5 ms·
For the FSF, the medium-term risk of not eradicating Flash as quickly as possible is well worth the rare chance to achieve the only desirable outcome for open s
by ashearer 16y ago
For the FSF, the medium-term risk of not eradicating Flash as quickly as possible is well worth the rare chance to achieve the only desirable outcome for open source in the long term: having the world's video encoded with a free standard.
After all, not needing a Flash wrapper is a hollow victory if your open source player can't legally decode the content. The content standard is the major battle. If that is won, getting rid of the Flash video wrapper is a trivial effort in comparison.
The scenario that everyone will just continue to use Flash with H.264 is assured only if nothing else changes. But Flash adopting WebM will change the support numbers dramatically, and being the odd ones out in not supporting WebM is the only way that Apple and MS would feel any pressure to follow suit.
- rimantas 16y agoWhat makes you think the world (outside HN) cares about the openness of video player they use?
- ashearer 16y agoI'll throw that back at you. What makes you think I think that, or that it somehow affects what I said? Regular people don't care, nor do they need to. Browser makers (Apple, Google, Mozilla) and content publishers (YouTube, BBC) care intensely, and are driving the entire controversy. All have a significant financial stake. Sufficiently large content publishers like Google/YouTube and the BBC have been motivated enough to invest heavily in open source codecs themselves. Supporters and detractors of Flash are fanning the flames.
- rimantas 16y agoGoogle owns WebM. Just something to consider.
- ashearer 16y agoGoogle bought it in order to irrevocably release it as a free standard, and now it's baked into hardware where they can't change it further. That's less of a good way to exercise control over the video standard at everyone else's expense while reaping profit from them, and more of a good way to prevent anyone else from doing so. Are you suggesting something else?