[gentoo-dev] Re: [gentoo-dev-announce] Last rites: www-plugins/gnash
Nikos Chantziaras posted on Sat, 05 Sep 2009 02:19:12 +0300 as excerpted: On 09/05/2009 01:24 AM, Robert Bradbury wrote: Is gnash still under development (as an open source alternative to Adobe flash)? TTBOMK [1], gnash is now a GNU sponsored project, one I believe they are actually paying someone to spend some time on, now, after a free flash alternative came up near the top of the priority list on a user poll they did about three years ago. a quick ggl:gnash later Yes, gnash is a GNU project, at least, tho I'm not sure on the paid developer status. The latest release was 0.8.5_beta4, on March 3, this year: http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/ If so, then it would seem to make sense to keep the plugin alive. Where does this all go with the evolution towards more open media formats (HTML 3.x?). It is my impression currently that a consensus could not be agreed upon for a standard open non-proprietary format for audio/video files. HTML 5.0, and you're impression is reasonably correct. Based on what I've read, they settled on audio and video tags, but could not come to agreement on specific codecs, because the FLOSS folks couldn't accept a proprietary (patented) codec, and some of the others couldn't/wouldn't accept the current state of open codecs, at least for video (audio I believe they agreed on ogg-vorbis, but check before you rely on that). I believe Nokia was on the proprietary side as they already had a license for whatever, and theora wasn't in a state that would work well on their cellphones and the like. But that's changing, and a further HTML 5.1 version may well have a free video codec as well. Combine that with some of the stuff that's already possible in draft-5.0, and Flash may have a tough fight on its hands. Of course, there's Microsoft Silverlight to worry about too... Flash *is* an open format; Adobe opened up its specs a while ago. It's just that the only full implementation of it isn't open (Adobe Flash). AFAIK, the issue isn't the openness of the format, you're absolutely correct on that, but the fact that some of the most effective and popular flash related codecs have serious software patent issues, at least in areas of the world where such things unfortunately exist. The other factor is that while it's open, Adobe controls the spec I believe, and thus can continue to develop their closed version and not release the updated spec until they release their updated player at the same time (if they choose to update the spec at all, they can just let it fall behind if the chose, too), so open implementations will by definition remain 1-2 versions behind, because by the time they get to a particular spot, Adobe will have likely released a new version and a new spec to go with it. . [1] TTBOMK: To the best of my knowledge. emerge wtf and query it on the command line as wtf ttbomk, if you need a cheat sheet for this sort of thing, or look it up on onelook.com, FWIW, I have onelook setup as the ol: kde web shortcut here, plus wtf. =:^) -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master. Richard Stallman
Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: [gentoo-dev-announce] Last rites: www-plugins/gnash
Le 05/09/2009 11:25, Duncan a écrit : [...] This is off-topic for gentoo-dev. Please continue this discussion in private. Thanks Rémi
[gentoo-dev] Re: [gentoo-dev-announce] Last rites: www-plugins/gnash
Le 04/09/2009 22:41, Andrew John Hughes a écrit : So there'll be no Free Flash support in Gentoo any more? I hope someone will pick this up, this is a high priority FSF project after all. There's media-libs/swfdec that's still offically maintained by the Gnome herd. As far as gnash is concerned, it can still be saved by a willing maintainer. Nothing more, nothing less. Cheers, Rémi
Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: [gentoo-dev-announce] Last rites: www-plugins/gnash
Le vendredi 04 septembre 2009 à 22:56 +0200, Rémi Cardona a écrit : Le 04/09/2009 22:41, Andrew John Hughes a écrit : So there'll be no Free Flash support in Gentoo any more? I hope someone will pick this up, this is a high priority FSF project after all. There's media-libs/swfdec that's still offically maintained by the Gnome herd. As far as gnash is concerned, it can still be saved by a willing maintainer. Nothing more, nothing less. Cheers, Rémi Okay, if nobody want to maintain gnash, I'll maintain it... how is it possible to remove gnash ... jesus :D Regards, Romain. -- Romain Perier Gentoo Linux Developer Site: http://dev.gentoo.org/~mrpouet Blog: http://planet.gentoo.org/developers/mrpouet FP: 5728 DC13 9600 864E 2C37 7D1F 3791 7B66 3B94 72EF signature.asc Description: Ceci est une partie de message numériquement signée
Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: [gentoo-dev-announce] Last rites: www-plugins/gnash
I've used the gnash plugin because earlier Flash releases were so problematic (crashing Flash would generally crash Firefox). But generally migrated away from Flash as it seemed to become more and more of an advertising distribution medium that one had no user control over (this is a subjective impression). Gnash also seemed to be unable to play more recent versions of Flash files. Is gnash still under development (as an open source alternative to Adobe flash)? If so, then it would seem to make sense to keep the plugin alive. Where does this all go with the evolution towards more open media formats (HTML 3.x?). It is my impression currently that a consensus could not be agreed upon for a standard open non-proprietary format for audio/video files. Robert On 9/4/09, Romain Perier mrpo...@gentoo.org wrote: Le vendredi 04 septembre 2009 à 22:56 +0200, Rémi Cardona a écrit : Le 04/09/2009 22:41, Andrew John Hughes a écrit : So there'll be no Free Flash support in Gentoo any more? I hope someone will pick this up, this is a high priority FSF project after all. There's media-libs/swfdec that's still offically maintained by the Gnome herd. As far as gnash is concerned, it can still be saved by a willing maintainer. Nothing more, nothing less. Cheers, Rémi Okay, if nobody want to maintain gnash, I'll maintain it... how is it possible to remove gnash ... jesus :D Regards, Romain. -- Romain Perier Gentoo Linux Developer Site: http://dev.gentoo.org/~mrpouet Blog: http://planet.gentoo.org/developers/mrpouet FP: 5728 DC13 9600 864E 2C37 7D1F 3791 7B66 3B94 72EF
[gentoo-dev] Re: [gentoo-dev-announce] Last rites: www-plugins/gnash
On 09/05/2009 01:24 AM, Robert Bradbury wrote: I've used the gnash plugin because earlier Flash releases were so problematic (crashing Flash would generally crash Firefox). But generally migrated away from Flash as it seemed to become more and more of an advertising distribution medium that one had no user control over (this is a subjective impression). Gnash also seemed to be unable to play more recent versions of Flash files. Is gnash still under development (as an open source alternative to Adobe flash)? If so, then it would seem to make sense to keep the plugin alive. Where does this all go with the evolution towards more open media formats (HTML 3.x?). It is my impression currently that a consensus could not be agreed upon for a standard open non-proprietary format for audio/video files. Flash *is* an open format; Adobe opened up its specs a while ago. It's just that the only full implementation of it isn't open (Adobe Flash).
