Slashdot Mirror

Here!

http://www.real.com
can you find the free player?

they've de-emphasized the free codec download, but it's still there.

Much like the free RealOne player has been hiding in a corner of the download page for a long time now.

Or try finding older versions or a linux version of the player. Good luck!!

Go ahead and force MS to sell those in the EU a copy w/o WMP. Now EU users will be forced to pay $30 to $40 to Real, Music Match, Quicktime, etc. to get the same functionality they get for free with WMP.

RealOne player: Here, free.
MusicMatch : Here, free.
QuickTime: Here, free.

You were saying?

(Oh, don't forget Winamp! Probrably the best of the bunch, IMHO.

Soko

But getting heard above the increasing online noise is a problem.

No it's not. Not even in the slightest. Funny how they start right off painting obstacles for a business they have only written two pages about.

"There are certain attributes in 'try before you buy,'" said David Nixon, the executive producer of RealOneArcade. "They have to be a small download. They have to be understood easily. They have to get you hooked right away."

Spoken like a true corporate management genius. They do not have to be a small download, they do not have to be understood easily, and they do not have to get you hooked right away. Put away the FUCKING LAUNDRY LIST and try to LEARN SOMETHING.

RealOneArcade? Owned, no doubt by Real Networks which has a market cap of only $7 million. Yeah, that's really the two-guys and a musician indie scene, isn't it?

PopCap and the online game portals have helped open up computer gaming to soccer moms worldwide.

Show of hands. Who didn't get stomach cramps reading that little blurb?

So what's next?

An attempt at research would be nice. PopCap and Real Networks ain't it.

With Netscape, they had AIM support built right-in. All MSIE has is a little taskbar button for Messenger (I dunno if they have one for AIM, too). I'm pretty sure it won't be as easy to create a Netscape profile using your AIM login at the same time though.

And what about Real Player? IE integrates pretty well with Media Player. Actually, if Real Player up and died, it would be no big loss, but I wonder how AOL is still gonna push that stuff, if they don't push Netscape anymore that comes with it all.

Well, not like they were really pushing Netscape anyway. They just made it the default browser, and I'm sure the average AOLer didn't notice anyway. Without Netscape though, I imagine that the other two might have a harder time standing on their own.

I just hope WinAmp doesn't get the axe, too.

Can anyone provide a link to a Speex encoded copy (or .ogg, .mp3) for those of us who won't touch RealPlayer?

And here's the Linux one.

(I hope no session keys are embedded in that URL...)

Since I agree with much of what you say, the answer to your implied question: "I don't know what pull you have over there..." is "obviously, not a lot". ;-)

I will forward your comments on, though. One thing that would be very helpful is posting your comments on our official comment form.

Rob

Here's the URL to the free player:

http://www.real.com/freeplayer/

No, we don't require payment for the player.

Rob

Here's the thing: You don't have to give your credit card number. If you were asked for a credit card number, they tricked you. You were trying to download the trial version of the full RealOne player, not the free version.

To download the free version, you need to click the [incredibly tiny] text link near the upper right corner of real.com and not the big orange button on the page that says "DOWNLOAD NOW - FREE" (read the fine print..."FREE 14 day trial."). Then is takes you to a second page where they try to trick you into downloading the trial version. Don't be fooled, click the text link at the lower left corner "Download the Free RealOne Player."

Believe it or not, this is an improvement! They have taken about three clicks out of the process.

The only info you need to give them is a [fake] email address, [fake] first name/lasname, [fake] gender (of course), bday and secret question.

I'm not a huge fan of the player, but it does pretty well and is very widely implimented. The company sucks eggs and I wish nothing but ill on them.

Real still offers the free player. They just make it hard to find on the site, as they always have. Typically, 99% of the site is a bunch of big graphics and text advertising their free services, and some font size=1 text with a link to the "Basic Player". I can't even remember a time when the Basic player was easy to find on the website. Here are the links to download the free player:

MacOS X
Windows

So yeah, it's there, you just have to look carefully. I'm not sure whether this is smart marketing or not, but they've always done it this way.

