Slashdot Mirror
Red Hat Teams with Real Networks
GregGardner writes, "According to this press release, RedHat and Real Networks are teaming together to bring Real products to Linux. RealServer 7.0 and RealPlayer 7.0 will be physically bundled with RedHat and that RealPlayer 7 will be released for Linux within 30 days on Real's Web site. "
(I realize that the following sounds very opinionated. That's because it's an opinion. duh.)
Real's support for Linux products has always sucked. I remember reading a couple years ago about how Glaser originally liked to talk trash about Microsoft, but in the end Gates slapped him around a little and got him to work a little more 'in sync' with Microsoft. Afterwards M$ went ahead and bundled Windows Media Player with Windows. I would have thought at that point Real would start focusing more on it's non-Windows products.
When Realaudio first came out I thought it was just about the coolest thing in the world. Since then I've watched it become less and less relevant as other competition shows up. In the meantime I've just developed a distaste for Real's products, their annoying reminder messages, lack of regard for privacy, etc. Glaser just seems like an opportunist, and not a very good one at that. If there's one thing that impresses my about Real, it's that they're still around at all. I guess this has more to do with being the first to market than anything.
I think all this press release means is that Real found another free way to get their software distributed. I'll believe that they are truly making an effort to support their *nix users when I see it.
numb