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Real adds GPL to Helix Player, RedHat/Novell Join In
kforeman writes "Today, Linux desktop industry leaders, Red Hat and Novell announced with Real a deep product development and distribution agreement that will enhance the rapidly maturing Linux desktop experience. Specifically, Red Hat and Novell will standardize on the 100% open source Helix Player as the leading multimedia framework for their Linux desktops, and will help qualify and distribute the superset RealPlayer 10 with their upcoming Linux desktop offerings. As part of the announcement, within 30 days, Real will add the GPL as a licensing option the underlying Helix Player. For all of you free software developers who have been waiting for a true GPLed industry standard AV framework, we look forward to working with you."
it is called Real Alternative - found here
Have you never heard of Real Alternative?
It's all the rage with the kids these days, I hear.
Gstreamer already provides GPL'd framework.
http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/
Someone might want to comment pros and cons
of Gstreamer and Helix.
AFAIK, no - the real codecs are still proprietary. Helix does support the open source Xiph.org codecs though.
here. Free registration is, of course, required.
There's always the free BBC version. Already runs on IE, Opera, Mozilla on Macs, PCs, Solaris, Linux etc...
t ml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/audiohelp_install.sh
They already have it. Real Enterprise (free reg required to download). No ads, works great. If you don't want to post fake information, you can prolly find a copy on P2P, or you can just bitch and moan about the free registration here if you prefer...
> it is called Real Alternative - found here
Real Alternative isn't a legal repack. Don't ask me why Real hasn't gone after them. Perhaps they fear more bad PR?
However, this is also Helix's strength. The fact Helix is playing strictly by the book means it will gain a lot of commercial support. Distros will be able to bundle Helix without being worried about legal issues, unlike XFree86. (Ooer, little bit of Open Source politics there, little bit of politics)
So expect the rise of Helix and survival of the others. Of course, I prefer VLC to either Xine or MPlayer for playing DVDs... ;-)
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
...oops.
What Helix does bring to the party is WMA, which allows you to listen Freely to all of the radio stations and such that have been suckered into the DRM boondoggle and consequently work only with Microsoft's moderately crappy WMP codec.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
"just because of my lack in trust of software coming from Real"
Now that you can look at the source-code and evaluate for yourself the trustworthiness of Real that comment is now largely irrelevant for you and many people. It is a fairly major turnaround although many WMV zealots would have you beleive otherwise. Having the source code open will enevitably lead to a better product and a more diverse range of tools. The Real format is out there and it is in widespread use. This can only be a beneficial move in the long run.
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
It's amazing how many people are so freaking closed mind about anything real does. Real has been doing opensource for a couple of years now trying to fix the problems and complains. Yes, they did listen to the complaints.
"I hate Real it has all that malware and ad crap"
but they've removed it
"I hate Real it has all that malware and ad crap"
It's really better
"I hate Real it has all that malware and ad crap"
ad nausium....come on people. Don't base your opinions on software 2 years old. Try the freeware and newest stuff. Then evaluate it
VLC ain't free! ... because VLC and MPlayer use many patented codecs and algorithms! They can't be free (as in beer and more importantly, as in SPEECH!)
Now as an end-user you may use them, and though its illegal you can mostly get away with that, but as a "corporation", Redhat and Novell etc can't touch them even with a 10 meter barge pole!
Helix, otoh, as a product from Real themselves, can be used *LEGALLY*.
Being legal is important when it comes to being in business and making money. As Redhat Corp, last thing I'd want is thrown out of business by a NNN million dollar lawsuite claiming infringement on XYZ number of MPEG4 patents.
- mritunjai
Um, GStreamer doesn't depend on *any* Gnome libraries.
Well, here's the download page.
Christ, that was one second on google, why couldn't you have just done that rather then go on a stupid rant?
Check out the following philosophy of A'rpi ( http://mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/news-archive. html ) when faced with the concept of Debian packaging mplayer without the codecs (which is what I'm assuming Redhat & company will be doing with Helix):
I think that including an unusable build of an application is even worse than not packaging it at all. It is not only valueless for the users (they will have to remove it and compile the source of the original version), but it gives the application a bad reputation, i.e. advertising it as a useless player being incapable of even playing a simple small file, or an unencrypted DVD (with AC3 sound)... Unfortunately most users won't notice the small comments in distribution specific files (like README.SuSE, or README.Debian) and will tell their friends, magazines (which occasionally write distro reviews) and post on portals/forums that it is a very bad, broken, unusable application.
based on a recommendation I got here on another thread some time back, I went and got the realplayer that the bbc releases. It *allegedly* has the bloat and spyware removed from the "normal" real player. It works fine on my linux box, and I haven't seen any ads, popups, etc from it. I used it to watch spaceshipone covereage from the bbc, with just a dialup connection and it was a smooth feed. The realplayer beta 10 version did NOT work though for me, so I used the 9 version from the bbc. Just goto their homepage at bbc and look down, you'll see the link to go get their version of the player.
Our business model is changed. We make our money on consumer services like Rhapsody, SuperPass and STARZ! on Real Movies and therefore don't need to pay our staff with software add-ons or advertising.
Download the binary or source and take it for a spin.
Kevin Foreman,
GM, Helix
RealNetworks, Inc.