Real still offers the free player. They just make it hard to find on the site, as they always have. Typically, 99% of the site is a bunch of big graphics and text advertising their free services, and some font size=1 text with a link to the "Basic Player". I can't even remember a time when the Basic player was easy to find on the website. Here are the links to download the free player:

MacOS X
Windows

So yeah, it's there, you just have to look carefully. I'm not sure whether this is smart marketing or not, but they've always done it this way.

Mandrake should grab the bull by the horns and give Linux users what they really want: a distribution that can deftly handle any media type and play big-name games. Adding a boss commercial game and WineX in a pre-configured way ala Sims will encourage people to throw down much needed ching instead of just freeloading (I meant downloading) and may even persuade Redhat users who are bored out of their skulls to switch. The game CivIII makes a good candidate in my mind because the hardware requirements aren't outrageous and the game is addictive as hell.

Also, get rid of all the crufty useless mediaplayers that don't work and replace with one of two that will work. I'll say Quicktime4Linux or RealPlayer with all the codecs so it's ready to play any media format right out of the box. In fact, strip down alot of the unnecessary apps that litter my main menu. More isn't always better.

..and Redmond is the 'strip mall' version.

Seriously, I don't understand why being based in Bellevue is an issue. There are plenty of other companies in the Eastside area who've competed with Microsoft, and some that have even hauled them into court.

The reality is that, largely because of Microsoft, the greater Seattle area is a software development corridor, much like Mountain View, CA, or Boston, and it would be surprising if there weren't competitors to Microsoft there.

The mention of "156 seconds" was an oversimplified example of the kind of problem. It does happen in real streaming applications, however, especially if playing from a live source where latency constraints don't permit lengthy buffers (most important in bidirectional VoIP apps)

Of course a streaming protocol uses a buffer. That's one reason why you don't want to run it over TCP. TCP provides its own buffer, which would be redundant with the one the higher-level protocol is also creating. Optimally, one fully-informed piece of software can manage all buffers.

Streaming music over TCP (even HTTP) is fine, because the bandwidth needs are so low that suboptimal solutions work. Streaming video is different- not only is the total bandwidth more than 10x higher, but you've got two separate streams of data whose buffer sizes need to be correlated.

Essentially, if the network is stressed enough so that framedrops (underflows of the application-level buffer) ever happen, then TCP will waste time retransmitting old data, while a hand-rolled UDP solution will recover quicker . Today's popular audio-only streaming doesn't usually push enough data to cause framedrop events .

You can experimentally check that UDP is better for streaming video with applications like RealPlayer. Watch some videos with it. Then adjust your firewall to block it's UDP ports (6970+) and try again (or use the HTTP setting from inside realplayer).

I'm suprised Real Networks is selling music, you can get it for free, from Real.com. Just look very hard for the link, it's right next to the free real player download link... really...

PS, Real Networks can burn in hell.

REALNETWORKS LAUNCHES REALONE RHAPSODY MUSIC SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE

RealOne RHAPSODY Offers 79 Transfer to CD and Access to the World's Largest Online Library of Major and Independent Label Music

CARLSBAD, CA, D: All Things Digital Conference - May 28, 2003 RealNetworks, Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK) today announced a new music service, RealOne RHAPSODY, a co-branded version of the popular RHAPSODY digital music subscription service. RealOne RHAPSODY offers consumers unlimited, 'all you can eat' access to the broadest library of major and independent label music with more than 330,000 tracks available for on-demand listening and more than 200,000 songs available for transferring to CD, aka 'burning.' At only 79 per track, RealOne RHAPSODY offers subscribers the lowest per-burn price available to U.S. consumers through any of the new generation of digital music services.

In addition, RealOne RHAPSODY subscribers can burn full albums or custom mix CDs, build their own custom Internet radio stations, listen to professionally-programmed stations, and browse extensive music information and editorial recommendations. Offered with a 14-day free trial, consumers can sign up for RealOne RHAPSODY for $9.95 a month. Subscribers to RealNetworks' other subscription services will be able to sign-up for RealOne RHAPSODY service with one click. Please visit www.real.com for details on how to sign up for RealOne RHAPSODY.

