Microsoft Is Releasing an H.264 Plugin For Firefox

ndogg writes "Microsoft has announced that it is releasing an H.264 plugin for Firefox. This plugin does not add H.264 capabilities to Firefox, but rather allows it to use the H.264 capabilities built into Windows 7. With that in mind, it sounds like it may not work on anything other than Windows 7."

Comments

Good

[The End Of Days]

Seems like a pretty reasonable solution to me.

Re:Good

[h4rm0ny]

Can I just be clear, here? Are you blaming Microsoft for not also writing support plugins for O/Ss they don't develop?

Re:Good

[FatdogHaiku]

Can I just be clear, here? Are you blaming Microsoft for not also writing support plugins for O/Ss they don't develop?

Yes! There is no telling how deep this issue actually runs in our modern society. I have found some sort of conspiracy whereby I can not procure O.E.M. engine parts for my Chevy pickup at the local Ford dealership! According to Mike Rowe, Ford has the top selling pickup. It should be incumbent on Ford to make sure that people who did not chose Ford products still have all the advantages and or benefits that Ford's paying customers derive from ownership. Also, as soon as a company successfully markets a flying car I expect someone to show up and retrofit all my vehicles!

Damn, I'm out of pills again...

Re:Good

[sexconker]

I'm not blaming anyone, altough I am somewhat surprised why Microsoft bothers to write Firefox plugins. I'm just saying Microsoft doesn't mind providing a solution that specifically works on Windows and not on any other platform Firefox runs on.

How is it surprising?
MS wants its users to be able to do shit.
MS recognizes many of its users use firefox.
MS wants h.264 video to work for them just as much as they want it to work for IE users.

Re:Good

[BenoitRen]

Either you still don't understand or you've been living under a rock for the past year. There are good reasons that Firefox doesn't use the OS-provided codecs, and I'm not going to repeat them YET AGAIN.

Re:Good

[rjstanford]

Because Firefox isn't a good citizen and tries to reinvent shit that the underlying OS already provides, like video codecs. Sorry, but its true - this is not the job of the browser. Or at least it shouldn't be, and in every modern OS and every other modern web-browser, this relationship is very well understood - the OS provides a graphical framework, the applications use it.

And sorry, but Firefox wanting to provide a common experience over multiple OSs is a complete crap excuse. It might as well provide its own clipboard and font renderer then...

Re:Good

[Kalriath]

Yes, because it's Apple's hardware. Why should Microsoft support you running Mozilla Firefox on RedHat Linux? They're just looking out for their customers, although in this case it is slightly unexpected.

Sounds just like Microsoft

[dust11]

So in effect, to use said extension, you will need to either:

a) Upgrade your XP/Vista box to Windows 7
b) Say goodbye to your Mac
c) Ditch your *nix distro

I can't really see many people doing that. However for anybody using the operating system, it's really not such a bad idea. While the idea of Microsoft developing a Firefox extension may turn heads, they're only doing it to benefit themselves.

Re:Sounds just like Microsoft

[gman003]

Don't view the plugin as an enhancement for Firefox. View it as an extension for Windows 7 - it's increasing compatibility with a certain feature. And then, it all makes sense - it's Microsoft's business to improve Windows, and now Firefox is getting a free boost on that platform.

Re:Sounds just like Microsoft

[Dan East]

Are you proposing that Microsoft should also write Firefox extensions to utilize the lower-level internals of other operating systems such as OSX and Linux, although Microsoft has neither the technical experience nor obligation to do so, just to keep competing operating systems on a level playing field? I'm sure that 3rd parties will quickly follow suite and provide similar functionality for other operating systems, assuming it can be done at all.

Remember, Firefox does not include an H.264 decoder due to patent issues. MS holds the necessary licenses already - essentially those licensed to use Windows have already paid in some way for H.264 codecs, thus MS is doing Firefox users a big favor by extending that functionality. I'm sure Apple can do the same with OSX, but I'm unsure about the whole patent issue when it comes to Linux.

If I remember correctly, when people were complaining about Firefox not supporting H.264 decoding, Mozilla specifically alluded to the fact that OS vendors would have to provide this functionality to work around patent issues.

Re:Sounds just like Microsoft

[beakerMeep]

It's hard to see anything MS does without some cautious skepticism that they may hold ulterior motives. I personally see two possibilities here:

1) They are trying to keep the FF userbase from building up a critical mass of users watching video with open source/patent free codecs such as WebM

2) They are trying to further marginalize Flash video (since at the moment Flash based video is the only H.264 option for FF users).