Kevin Foreman
Helix is GPL'ed, so anyone can fork it at will. How long will it take until there are inofficial patched "DVD-Helix" versions for free download in source and binaries? Can't be such a long time. Although e.g. Linux distributors will of course stick to the official versions out of legal and maybe business-political considerations.
I love C++
But FFMPEG already does WMA, and quite well too.
Moll.
What you hear in the ear, preach from the rooftop Matthew 10.27b
No, it's not "doomed to fail" any more than MySQL is "doomed to fail" (which switched from LGPL to GPL, IIRC). Having a means of charging for making proprietary applications means that all people who modify/augment and distribute also contribute one way or another. Either they contribute by making their application open source (adding to the ecosystem), or they contribute financially by licensing the code. In any case, they help perpetuate the platform.
It sucks that we have to compete on so many fronts, but we've been doing it for 9 years in the face of many, many pundits talking about how we're "doomed to fail".
We've gotten tremendous traction in the embedded software space. Many, many, many handset makers have licensed Helix for use in their devices. We have a strong lead in the nascent Linux mobile space with our deal with Motorola. With our announcements today, we're making a great start into the Linux desktop space.
Rob Lanphier
Development Support Manager
RealNetworks
First, the Helix Player plays only 100% open source codecs, like Ogg Verbix and Theora.
Second, the RealPlayer 10 for Linux adds to the Helix Player the non-open source components such as RealAudio/RealVideo, MP3 and Flash.
Third, you are perpetuating an urban myth. Our Windows player contains no spyware and never has. Yes, someone filed suit on us, and it was thrown out of court for being a false accusation.
Fourth, our business model is to sell back end webcast transmission software and consumer services like SuperPass and STARZ! on Real Movies.
Fifth, over 50 semiconductor companies have licensed RealAudio and RealVideo SOURCE CODE for optimizing their nect gen chip sets. I would hope you agree that Intel, TI, Motorola, etc. engineers would not tolerate this nonsense.
Rest easy and enjoy you free player on us.
Kevin Foreman
Guys, there are two important messages/audiences here: developers and users.
1) Developers are looking for a standard GPL'd AV framework to built their applications. By adding the GPL to our Helix Player and with Red Hat, Novell, Sun and Turbolinux's support, we hope to catalyze the linux desktop industry to bring our better and faster time to market AV-based applications. We want to avoid a KDE/GNOME fracturing of the industry.
2) Users get the best of both worlds. Besides the 100% GPL'd Helix Player (which plays Vorbis and Theora), the distros will ship a no-cost upgrade the RealPlayer 10 for Linux. The RealPlayer includes the non-open sourced component of MP3, Flash, RealAudio 10 and RealVideo 10.
So, yes the codecs aren't open sourced (We don't own al the IP of RealAudio and RealVideo, and therefore can't even consider GPLing them), develoers and users still getthe best of both worlds.
Enjoy the new players.
Kevin Foreman
I was of the impression that GStreamer was just a backend, and wasn't tied to GNOME/GTK at all.
I quote from the FAQ:
Q: What is GStreamer's relationship with the KDE community ?
A: The GStreamer community wants to have as good a relationship as possible with KDE, and we hope that someday KDE decides to adopt GStreamer as their multimedia API, just like the GNOME community plans on doing. There have been contacts from time to time between the GStreamer community and KDE and we do already have support for the aRTSd sound server used by KDE. Also, some of the KDE hackers have created Qt bindings of GStreamer and made a simple video player.
WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy
mplayer developers pretend that they can legally distribute Microsoft's, Apple's and Real's binary codecs when they have received no permission to do so (no, that they're available for free from the copyright holder does not grant you permission to distribute). So I would take mplayer developers' opinions of legality with a huge pinch of salt.
It's on the vorbis.com and helix community main pages - Helix now has support for both Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora. See Here.
-ReK
md5sum -c reality.md5
reality: FAILED
md5sum: WARNING: 1 of 1 computed checksum did NOT match
GLib is not tied to GTK, GTK is tied to GLib.
GTK requires GLib. GLib in no way uses or requires GTK.
GLib and GTK are required by GNOME, GNOME is in no way part of GLib or GTK.
It's important to get things in the right order.
Getting rid of the glib depend would be stupid. This is because the only way to get rid of it is to reimpliment parts of it. If GStreamer uses only a little, maybe they can phaze it out by just copying the bits they need into their own source tree. But if any significant portion is used, discarding glib just because "GNOME relies on it" would be stupid.
Also, the implication that glib is controlled by GNOME is false. Influenced, certainly, because GNOME programs as a collective whole are probably the biggest users of glib, and you would have to be a fool not to listen to your users.
GLib is simply a C library implimenting a lot of things which most C programmers are going to write themselves if they can't find an easy existing solution. A set of string functions is just the most obvious example. I used glib once in a little program just so I didn't have to write some bloody annoying string functions, and while I was at it saved time by using glib's dynamic arrays. I would have resorted to some substandard linked list stuff without glib.
GLib is a basic component, something C programmers can use to get the more important work done. It wont be maliciously changed by GNOME villains out to wreck KDE.
I want my Cowboyneal
The thing is that the notion of a disk copy is just a workaround to slow networks, while caching (memory caching) might be nice, the ideal scenario would be to have a network so fast that makes disk access impractical. Maybe it was too much of an optimistic view of the potential of growth of the network, but I believe that for example nowadays it is a good idea to buffer on memory, but not on disk.