"We are thrilled to introduce RealOne RHAPSODY which offers consumers what they want - a deep library for on-demand listening, a customizable radio service and extremely affordable burns for those songs they just can't live without," said Merrill Brown, senior vice president, RealOne Services, RealNetworks. "We are especially excited about the availability of burns to CD for a mere 79 - we believe this is a great offer to consumers who are now realizing the power of online music services."

"We are extremely pleased to join RealNetworks in introducing the newest RealOne service, RealOne RHAPSODY," said Sean Ryan, CEO, Listen.com. "RHAPSODY's unlimited listening model is already a hit with subscribers, who listen to more than 250 unique songs a month on average. Adding 79-cent CD burning will enable subscribers to easily buy and own copies of songs they like the most at the lowest price anywhere."

Last month, RealNetworks announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Listen.com. Listen.com introduced the RHAPSODY music service in 2001. The parties expect the acquisition to be final in the 2nd or 3rd quarter. With this acquisition, RealNetworks will own two of the Internet's best subscription content services, the critically-acclaimed and market-leading RealOne SuperPass, which offers leading news, sports and entertainment programming, and the award-winning RHAPSODY music service. There are more than one million subscribers to RealNetworks' subscription services.

For More Information:
Erika Shaffer, RealNetworks, 206-892-6191, eshaffer@real.com
Matt Graves, Listen.com, 415-934-2159, mgraves@listen.com

About RealNetworks
RealNetworks, Inc. is the leading global provider of network-delivered digital audio and video services and the creator of the technology that enables digital media creation, distribution and consumption and to feed cmdrtaco's enema fetish. Consumers use RealNetworks' RealOne Player and our content subscription services to create and play free and premium digital content. Broadcasters, network operators, media companies and enterprises use RealNetworks' products and services to deliver digital media to PCs, mobile phones and consumer electronics devices. Consumers can access and experience audio/video programming and download RealNetworks' consumer software at http://www.real.com. RealNetworks' systems and corporate information is located at http://www.realnetworks.com.

REALNETWORKS LAUNCHES REALONE RHAPSODY MUSIC SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE

RealOne RHAPSODY Offers 79 Transfer to CD and Access to the World's Largest Online Library of Major and Independent Label Music

CARLSBAD, CA, D: All Things Digital Conference - May 28, 2003 RealNetworks, Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK) today announced a new music service, RealOne RHAPSODY, a co-branded version of the popular RHAPSODY digital music subscription service. RealOne RHAPSODY offers consumers unlimited, 'all you can eat' access to the broadest library of major and independent label music with more than 330,000 tracks available for on-demand listening and more than 200,000 songs available for transferring to CD, aka 'burning.' At only 79 per track, RealOne RHAPSODY offers subscribers the lowest per-burn price available to U.S. consumers through any of the new generation of digital music services.

In addition, RealOne RHAPSODY subscribers can burn full albums or custom mix CDs, build their own custom Internet radio stations, listen to professionally-programmed stations, and browse extensive music information and editorial recommendations. Offered with a 14-day free trial, consumers can sign up for RealOne RHAPSODY for $9.95 a month. Subscribers to RealNetworks' other subscription services will be able to sign-up for RealOne RHAPSODY service with one click. Please visit www.real.com for details on how to sign up for RealOne RHAPSODY.

"We are thrilled to introduce RealOne RHAPSODY which offers consumers what they want - a deep library for on-demand listening, a customizable radio service and extremely affordable burns for those songs they just can't live without," said Merrill Brown, senior vice president, RealOne Services, RealNetworks. "We are especially excited about the availability of burns to CD for a mere 79 - we believe this is a great offer to consumers who are now realizing the power of online music services."

"We are extremely pleased to join RealNetworks in introducing the newest RealOne service, RealOne RHAPSODY," said Sean Ryan, CEO, Listen.com. "RHAPSODY's unlimited listening model is already a hit with subscribers, who listen to more than 250 unique songs a month on average. Adding 79-cent CD burning will enable subscribers to easily buy and own copies of songs they like the most at the lowest price anywhere."

