Yes, it would be great to have such a format, but that format will just not be Theora. It doesn't matter how much Mozilla stomp their feet and puff out their cheeks, that battle is already lost. It just does not offer any meaningful advantages for the big content producers, who can already get video that works almost everywhere by using h.264 and Flash.
It is a question of resources. doing a lot of work for a solution that helps small amount of people on a single platform isn't that interesting to them.
It is neither a small amount of people, nor a single platform.
MPEG-2 is widely used because of legacy devices. It's not used in new systems. And Flash is probably more often paired up with h.264 than h.263 these days. And if it isn't yet, it will very soon be.
No, they just make weak excuses for why not to do this. None of their arguments hold water. In short:
They say there is not support on every machine. But how is that worse than the current situation where they have no support on any machine?
They say it codecs are badly written, and will cause problems. But they already load badly written code in several different ways, and that never was an argument against extensions or plugins, so why is it an argument now?
They say codecs can have security issues. But once again, they already happily load plugins and extensions which also have security issues, so this argument is hypocritical too.
They can't do that as they explain in the blog entry a) that most windows users don't have an H264 codec and b) It's pissing on their principles (my words, not theirs)
The first is a silly argument: Is it somehow better to play on NO computers, than to play on only SOME?
The real reason is the second, that they are ideologically opposed to it. And that stance is only going to hurt them, and they should just get over it. It is not a fight they can possibly win.
Soon enough, most users will be on an OS that supplies h.264 decoding by default, and won't need to rely on any plugins. That is, if Mozilla would actually use the OS-supplied h.264 decoders, which they say they won't.
It is not impossible for Mozilla to use h.264. They have several options for how to use it. None are perfect, but it is not impossible. That would include using OS libraries to play h.264, and using a plugin system.
Because their opposition to h.264 is ideological, not technical, so a technical solution is not enough for them.
They are definitely muddying the waters by coming up with weak technical excuses for not doing it too, though. Those excuses are mostly easily refuted, and just makes the whole thing even more confusing. They should be more honest about it.
h.264 is the closest thing to a format that "everyone can see" that we have at the moment. It's used everywhere. Most importantly, Flash already uses it. You're most likely watching h.264 video every day.
Mostly it seems Mozilla just do not want to support anything but Theora, and they're making up weak excuses for why they shouldn't use platform libraries to play video.
Actually, the author said none of those things. He made vague whines about games, and you just substituted in everything you personally hate about games.
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but it's really just making the best of a bad situation.
A bad situation is exactly what we have. Making the best of it is what should be done, no?
Yes, it would be great to have such a format, but that format will just not be Theora. It doesn't matter how much Mozilla stomp their feet and puff out their cheeks, that battle is already lost. It just does not offer any meaningful advantages for the big content producers, who can already get video that works almost everywhere by using h.264 and Flash.
MPEG-2 rules, because the DVD isn't going away quite yet.
However, the format of DVDs do not really affect the web in any meaningful way.
For people who are content to ignore anything but Flash 9 maybe.
Which is most people, with the fairly aggressive update cycles for Flash.
Or maybe people who are content with Sorenson Spark will see no reason to shell out for H.264,
I doubt anybody is content with h.263.
Look, they can quit whenever they want. It's not like they have a problem or anything.
It is a question of resources. doing a lot of work for a solution that helps small amount of people on a single platform isn't that interesting to them.
It is neither a small amount of people, nor a single platform.
This sounds eerily familiar...
Yet it isn't.
"Win" would mean Theora becoming the standard for video on the web. And no, that is not happening, no matter how much you idolize Linux.
Said explanation being "We made this not work for you even though we could because we wanted to be fair to everyone"?
It sure is nice that you have no real problems, so you have the time to get this worked up about such trifling matters.
MPEG-2 is widely used because of legacy devices. It's not used in new systems. And Flash is probably more often paired up with h.264 than h.263 these days. And if it isn't yet, it will very soon be.
That will soon enough be a minority, and why would it be worse if a minority of Windows machines played h.264 than if no Windows machines did so?
No, they just make weak excuses for why not to do this. None of their arguments hold water. In short:
They say there is not support on every machine. But how is that worse than the current situation where they have no support on any machine?
They say it codecs are badly written, and will cause problems. But they already load badly written code in several different ways, and that never was an argument against extensions or plugins, so why is it an argument now?
They say codecs can have security issues. But once again, they already happily load plugins and extensions which also have security issues, so this argument is hypocritical too.
They can't do that as they explain in the blog entry a) that most windows users don't have an H264 codec and b) It's pissing on their principles (my words, not theirs)
The first is a silly argument: Is it somehow better to play on NO computers, than to play on only SOME?
The real reason is the second, that they are ideologically opposed to it. And that stance is only going to hurt them, and they should just get over it. It is not a fight they can possibly win.
Soon enough, most users will be on an OS that supplies h.264 decoding by default, and won't need to rely on any plugins. That is, if Mozilla would actually use the OS-supplied h.264 decoders, which they say they won't.
It is not impossible for Mozilla to use h.264. They have several options for how to use it. None are perfect, but it is not impossible. That would include using OS libraries to play h.264, and using a plugin system.
There is someone: Google. They bought On2. It is still unclear why, and what they are going to do with On2's technology.
Hint: Just because people disagree with you, does not mean there is a conspiracy of astroturfers working against you.
Sometimes, people just don't agree with you.
Because their opposition to h.264 is ideological, not technical, so a technical solution is not enough for them.
They are definitely muddying the waters by coming up with weak technical excuses for not doing it too, though. Those excuses are mostly easily refuted, and just makes the whole thing even more confusing. They should be more honest about it.
h.264 is the closest thing to a format that "everyone can see" that we have at the moment. It's used everywhere. Most importantly, Flash already uses it. You're most likely watching h.264 video every day.
And not playing at all is a better state of affairs?
(Also, Flash does not use platform libraries.)
...Which does, as far as I know, not apply when you use the OS-supplied functionality for playing h.264.
Mostly it seems Mozilla just do not want to support anything but Theora, and they're making up weak excuses for why they shouldn't use platform libraries to play video.
I sure hope they grow out of it soon.
Actually, the author said none of those things. He made vague whines about games, and you just substituted in everything you personally hate about games.
IE8 has the same bug, but it has further protective measures that limit the bug from being harmful. Defense in depth.
I'm sure you heard that, but it's not actually true in any way.
.flv is h.263 or VP6 only. For h.264, Flash uses .mp4 like everyone else.