Quicktime In Linux

brianmed writes "Yes, it works. Codeweavers has just announced their crossover plug-in. It enables users to access popular Windows files and plug-ins in Linux. Right now it is geared towards Quicktime, Shockwave, and Word viewers. Quicktime trailers play just fine. I also have pine setup to launch the the MS Word viewer on command. It is a happy day." Alright, time to start testing. I've also been talking with Jeremy White of Codeweavers: he's got a request for help, as well as an interesting piece on business models -- the Crossover is not entirely GPL. See the above for more information.

Comments

Re:But its not free (as in beer)

[Shadowlore]

No, you cpmpletely misunderstand the plugin. How about reading the details first?

The plugin provides the means of runningn other plugins. With the crossover plugin, you can then run most non-ActiveX browser plugins.

This is not just a QT plugin. YOu can do many things, such as Shockwave, QT, and many other Windows-only browser plugins with this. In addition to these, you can also use the plugin for viewing various MS attachements, such as MSWord documents, and Excel spreadsheets.

What makes this useful, is that MS is trying to get rid of all non-activeX plugins in their newer browser. There are many die-hard Windows fans that are quite upset with this. This provides another opportunity for the disgruntled to see there are options. As for the price, come on. This is not twenty bucks to use QuickTime. This is twenty bucks to use a wide variety of plugins.

Given the lack of accurate information in the parent post, it is not an 'interesting' post anymore than other misinformation is interesting. It needs moderated back down.

That's what this *IS*

[ClayJar]

You really should read the article before you post obviously stupid comments, but I'll forgive you of that, since I've done that myself (haven't we all). Anyway, to sum up the whole thing in one little line, CrossOver is a Wine-using thingy that lets you install the Windows version of the said plugins and use them as if they were Linux native Netscape plugins. (In other words, since you're using the Windows install of the Windows plugin, of course it works with Sorenson, and next time, click the link... it wasn't even slashdotted.)

What CrossOver is, and what it isn't

[rkent]

CrossOver is NOT:

• quicktime for linux
• flash for linux
• Word for linux

CrossOver IS a "netscape for linux" plugin that interfaces with a custom build of WINE, the Windows Emulator. Through this windows emulator, you may install and run the Quicktime (for Windows!), Flash (for windows!), and Word Reader (for Windows!) plugins. And CrossOver will handle the interaction for you, to make the windows VM appear in the appropriate window/panel for your browser of choice.

Since it's a Netscape plugin, it will work with varying degrees of success with other browsers, like moz and konq. Remember, the Netscape plugin format is the one IE is abandoning, so there might not even be any plugins to use with CrossOver after a couple of years.

That said, it's pretty damn neat. And I can see why they're charging for it - it's kind of a way to get *any* windows plugin to work as native plugins would under Linux. Of course the functionality isn't perfect, but I can definitely see business customers being interested if they have a need for things like that. Could be the essential migration tool for some shop...

Re:Some helpful information before downloading!

[knitfoo]

These are all excellent points.

The file stuff is a problem. We're using
the Yahoo store front, so we have a remarkably
limited amount of control over both the
file and the amount of information we can
add to the actual order pages. We're
working on it.

I've asked our sysadmin to post the EULA
to our pages; we very much intend for
our customers to know exactly what
they're getting before they buy.

Thanks for the input,

Jeremy White
CEO
CodeWeavers

Just purchased it - first thoughts

[HunterD]

I just purchased the crossover plugin, and here are my first thoughs with it: (testing with Netscape & Mozilla)

Installer: Very cool - makes it way easier to get the plugins.

Quicktime: Quicktime installed fine, but the opening video I played had no sound.
following attempts with opening a .mov file on my system with browsers led to:

Netscape: .mov file played correctly, and in line
Mozilla: Tried to launch Xanim
Gnome (nautilus): launches to Xanim

Shockwave: Shockwave installer had to be downloaded, but it's install went fine
Netscape: every file I have tried to use has worked to at least some degree. some things the sound only produces a crackle - but this could be my audio driver I suppose
Mozilla: only aboul a 1/4 of th eflash files Ihave tried have worked. Some sites cannot detect tha mozilla has the plugin installed.

