This is totally off-topic and also a low blow. Please join #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net and ask about FF3.5 (or search google; no shortage of information) - I think you'll find the answers more satisfying than this email misleadingly suggests.
-Mike On Fri, 2009-07-10 at 17:53 +0200, Gerard Meijssen wrote: > Hoi, > Does this mean that you would advise against Ubuntu for their use of > iceweasel and their inability to provide the 3.5 release in a timely fashion > ? > Thanks, > GerardM > > 2009/7/9 Michael Dale <[email protected]> > > > There has been a technical discussion on wikitech-l regarding the > > recommendation of a browser for the high quality open video experience. > > > > Some native implementations are ~presently~ non optimal and the javaHoi, > > cortado applet we use where no native support is available is a poor > > user experience relative to native support. Therefore we are considering > > informing people who want to view video that for a high quality > > expericne with free formats they should use a particular browser. > > Presently that browser is Firefox 3.5. Key to this recommendation is we > > will continue to support playback in other browsers the best that we can > > but we should inform people that a better experience is possible. This > > hopefully will encourage other browser vendors to improve the free > > format experience and support or lose market share. > > > > == Technical Support Considerations == > > > > * Mozilla Firefox 3.5 release version -- has worked closely with the > > xiph community and supports html5 ogg theora video natively with a high > > quality experience across all platforms. > > > > * Apple Safari -- supports html5 video but recommends the h.264 as the > > format. To support ogg you must install the xiph qt components written > > by xiph.org community members. The installation involves downloading a > > file, mounting an install image and dragging a component to the > > library/components folder on the target machine. > > ** In the present release version of Safari its difficult to reliably > > detect if the browser support the video tag with free formats. > > ** Seeking past what has already been downloaded does not work. > > ** The quicktime framework / ogg component does not work well with > > server side seeking helpers we have been developing. > > > > * Google Chromium -- supports h.264 and ogg theora video natively. Again > > ogg performance is not very high quality. It uses the ffmpeg library > > which features a non-optimal theora decoder. Things like seeking > > presently don't work very reliably. > > > > * Opera -- Was one of the first browsers to demo ogg theora support in > > their browser. They are presently working on re-including it in a > > release. ~presently it does not support the video tag~ > > > > * Microsoft IE -- has no support for the video tag and no support for > > ogg theora. We support playback in IE via the java cortado applet. > > > > ** the java cortado applet is a fall-back for browsers that don't > > support the native video tag. Its not a very high quality user > > experience. Sometimes java crashes the browser, it generally takes a > > while to startup; seeking does not work very well and video is not > > cached causing more expenses to the wikimedia foundation on repeat video > > views. > > > > == Institutional Support Considerations == > > > > Institutional the Mozilla foundation has worked with Wikimedia and the > > xiph.org community to realize Ogg Theora video in the open web platform. > > They supported wikiemdia/xiph.org with a 100k grant early this year to > > improve the ogg libraries for playback, improve codec encoding quality > > and develop open source server side technologies for improved seeking > > performance. > > > > While Apple does at least support adding in of codecs into the quicktime > > system and some people form Apple have had friendly conversations with > > us. The Apple Corporation essentially says "it can't ship default > > support for xiph because of perceived patent risk". With Google shipping > > Chrome with ogg support the submarine patent argument (that no other > > large company is shipping ogg) would appear to be less valid. Perhaps we > > as "wikimedia" could help apple do the right thing? > > > > Also have not heard much from Microsoft regarding free formats. Again I > > think market pressures are the only thing that will drive adoption in > > this case. > > > > == Proposed Approach and Proof of Concept == > > > > Presently the proposed solution is to soft link to the Mozilla Firefox > > browser: see mockup: > > http://metavid.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/upgrade_to_firefox.png > > or see it in action: > > http://metavid.org/wiki/File:FolgersCoffe_512kb.1496.ogv > > > > Note that informing the user that a better experience is possible with > > alternative browser software, it will not disable or remove our > > fall-back java support. > > > > peace, > > --michael > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > foundation-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > > > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