These two things arent mutually exclusive either, but I think they make more sense given MS's history and the context. What you said would make more sense if MS released a WebM player for IE/FF. To be clear though, having more options is good and this release isn't necessarily bad, but it's a good idea to keep in mind MS's past gift horses.

Re:Sounds just like Microsoft

[noidentity]

Presumably Windows 7 has a media decoding architecture that can make use of multiple cores/hardware acceleration, so this takes advantage of that. Why should a browser have to reinvent all this, when the OS provides it? But it must be evil to do this, since it only works on Windows 7. At times, the anti-Microsoft bias here is too much!

Re:Sounds just like Microsoft

[metrix007]

How about because safari is complete shit?

Re:Sounds just like Microsoft

[hairyfeet]

You're right! Not being able to ship a completely free operating systems affect Windows 7 users......uhhh, how exactly does this affect Windows 7 users again? You'd think as libertarian heavy as /. is this would go without explanation, but here goes: MSFT negotiates and buys the right to ship several codecs on their new OS, including H.264. Then MSFT writes a plug in to maximize their ROI by making it easier for more browsers to use what they paid for and thus make their new OS more appealing. And this has exactly what to do with FOSS again?

Lets be honest folks: Nobody is holding a gun to the distro developers and saying "You are NOT allowed to buy any codecs, you commie punks!". They could just as easily buy the rights to the H.264 codec as MSFT did. But they don't want to because they want to be "free as in beer and freedom man!" and you know what? That is just lovely. it is their distros to do as they will. But just because you give something away does not mean everyone else has to as well. The MPEG-LA wants to be paid to ship, you pay them or don't use it. But don't complain just because others decide they want to support it when you don't. It isn't like there aren't groups out there happy to sell codecs to FOSS users, it is just they ain't buying. That is their right but you shouldn't be pissed because Apple and MSFT decide they want to give their customers a smoother experience and are willing to pay for it.

Re:Sounds just like Microsoft

[hairyfeet]

You're right of course, because MSFT completely owns H.264 and is using its dominance to....oh wait a tick, that's MPEG-LA. Oh well then they are using their complete stranglehold on the video player market...nope, that's Adobe. Well then they designed all the GPUs to...nope, that's ATI and Nvidia. starting to see a pattern here friend?

I mean here you are along with waaay too many FOSSies getting your panties so twisted they could be used to power fricking windmills when what we are seeing here is a classic case of a company giving their customers what they want. Oh the horror, all my videos are unskippy and don't suck my battery dry, how ever will I cope? And the really sad part? There is absolutely nothing stopping a Linux distro from giving the customer what they want but the simple fact is FOSSies treat it as a religion instead of an OS.

You see you do NOT want to give the customer what they want, because they might want to do things differently than you. They may not give a shit about "free as in freedom man! Fight the power!" and instead just want their videos unskippy, their drivers to drive, and their MP3s to play. Instead you say "Here, here is Vorbis! It is free as in freedom, so convert all your media!" while ignoring the fact that it is crap compared to what is already out there and conversion is a PITA. Now we see the same damn thing in streaming video, with the FOSS group backing a dead horse named WebM that is a couple of years too late and a dollar short.

But that is okay, you are free to sit and complain how the entire planet won't suddenly embrace YOUR way of doing things, it is a free country. Feel free to claim as you do in your post that "MSFT has a fancy little mathematical formula" while ignoring the fact that it is actually the USPTO that gave the rights to MPEG-LA to that math, and how they should instead steal the codec from MPEG-LA to give to FOSS just so FOSSies, who has been so loving to them in the past, will be happy.. If you want your OS to not play H.264, if you want your browser to suck power and be less efficient because MPEG-LA won't give you free unlimited rights just because you're "free as in freedom"? Again that is YOUR CHOICE. Meanwhile the rest of us will quite enjoy our smoother video and less power suckage, thanks. I am typing this on Windows 7 while several vids play in the background and you know what? Smooth as butter and isn't slamming my CPU. Life is about choices, don't get all bent out of shape when others choose to go a different route. That's capitalism, and Linux distros are free to buy any codec they please. If they choose not to that doesn't mean the rest of us should have to deal with it.

And everything went better than expected.

[kwabbles]

Open slashdot... see add... Microsoft releasing plugin for Firefox (huh?) open article, "oh only works on Win7"... look for reason to get angry at Microsoft... can't find any on this one, seems like a nice thing, hear a bird outside, sip my soda, nice day out.