Ask RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser

RealNetworks has always been more Linux-friendly than other streaming media purveyors, and is now moving closer to the open source camp with its Helix Community effort. More recently, Real has made a big media splash by selling downloadable tunes in an iPod-compatible format. Does any of this matter, considering that world + dog seems to be jumping on the downloadable multimedia bandwagon? Can Real once again become "the" streaming media leader? Will Real's 49 cent "limited time only" song download price force other music download vendors to cut their prices? We have no idea, but hopefully Rob Glaser does. He's promised to answer your questions personally (rather than have PR people speak for him). So ask whatever you like. We'll forward 10 of the highest-moderated questions to him by email and post his answers soon after he gets them back to us.

Comments

Re:Real Obnoxious

[ericdano]

"Do we really want questions (and answers) like these? Please take some time to think of good questions that are acutally hard to answer. Don't waste questions and mod-points just to share your opinion about Real's software. You may have your replies ready for such answers, but Glaser does not need to answer those."

Oh no, I suppose the "Oh mighty Glaser" can't be bothered to answer those. I've turned off everything in the software, and yet on startup I still see a "realsched.exe" program running. I don't want that. Where do I turn that off?

Reading your comments, I can see why I NEVER use Real Player. Microsoft's Media player is a better alternative.

Why not, instead of Trolling here, go and fix your lame ass program?

Re:RealPod

[plj]

Oh yeah, and Quicktime streams never freeze due to network congestion, huh? Every time I've been watching QT movie trailers the first thing to do when the QT Player opens is to hit pause, as the software is so damn stupid that it practically never downloads a buffer long enough for uninterrupted playback before it starts to play it all by itself.

I hate Real's customer-harrassing policies as much as anyone -- they still require you to register for the download of RP10 for Win32 or OS X for example -- but these endless redundant buffering "jokes" are already started to feel more like trolls. IMHO, RP often streams much better than competitors.

Cancel this interview.

[IGnatius T Foobar]

Wow, so much hostility here. I'd be surprised if Mr. Glaser didn't simply decline the interview entirely at this point. This is an opportunity to get some real answers out of someone who's in a position to answer them, and all I'm seeing here is a bunch of stark raving lunatics. Here at Slashdot it's cool to hate Real and therefore you're all acting like a bunch of children.

The whole lot of you really need to grow up. It's exactly this kind of behavior that leads folks like Mr. Glaser to avoid taking you seriously.