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."

Comments

GStreamer?

[protonman]

What does this mean for GStreamer, which, as I understand it, has similar goals and is being used by quite some OS software already.

Particularly in GNOME software... Which is the desktop used by RedHat and Ximian (Novell).

Not a nice move if you ask me, it has probably to do with the mp3 licence.

Re:GStreamer?

[clonek]

IMO Redhat and Novell should focus their energy on GStreamer, which is already being integrated into GNOME and nautilus, and help improve that project rather than including another media player to go with the 3+ others (GStreamer, XMMS, Totem etc.)that are already installed.

They're not GPLing the codecs

[DFJA]

Some of you seem to have missed this, they are only GPLing the Helix player. Realplayer10 is not being GPL'd, so they are not making any of their codecs available. It is therefore of very little extra value, as it is the codecs that we need to have. There are already a number of perfectly good free frameworks for multimedia. Nothing to see here folks, move on........

Re:So I can get more.....

[blancolioni]

You know, every time Real is mentioned on /. somebody will parrot this. It's such a cheap shot: you haven't said anything that hasn't been said a hundred times before, and in particular, it's hard to imagine how a GPL'd player could possibly install anything that you didn't want it to.

Nor can I imagine Red Hat suddenly changing into the kind of company that distributes malware.

Perhaps you could post a comment that actually relates to the story at hand, rather than recycling the same old junk from a hundred other comments.

(PS: ok, I can imagine how a GPL'd product could install bad stuff, but I can't imagine that it (the malware) would be around long enough to make it worth anybody's time to put in there)

(I'm also aware of Ken Thompsons ACM Award speech, which doesn't apply in the slightest)

what was wrong with Xine and Totem?

[davejenkins]

What I don't understand is why the companies didn't simply formalize and commit to enhancing the current packages that are out there. Xine, Totem, and others already play MPG, AVI, and even WMV formats--

This seems more like a marketshare play for Real (who is scared of getting streamlined into oblivion by the Evil Empire), especially now that technically Linux has more desktops than Mac. I would guess that Real will take the opportunity to cram all sorts of its bloat and content tie-ins with this, but that the Linux community will tell them to get bent. Another possible play here is that Real hopes to "get in early" for this developing desktop market, and make thier future totally on the content-providing end. I can see them packaging up some sort of MediaServer software to run on company's Linux networks...

Re:Codecs GPL'd? - Real Responds

[Deusy]

Spoken like a true salesman. Buzzwords and well practised lines.

"We hope to catalyze the linux desktop industry..."

Rubbish, you're looking to manoeveure Helix into a blossoming linux desktop industry. The linux desktop industry was fine before Helix, will be fine with Helix, and fine after Helix. You're just another company catching the ride on the increasingly popular linux train. (That's not a bad thing or a criticism.)

"...to bring our better and faster time to market AV-based applications."

How are your codecs any "better" and "faster time to market" than Theora or Vorbis? Yes, you support those, but so does many other media players. In real (sic) terms, how is Helix any better than the GStreamer framework or mature apps like MPlayer?

We want to avoid a KDE/GNOME fracturing of the industry.

You mean, you want to dominate the linux AV industry? Or you want to provide a desktop neutral solution? MPlayer and Totem work fine in both KDE and GNOME for me. I'm quite unsure as to what fracturing you refer to.

Throwing salespeak at the crowd is all well and good, but could you at least make it meaningful and specific rather than a few buzzwords / hot topics thrown together?