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why is codec support even a browser issue? the system is supposed to manage my codecs, and the browser is supposed to use system APIs to play any and all videos

by cracki 17y ago

why is codec support even a browser issue? the system is supposed to manage my codecs, and the browser is supposed to use system APIs to play any and all videos i have a codec for. i'm guessing this is because linux doesn't have a single video codec API, but everything has to explicitly link against codec libraries...

vetinari 17y ago
Desktop distributions do have single video codec API (gstreamer). But browsers are unlikely to use OS-provided libraries for anything downloaded over net, if they can avoid it. If there is a exploit found in third-party code, the browsers cannot work around it and they get the blame (remember the Firefox-on-Windows shell exploit?).