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Microsoft Ends Windows Media Player on the Mac
alphasubzero949 writes "According to News.com, Microsoft has had no plans to update or improve Windows Media Player and has instead thrown its weight behind a third party plugin to fill the void. Adam Anderson, Microsoft public relations manager, told News.com, 'It's basically a business decision for Microsoft. Like any other company, we have business priorities. Our focus really is in delivering the best experience to Windows customers.'"
The whole relationship between Apple and Microsoft has been weird to me. I figure its a symbiotic relationship like a dead tree with a fungus. Why Microsoft was supporting a competitor at all is up for discussion. Seeing as how WMP wasn't really a money maker in the first place, it makes sense that they drop development.
The flip4mac plugin is free from microsoft here
But to import the files into other programs, rather than just watch them, you need to purchase flip4mac.
There's another reason as well. If Microsoft's actions limit the number of people who can view the files, there will be more of a push by consumers to get web sites like CNN.com that use Windows Media exclusively to support more formats. I think that Microsoft's hope is that this will keep people from migrating away from Windows, but I think it will have the opposite effect.
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
Dude - just get a quicktime pro code from Serialz like everyone else. Every quicktime install has pro features just waiting to be unlocked
MacOS pioneered a ubiquitous universal media layer with QT and making the MS codecs part of that is just plain shu-weet. Most real users aren't all that concerned about how pretty or not the default player is, the big concern is getting the material in and out of any/all applications.
Now everything, from Pages to Word to whatever, will be able to embed, play, link almost every format.
Yeah, almost. Nope, not talking Real (is anyone?), rather the latest codecs from MS. I'm told by my video geekin' buddies that Flip4Mac, nifty as it is, is last year's code and can't handle the latest 'n greatest WMP 10 codes from MS. Anyone know the truth on this, done any testing?
However, more importantly, in spite of MS's promise at MacWorld last week of another 5 years of Mac Office (all of which is good profit) word is the black spot is on Mac projects and folks are being reassigned, contractors not being extended, the MacBU folks off in Sili Valley are finding their req's from the Redmond mothership are taking longer and loonggeerrrr to fill.
If so then there really is a sea change and the gentleman's agreement between MS & Apple seems to be coming to an end. Sure MS is gonna keep the Office stuff, heck most of it started on the Mac, makes money, and is a check-off item on procurement sheets requiring cross-platform.
But media, where Apple has traditionally been strong, where the iPod reigns, where his Steveness rules both a computer company and a production studio, where cross-platform for everyone has always been the rule, may be where the real break starts to happen. Apple has always been lazy about QT under Windows (heck QT Player still doesn't make use of Overlay, making it often a pain to work with) is MS now returning the favor and poisoning their own well?
Will next year the response to "I can't get this to play on my Mac" be "Install Windows Vista on it"?
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Windows Media Player has been really important for the Mac because there are a lot of media out there that are WMF only.
However, we can hope that this will accelerate the move to open formats.
"Decode" is the only thing anyone in their right mind should be doing with WMV.
WMP for Mac is abysmal - especially when attempting to play a clip as it's downloading - Quicktime has the most elegant way of doing this I've seen where the grey bar indicates how much of the clip has been downloaded while you are watching seamlessly unlike WMP's 'buffering....buffering....' crap that it does, (usually before it stops responding).
Whoah there. I think you're mistaking a Faststart (Quicktime) movie with a streaming (WMV) movie. The two are entirely different methods of delivery - don't blame the player (and your connection speed) for a decision that the webmaster made! A streaming Quicktime movie will buffer just as annoyingly, given the right circumstances.
I hope Office for Mac is continued for as long as possible. Why? For some people, who are lucky enough to be able to use Macs as "work computers", it is really the *only* reason we are able to do so. The need to have "really good and mostly seemless" compatability with Windows MS Office users is practically a requirement, and no, OpenOffice does NOT fit the bill. Some day I hope to have a job where I don't have to care about office suites at all (MS Office or OpenOffice), but those days are not hear yet.
Basically, the Mac provides something that Linux currently cannot provide. It is a platform that software vendors recognize enough to willingly support as an end-user platform. Also, in the laptop world, it has 100% compatability and support with *all* the hardware features of the laptops on which it runs.
Even if I did eventually switch to a PC laptop, and tried to run Linux on it, I'd pretty much have to pay for something like CrossOver Office just to be able to use the darn thing.
If only MS (and everyone else) would realize that MS Office is an even more difficult monopoly on the buisness world than Windows itself... If somehow pigs flew and MS decided to make MS Office for Linux, two things would happen: 1. We'd all flame it while praising OpenOffice. 2. Those of us trying to use Linux as a work desktop would actually try to buy it in droves.
For Windows Media usage, it is clearly because Windows Media Player is aviable on every Windows box, period. It is cleary because of that. Also server support is very important - Windows Media Services offerings are quite effective (disclaimer: I love Ogg Vorbis/Theora and what Fluendo try to do) and Real Server was quite only solution for any streaming.
Streaming is technically very demanding from server software, so actually it is quite understandable that CNN or BBC uses Real and Windows Media to stream - because these formats are which have popular and usable players and their server parts.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
If Microsoft is not prepared to support their products on competitor's operating systems, they should not be allowed to develop closed formats, APIs or interfaces.
