After the numerous bad things I've said about Google and their gradual
backslide into the dark side of software freedom, the timing of this
announcement is sobering:
http://www.osnews.com/story/23135/Google_Puts_Weight_Behind_Theora_on_Mobile
Google comes out in support of Theora video because it is an entirely free
and open standard, and they've already included native support for HTML5
video in their browser. And they're going to fund a project called TheorARM
to optimize performance of Theora on mobile devices with ARM processors.
Now, certainly they're not doing this for altruistic reasons. They're doing
this to more strongly position themselves against Apple and avoid having to
pay Apple's royalty fees, and basically to cover all bases (the same reason
they bundle Flash with Chrome, mind you). All the browsers are moving to
HTML5, and Theora's totally open and patent-free nature, to say nothing of
its beautiful performance, makes it a clear choice. But it's a step in the
right direction, and will get us that much closer to a fully free internet
that is accessible to anyone.
