu but for all Linux distros: an online music store akin to iTunes, the Apple app that revolutionized over-the-air music services. Called Ubuntu One, this new service is integrated with Rhythmbox, Ubuntu's default system for playing and ripping songs.
But there's a catch - and it's a catch that won't please open source purists. Ubuntu One serves up tunes via MP3 - the ubiquitous but proprietary and patented format for coding and decoding music - and it won't use Ogg Vorbis, the patent-free open-source alternative from Xiph.org that's offered under the GPL and a BSD-like license.
What's more, Canonical - Ubuntu's commercial sponsor - is now the only Linux maker to license H.264/AVC, the closed and patented technology used to compress video. Yes, there's an alternative to H.264. Yes, it's open source. And yes, it's free. It's called Ogg Theora, and it too is from Xiph.org.
Canonical's MP3 choice doesn't conform with pure open source ideology, but it's likely dictated by the sheer volume of music that already encoded with MP3. But the licensing of H.264 comes at the point in the web's evolution when netizens are crusading to prevent H.264 from becoming to video what MP3 is to music: a de-facto standard that must be licensed from patent holders.
The fate of this crusade could decide the future of the open web.
πηγη του αρθρου: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/03 ... n_the_web/
Αρθρο 2ο)
Canonical explains Ubuntu unfree video choice
License to distribute
By Gavin Clarke • Get more from this author
Posted in Software, 5th May 2010 19:53 GMT
Free whitepaper – Taking control of your data demons: Dealing with unstructured content
Ubuntu's commercial sponsor Canonical has tried to clarify how - if not why - it has licensed a closed-source and patented codec for video on PCs running its Linux.
Canonical is the first Linux shop to have agreed to license the codec in question, H.264 from MPEG LA. Even though Red Hat and Novell are also available for use on PCs, they have not licensed H.264.
Canonical inferred here that PC manufacturers that engage with its OEM services unit have the right to gain coverage for the company's license of H.264.
OEMs work with Canonical to tune Ubuntu to their hardware, for things like fast start-ups or to work with specific graphics drivers.
The H reported that Canonical director of business development Chris Kenyon said it has licenses to redistribute other open- and closed-source software, too. "Like Adobe Flash, Adobe Acrobat, Fluendo, RealPlayer, DVD players and other proprietary software, we have a direct re-distribution agreement for H.264," Kenyon said.
That doesn't mean, though, that all PCs with Ubuntu pre-installed are covered by Canonical's H.264 license. "The vendor may have opted not to include it", Kenyon said, as the PC maker decides what additional software and codecs they want included on the machine.
The H continued that the issue: "is further complicated by some components (like DVD drives) coming with codec and software licences pre-bundled."
Apparently you, the consumer, have no way of telling what codecs are included on the machine, unless the manufacturer has called them out - something that'll miff open sourcers. Canonical has apparently tried to do right by the community, and "explored setting some minimum requirements for codecs, but this is not something that we presently do."
Licensing of codecs is a thorny subject that's as difficult to navigate for those building and implementing systems as it is for open sourcers like Canonical who've had to bite the bullet and swallow a piece of software that goes against their open-source creed.
Kenyon didn't say "why" Canonical licensed H.264. And in a way, he didn't have to.
As I wrote in my original article that revealed Canonical's H.264 license, it's the price of doing business for companies like Canonical that might support open and free alternatives to H.264 such as Ogg Theora, but that also want to serve the mass consumer market. That's a market where billions of devices play video using H.264 because it's seen by media companies as being both ubiquitous - so video plays anywhere - and safe, in terms of technical reliability and patents.
Unfortunately for the industry, it's a handful of technology companies that have built H.264 that are also promoting it as safe and reliable. Those companies include Microsoft and Apple, which are delivering either video players in their software or actual video content through services like iTunes that'll run on those billions of device in the marketplace. ®
πηγη του αρθρου: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/05 ... 264_video/






