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Helix Player and RealPlayer 10 Released

Posted by michael on from the get-your-drm-on dept.

kforeman writes "The RealPlayer 10 for Linux and its underlying 100% open source Helix Player are now both finalized. The RealPlayer 10 for Linux has many new features including a Mozilla plug-in, so you can now enjoy all those embedded media clips, as well as the latest RealAudio 10, RealVideo 10, MP3, Flash, and Ogg Vorbis and Theora support. The Helix Player is 100% open source, (now including the GPL!) and includes support for SMIL 2.0 and open source codecs Ogg Vorbis and Theora. Our goal is to make the Linux desktop a first class citizen and we think today's releases are a good first step in that direction."

2 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Good news by erick99 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I used to dislike RealAudio as much as anybody else but the most recent release of their player is actually very good and does not assault me with ads or offers to upgrade anywhere near the extent that the older ones did. I have used MS MediaPlayer quite a bit but recently found that RealPlayer seemed to have more codecs or was able to auto-install them with greater ease than MediaPlayer. Hell, I could be wrong about how that works. But, my user experience is that Real's player is a pretty nice "product" at this point and, at times, has helped me listen/watch something sooner that I otherwise would have. This is just my two cents worth, a personal opinion at best. I am far from a Real Audio "apologist." I understand Real's history and was as annoyed as anyone else in the past. But, I don't mind revisiting something once in a while to see where it's at and I have found the current RealPlayer to be a good product.

    Cheers!

    Erick

    P.S. Yes, I know I should look at some of the other non-MS/Real players out there and will do so.

    --
    http://www.busyweather.com/
  2. Re:Going against code. by DMadCat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Funny, I've noticed that too.

    Nearly everyone in the Linux community agrees that the way to get Linux on the desktop is to entice the big-name software developers to write more programs for Linux.

    Then, when one of the most well-known (even if not well liked) companies jumps up and does it, everyone cries and whines about it. Frankly Realplayer didn't do anything a dozen or more other software companies did/still do. They just got caught.

    As for Realplayer, my advice would be to download it even if you don't install it. When a company like that supports Linux it's a good idea to at least look like we're supporting them back as a flag to any other companies that may be watching from the fence.