Word: Word viewer installed fine, though it didthrow an error, saying the plugin wasn't detected.
Netscape: Files loaded fine (Note, if file has a space in it's name, you need to escape it, or it will take you to netscape's search site) Note: the file was not viewed in line
Mozilla: Didn't pick up the mime type, and so just displayed a normal dialog for running a file it does not recognize
Gnome: Files launched to the word viewer fine

Excel: Excel viewer installed fine, though it didthrow an error, saying the plugin wasn't detected.
Netscape: Files loaded fine (Note, if file has a space in it's name, you need to escape it, or it will take you to netscape's search site) Note: the file was not viewed in line
Mozilla: Didn't pick up the mime type, and so just displayed a normal dialog for running a file it does not recognize
Gnome: Files launched to the excel viewer fine

Note, the Excel & Word viewers did not show up in mozilla when one does an About:Plugin

Final judgement: This works pretty well in Netscape, but needs alot of work for Mozilla. this is to be expected from the release notes. For me, the word and excel viewers are well worth the $20 - and the rest is fun to play with

Devon Jones

Re:jobs killed quicktime for linux

[mattkime]

Seems that quicktime is the feature that keeps Macs on the forefront of digital video production. To port it to linux would eat into Apple's niche market position.

Uhhh....does _anyone_ do professional digital video production on a linux box? (Hint: no.) Hell, QuickTime is out for Windows, yet Windows is not a very good platform for doing video. The vast majority of digital video is done on Avid machines or Macs running Final Cut. Doing professoinal digital video requires software and machines that meet very srtict specifications.

True, Apple does keep some of its digital video software for the mac only. Howeer, Macromedia worked on Final Cut Pro for more than a year before selling it to Apple. Macromedia just couldn't get it to work on both platforms, so apple bought it and eliminated the windows side.

Linux is very good at some things. However, it has a loooong way to go before it can chip away at Apple's client base.

Plugger

[Darth Maul]

Try this:

http://fredrik.hubbe.net/plugger.html

Multimedia plugin for Linux which can handle Quicktime, MPEG, MP2, AVI, SGI-movie, Tiff, DL, IFF-anim, MIDI, Soundtracker, AU, WAV and Commodore 64 audio files.

I'm using it in Mozilla 0.9.3 and it works quite well. That, and the flash plugin that is available here:

http://www.macromedia.com/

I'm all set with Mozilla under Linux: Java plugin, Flash plugin, Quicktime, etc...

X11 has "clear limitations"?

[phliar]

Velex wrote:

... X has some clear limitations

Sounds like you've never used X11. What are these "clear limitations"?

In fact, X11 is still vastly superior to Win32 GDI (or whatever they're calling it today). I work from home two days a week, and I have DSL. I use Unix/X11 for everything - which means that I can do anything I need to using any program on any machine (whether it's at home or at the office) from either home or the office. Working from home is identical to working at the office - except for the noise, the constant interruptions, meetings, etc.

That one feature by itself is enough to blow all the Micros**t crap out of the water. (Leaving aside the fact that X11 can do anything that can be done on Windows. You might say that "Program X on Windows does foobar, show me an X11 program that does that" but you will miss the point. The lack of existence of that program is not due to any weakness of X11; it's simply because no one has written that program yet.)

Nobody wants to compile his own software just to put it under his user's home directory instead of globally. There needs to be something like InstallShield or Wise Install for Windows -- I double click the executable on my desktop, answer a few simple questions, and, *poof*, my scripts are updated and the software is installed.

You don't really think that a significant proportion of Linux/Unix users today compile things from source, do you? (A few do - gluttons for punishment like me... but I like having the source so if some bug really starts to annoy me, I can jump in and fix it.) Everyone else I know runs some sort of desktop; on Linux, K or Gnome. On both those systems, when you want to install something, you click on it, a window pops up that you type the root password into, and voila! it sets everything up, including billions of annoying icons everywhere, just like you want.

(If you really mean to argue for the Windows Way of "everyone is logged in as Administrator all the time" - well, I wish I hadn't typed all this stuff in, because there's no hope.)

Don't get me wrong: if Program X that you need is only available on Operating System Y, of course your machine should be running Y. We use programs, not operating systems. (Again, except for the aforementioned gluttons for punishment like me - I've been writing code on Unix for 20 years and I just can't use any other OS. And I do watch video on Linux - you just need a video card that XFree86 supports well. And yes, it's not likely that Mom will be able to figure all this out.)

But don't make airy claims about "X having clear limitations".