Last month, RealNetworks announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Listen.com. Listen.com introduced the RHAPSODY music service in 2001. The parties expect the acquisition to be final in the 2nd or 3rd quarter. With this acquisition, RealNetworks will own two of the Internet's best subscription content services, the critically-acclaimed and market-leading RealOne SuperPass, which offers leading news, sports and entertainment programming, and the award-winning RHAPSODY music service. There are more than one million subscribers to RealNetworks' subscription services.

For More Information:
Erika Shaffer, RealNetworks, 206-892-6191, eshaffer@real.com
Matt Graves, Listen.com, 415-934-2159, mgraves@listen.com

About RealNetworks
RealNetworks, Inc. is the leading global provider of network-delivered digital audio and video services and the creator of the technology that enables digital media creation, distribution and consumption and to feed cmdrtaco's enema fetish. Consumers use RealNetworks' RealOne Player and our content subscription services to create and play free and premium digital content. Broadcasters, network operators, media companies and enterprises use RealNetworks' products and services to deliver digital media to PCs, mobile phones and consumer electronics devices. Consumers can access and experience audio/video programming and download RealNetworks' consumer software at http://www.real.com. RealNetworks' systems and corporate information is located at http://www.realnetworks.com.

REALNETWORKS LAUNCHES REALONE RHAPSODY MUSIC SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE

RealOne RHAPSODY Offers 79 Transfer to CD and Access to the World's Largest Online Library of Major and Independent Label Music

CARLSBAD, CA, D: All Things Digital Conference - May 28, 2003 RealNetworks, Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK) today announced a new music service, RealOne RHAPSODY, a co-branded version of the popular RHAPSODY digital music subscription service. RealOne RHAPSODY offers consumers unlimited, 'all you can eat' access to the broadest library of major and independent label music with more than 330,000 tracks available for on-demand listening and more than 200,000 songs available for transferring to CD, aka 'burning.' At only 79 per track, RealOne RHAPSODY offers subscribers the lowest per-burn price available to U.S. consumers through any of the new generation of digital music services.

In addition, RealOne RHAPSODY subscribers can burn full albums or custom mix CDs, build their own custom Internet radio stations, listen to professionally-programmed stations, and browse extensive music information and editorial recommendations. Offered with a 14-day free trial, consumers can sign up for RealOne RHAPSODY for $9.95 a month. Subscribers to RealNetworks' other subscription services will be able to sign-up for RealOne RHAPSODY service with one click. Please visit www.real.com for details on how to sign up for RealOne RHAPSODY.

"We are thrilled to introduce RealOne RHAPSODY which offers consumers what they want - a deep library for on-demand listening, a customizable radio service and extremely affordable burns for those songs they just can't live without," said Merrill Brown, senior vice president, RealOne Services, RealNetworks. "We are especially excited about the availability of burns to CD for a mere 79 - we believe this is a great offer to consumers who are now realizing the power of online music services."

"We are extremely pleased to join RealNetworks in introducing the newest RealOne service, RealOne RHAPSODY," said Sean Ryan, CEO, Listen.com. "RHAPSODY's unlimited listening model is already a hit with subscribers, who listen to more than 250 unique songs a month on average. Adding 79-cent CD burning will enable subscribers to easily buy and own copies of songs they like the most at the lowest price anywhere."

Last month, RealNetworks announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Listen.com. Listen.com introduced the RHAPSODY music service in 2001. The parties expect the acquisition to be final in the 2nd or 3rd quarter. With this acquisition, RealNetworks will own two of the Internet's best subscription content services, the critically-acclaimed and market-leading RealOne SuperPass, which offers leading news, sports and entertainment programming, and the award-winning RHAPSODY music service. There are more than one million subscribers to RealNetworks' subscription services.