What about the iTunes stuff for Linux - when is Apple going to support that?
Unfortunately though, there are a lot of WMV3 codec videos floating around out there. I'm not sure why, perhaps it's the default codec used by something, but I'd guess that 60-70% of the WMV files I've come across lately have refused to play in VLC. And they're not DRMed files either, just random stuff I've had sent to me.
The real problem in my mind is why people are encoding their content with such a stupid format, given the vast number of better alternatives. I pretty much delete anything that gets sent to me in a format that I can't read, and so far my life hasn't suffered for it. But it is frustrating -- it recalls a time when people started sending ASF files around instead of AVIs, for no particular reason that I could decipher.
I'm not sure how we do it, but we need to try to educate users that WMV3 isn't a codec that's acceptable (or even usable) for a non-insignificant number of users. If the elimination of official Microsoft support for Windows Media Player on the Mac makes this fraction bigger and more noticeable, then all the better. Mac users are a notoriously noisy bunch given their marketshare, maybe the web site operators will get a clue and pick a different codec (Divx, etc.) in the future.
If that happened, not only Mac users but also Linux users (and any other platform besides Windows) could also stand to benefit. WMV3 doesn't do a damn for anyone except Microsoft.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
There is NO standard format for streaming media, well, wasn't until recent times. All we had (and still have) is MPEG subformats, which are licensed to be used in varous containers - WMA, AVI, QT, etc. In fact, first real royality-free streaming format (it is allowed to implement support for them to any commercial/non-commercial vendor and it is also designed to maximum avoid any patents) is Ogg Vorbis/Theora.
r eams.html. Fluendo, as I have seen from GNOME Planet, has successful business plan with supporting Ogg with their rather cheap streaming services. And Ogg also has one supporter under their wing and it is...Real. Yeah, newest Real players (those without bloat) has quite good Ogg support.
For example, I have seen much radios embrase Ogg Vorbis streaming, including quite famious Virgin Radio in UK, check out here http://www.virginradio.co.uk/thestation/listen/st
So actually if we are talking about past, there was no competition for WMA and Real for some time, so it was quite natural that they were most used for streaming. But times are changing and it is good.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
If Apple's move to Intel has the effect of increasing Apple's market share expect Microsoft to withdraw Microsoft Office.
Why? Microsoft makes money on Office for Mac.
Everyone who buys a Mac is a lost sale of Windows for Microsoft. But Microsoft still has a chance to make a profit by selling Office to that Mac user. Why would they want to lose a Windows sale AND an Office sale? The profit to Microsoft for a Mac user buying Office retail is probably greater than the profit from an OEM copy of Windows anyway.
Macintosh humor! MacComedy.com
Uhh.. Quicktime IS mpeg4 (H.263) unless you're using their new stuff which is H.264
WMP for mac is pretty weak, but it is the only way to play certain files.
Quicktime is a great player -- but there's still several file formats it can't play by default. Mostly MS formats (like their various non-standard MPG4 versions). The plugins require all sorts of gymnastics to get them working on Quicktime. If MS gets someone to make a good, easy to install plugin for Quicktime, that covers all their WMP formats, that would be a good thing.
Cheers.
The only concession Apple really made for Microsoft was to bundle IE as the default browser on the Mac for 5 years. Later in the DOJ's anti-trust case, Apple's Avi Tevanian testified that Microsoft had tried to get Apple to step out of the QuickTime for Windows business and focus only on video editing and playback on the Macintosh. Apple refused. Google for "quicktime knife the baby" for details.
it looks like Jobs is getting his revenge.
I think the only revenge Jobs ever wanted was for being kicked out of his own company. Not so much revenge even, it's more like vindication. He came back and led Apple out of the woods and back to greatness. The Mac/PC holy war was a lot like the Apple II/Mac holy war. Jobs invented it to serve his own purposes. He had no real emotional investment in it himself. That was made quite clear through his actions 8 1/2 years ago. I continued to allow folks like John Dvorak over at PC mag to goad me for a while after, but when the press no longer tagged Apple with the beleaguered moniker, I got over the whole thing myself. A computer is a tool. I prefer a Mac, but I can see where Windows PCs and various *nixes fit into the equation.
Bill Gates really doesn't figure into the picture here. He's always wanted to be the 'rockstar' that Jobs is, but no matter how much money he's made, he's never achieved that in his own mind. Jobs isn't concerned with Gates or money. After $100,000,000 he had more money than he could ever spend... to paraphrase Jobs. Jobs wants Apple to succeed out of personal pride. Beginning January 1, 1998 APPL has been a stock market superstar. Nobody can touch that track record. Given that they are still at 3% marketshare in their core market, they really have nowhere to go but up. Intel based Macs may very well be what turns the tables on Dell/HP/Lenovo dominance. And it won't have a thing to do with getting revenge on Gates. The technology deal with Microsoft announced at this MacWorld probably has a lot to do with that. Jobs wants Gates to support Windows on Apple hardware. Not as a replacement for OS X, but as a compliment to it. That way he can stand in front of a crowd at the next Macworld and say, "It slices, it dices, it runs Windows and Mac!" Jobs' "revenge" has nothing to do with Gates and everything to do with Jobs being escorted away from Apple campus in 1985. It's personal.
But that's just MHO :-)