For More Information:
Erika Shaffer, RealNetworks, 206-892-6191, eshaffer@real.com
Matt Graves, Listen.com, 415-934-2159, mgraves@listen.com

About RealNetworks
RealNetworks, Inc. is the leading global provider of network-delivered digital audio and video services and the creator of the technology that enables digital media creation, distribution and consumption and to feed cmdrtaco's enema fetish. Consumers use RealNetworks' RealOne Player and our content subscription services to create and play free and premium digital content. Broadcasters, network operators, media companies and enterprises use RealNetworks' products and services to deliver digital media to PCs, mobile phones and consumer electronics devices. Consumers can access and experience audio/video programming and download RealNetworks' consumer software at http://www.real.com. RealNetworks' systems and corporate information is located at http://www.realnetworks.com.

And yes, it requires a Windows PC and is only available in the United States. It looks they are having a 14 day trial, with the first three months at $4.98, months 4++ being $9.95 each. The free trial covers unlimited "on demand" music and Internet radio. CD burning costs are not covered by the free trial ($0.79 per song on each CD). It also sports a horrid image containing both Avril Lavigne and Fiddy Cent in close proximity to that David Bowie guy, who plain refuses to die and go away.

PS: fist post fools

I don't want to give Real Networks my credit card number just to download the "free" version of their player

The RealOne player is free. You tried to download the premium subscription service, which requires a credit card.

RTFM, I guess.

"Looks like AOL wants to make a niche out of re-distributing older (or very slightly older) television content."

--If that's the case, then how differnet is this from say an expanded version of RealONE's News Service, a currently working example? Sure, the user now has to purchase/rent a set top box, but result is still the same: "re-distributing older (or very slightly older) television content." I guess the "access anywhere" bit is Real's Advantage.

Would you expect to be able to charge for a media player in today's marketplace? Good luck!

why wouldn't someone charge for a media player? doesn't real one cost money (after 14 day trial)? how about quicktime 6 pro? and of course, we can't forget about windvd!

based on your question, one could easily argue that microsoft has no future because a free alternative is available.

"It does this with my patented Mind Matrix Technology (TM) that uses a complex mathematical formula to determine what the user wants to see next."

I think this is planned for the Windows Palladium MSN-Internet Explorer TM browser. You'll just open the browser and it'll show you the sites it thinks you should visit.

If you can't wait till then, and want to try the beta test, download RealPlayer, and check the "I want to install the download manager" option.

Oh, and the RealVideo 9 codec update kit for Linux

If you MUST use RealPlayer, perhaps you can make do with an older version?

and soaks up bandwidth that Microsoft has to pay for. It's a win-win.

This way:

• Real suffers twice (once for not having a legit address to send spam to, and once for having to deal with all that misplaced spam)
• you don't have to drag a third party into Real's mess
• there's a chance Real will realize there's a flaw in their system when they have to deal with the mess.

At the bottom of the page, in tiny print, are links for "Legal Notice/Terms of Use" and "Privacy Policy". So I clicked on each.

Up came blank windows in my browser. So then I viewed the source for each of the two pages:

<HTML></HTML>

FYI, here is the link to real.com's site where you can download any previous version. I recommend using RealPlayer (v8), it was the last one before RealOne. Yes, you have to disable some things during the install and in the settings dialog. But it's not that hard and once you've done that, it will not take over any file associations, nor will it load any helpers at startup. Most of the complaints that I've seen about Real's crap is related to RealOne player. If you must use their junk, use RealPlayer. Heck, you could even download RealPlayer v4 if you wanted a pre-evil version.

I'll take off my RealNetworks hat for a sec. I'm not a big fan of DRM solutions. I've seen the days of hardware dongles and other silly solutions that don't seem to go anywhere, and have not had a personal interest in being involved in that sort of thing. Many DRM systems are intrusive, and as I sit here on my Linux box without the ability to play back our DRM content, I understand why the community gets frustrated.

That said, you'll notice that I still work at RealNetworks. I feel that, as a whole, the company wants to do the right thing, and I'm hoping I can enlist the community's help in that.

As for the criticism of "ooo, DRM is bad bad bad, and anything associated with it is bad bad bad", here's my response to that:

• I think what RealNetworks is doing with open source in the Helix Community could really change the landscape for the better.
• As for DRM; I'm not personally involved in our DRM efforts, and don't plan to be, but I see it as a necessary evil. To really be in our business these day, one has to provide a solution (mind you, our business is not only software production, but content distribution through our RealOne SuperPass service). And I don't see it as immoral (as some do), just silly.
• As for the legislative efforts relative to DRM, I'm told we are on record as opposing the broadcast flag provisions (still investigating). At any rate, I think we've been pretty good citizens when it comes to our positions on legislation.
• This is a win for open formats. Transcoding is an ugly process, and DRM systems need to get their content from somewhere. If the input (and output) of a DRM system is an open format (e.g. Ogg Vorbis), then content providers can decide to go with that format, confident that should they ever need to protect that content with a DRM system down the road, there's a solution for them.

Rob Lanphier
Helix Community Coordinator

I went to Real's DRM page and click the button for the demo. It asked me to download the latest player and provided this link which I clicked, and Galeon asked me if I wanted to save it or open it with something. I copied and paster the URL into my RealPlayer and it said it was loading. Absolutely nothing happens. If this is the quality I've to expect from them, I don't think I'll be bothering to try their new products. I'll stick with Real Player (Unix) 8.0.

Check out the US version. The big orange link in the middle tells you that its free, but its a link to the 14 day trial (as listed below.) That would make me (as the person who's never been exposed to the company or their software before) think that, while it is free, it's limited to a 14 day trial. The link to the actual free player is off on the side, and is half off the page (as displayed on my reasonably-sized browser.)

...the free player is the blue link in the middle of the page saying "Free RealOne Player".

Fair enough, it's not the most obvious thing on the page, but it's not exactly hard to find, and you can't blame them for pushing the pay version.

For MP3 downloads, you can avoid OpenMG by using RealOne Player; a plugin for Sony devices (including NetMD) is available through its online update facility. Like Simple Burner, RealOne shows absolutely no trace of OpenMG's idiotic DRM, and unlike OpenMG it doesn't re-encode all your music when you import it into the media library. (It does have to convert to ATRAC3 as it downloads, of course, but it doesn't waste space keeping the converted tracks around unless you ask it to.) One minor disadvantage of RealOne's NetMD support is that it has no support for grouping tracks.

There are also some independent utilities starting to appear; more information on some of them can be found in the minidisc.org NetMD FAQ.

Another MP3->MD option is to use Simple Burner along with a CD imager such as Nero ImageDrive, Daemon Tools, CloneCD etc. RealOne is still more convenient, but this method allows the use of whatever audio-related features your burning software has (filters, inserting track marks using a .cue file, etc).

Unfortunately there is still no way to upload directly from a MD. You can at least automate the process of analog uploading, and with a high quality sound card the result should at least sound good even though it will take a long time.

I accidently stumbled upon this while browsing real networks site: Real Enterprise Desktop its basicly the same player without all the crud (advertisment, nags, etc) and it plays all the stuff normally. I think its ment for corporate environments where those advertisment enabled players wouldn't get installed by the it-section. And IIRC, it asked if I want it to start in the background on startup when I was installing it (thu I don't see a switch in the preferences..) Gained a little of my respect. Works for me.

Regardless of where you wanted to go with this analogy, what you are doing is driving a wedge between RealNetworks and the open source community. You. It's your post that many RealNetworks employees are going to read, and they are going to say "why are we even bothering?" The longtime open source fans here get demoralized, and the others just flip the idiot bit on the "Slashdot crowd".

The software you are complain about has always been free of charge, and for the past few years, supported in part by an advertising business. As I've addressed in another post, our reputation on the "spyware" front is based on one errant feature which collected useless data and which we eliminated long ago. It may have been obnoxious, but it's not even remotely worthy of a child rape comparison.

Personally, I'm doing everything I can to ensure we improve our reputation, both by getting the word out that we're working to improve our relationship with our customers (huge priority for all of us), and making sure we live up to a better reputation.

If you'd truly like to influence us on these types of issues, do two things:

• Go through official channels. You've got people who are gathering statistics and studying the data and working to improve our relations with the community, rather than preaching to what is obviously the choir here.
• Help make the Helix Community a success. If the community is successful, you'll have an alternate engine that can have whatever you want in it (and not have what you don't want).

Isnt a patent void when you dont try to enforce it

Beos has fewer applications, sure, but it also has a consistent interface...

Those two things are related. As soon as you get a real rush of programmers and popularity, you can kiss your consitency goodbye. You're always at the mercy of some idiot who thinks that his "revolutionary new idea" (bitmapped buttons / custom window frame / dark grey on black text) is worth throwing own consitency and ease of use. You just can't win, they outnumber you. Enjoy it while you can.

get it from http://scopes.real.com/real/player/unix/unix.html I cannot find it linked anywhere obvious from real's site. A valid email address is *NOT* required, use sales@real.com.

haven't they heard of realplayer 8 for unix?

RealOne is only available for Windows and (in beta) MacOS X.

Actually, there's a beta Linux version out already. I'm running it.

Rik

which is probably why we havent seen a linux version (thank goodness)

There is a linux version, download it here

RealOne is only available for Windows and (in beta) MacOS X. While they've had a *NIX client in the past, I'm guessing that this source release is how they expect to address those platforms in the future.

There already is a RealOne port to several Unix platforms, download here

Waiting for a DVD to rip.

So:

Go buy any old digital camera and try to download the pics on a RedHat system.

Go buy a DVD-R and try to burn a disc.

Go to any old website showing media (RealPlayer, QuickTime, Windows Media) and see how successful you are at viewing content.

Buy a Firewire DV Video Camera and see how successful you are in getting the video off and editing it.

Try to visit a site that's made for IE.
Go to the store and buy a game. (I'll give you these -- VmWare and other solutions are a serious bitch to setup, and don't work well except in certain Distros)

Buy a PDA and get it to synch up.

Your network card doesn't work, find somebody you know willing to come over and fix it. (Huh? If the card is broken, even your God(s) ain't/aren't gonna fix it.)

>The steps to do any of the above in Windows are very easy

Uhhh, sure... I mean, I mean, if you want to have every two or three DVDs come out as coasters (happens with Prassi Primo DVD for me) sure. Or if you want to use crappy outdated camera software that just lets you easily download one picture at a time through a slow ass serial connection, great (Fuji MX-1200). I've never done DV, but Kino doesn't look too hard. Or you can try Cinerella, which seems more full featured and easier.

>When a DVD-Burner manufacturer is swamped with "Uhh where's the Linux Drivers?"

DVD-R in linux doesn't use "drivers", unless you count the built in generic SCSI support built in linux (since well before DVD was available for most PCs) as a "driver". Try saying that about windows. Especially windows 9x...

HTH. And take it from me, there's NO software in windows that lets you use a Celeron 300 to burn DVD-R at 2x and surf the 'net at the same time.

Linux's motto should be "Spend some time now -- Then do more, quicker".

First things first. Singapore has a (Government-linked?) cable company that delivers satellite television and internet over cable. It also has a local English-language news channel, three primetime English channels (one of them being 24 hours), delivered by two media companies. In fact, I seem to be finding a lot of familiar names out there in those pages; do the names "Con Air", "Seinfield", "CSI", "Star Trek - Enterprise" and "Survivor" ring any bells?

And oh, if you are worried about censorship in Singapore, consider the webcast of a familiar news channel. Not all video content there is free of course, but heck, it's still $39.95 a year.

Now you were saying....?

Obligatory Warning:- SCV's crummy webpages are apparently designed to perform best in IE alone. I don't know if it's me, but the pages are rendering bad in Opera.

RealPlayer for Linux/other including Linux for PPC.

Unix Realplayer

Because s/he apparent couldn't use Google to find the Unix versions.

Here is an RPM of RP8 for x86 Linux.

Or go here for other versions, and fill in some bogus information.

(NOTE: Just because I posted this does NOT mean I don't want Real to rot in hell. Thank you.)