Free Software Foundation statement on WebM and VP8

http://www.fsf.org/news/free-software-foundation-statement-on-webm-and-vp8

by tjr • 16 years ago

42 13 16 years ago

mvalle• 16 years ago

I had never heard of WebM or VP8 before, but this is just good news. I just wonder if Apple and Microsoft follow, somehow I doubt it.

chc2• 16 years ago

Microsoft is already on board. Apple not so much, but pretty much everyone else is behind it, so Apple may eventually be forced to accept it.

jrockway• 16 years ago

I doubt Apple will cooperate with Google. On the other hand, if YouTube drops support for H.264, then Apple really has no choice. I don't know how much money Google makes from YouTube mobile, but if it's not much, they can really screw Apple over if they want to. Who's going to buy an iPhone if it can't use Youtube or any other online video site?

tzs• 16 years ago

Microsoft will support VP8 in IE9.

Apple's HTML5 implementation uses Quicktime, so supports any format for which you have a Quicktime plug-in. I have no trouble, for instance, watching Ogg Theora video on HTML5 sites in Safari on my Mac.

I'd expect that Perian will add VP8 support for Mac, since they already have a couple other codecs from the VP family. Perian is a third party collection of codecs for Quicktime.

chc2• 16 years ago

When people ask about Apple's support, I think we can assume they're thinking of the other two platforms, which will not run QuickTime plugins.

DrSprout• 16 years ago

Any word on when VP8 will be added to the Android core media formats?

http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.ht...

bwr• 16 years ago

According to http://www.webmproject.org/about/faq/ "WebM support in Android is expected in the Gingerbread release (currently planned for Q4, 2010)."

dangrover• 16 years ago

Weird, I figured they would be vehemently against it for some unforeseen and idiosyncratic reason.

_delirium• 16 years ago

Haha, I clicked expecting exactly the same thing. And I actually quite like the FSF; I see them as usually serving a role of idealistic critic, which is useful to have, especially in something like free software. But reality rarely satisfies the idealistic critic, so it's surprising when the critic actually loves something!

zokier• 16 years ago

One thing I have been wondering is how will xiph.org guys react? Developing Theora much further seems bit useless now. Will they begin developing VP8 or maybe specialize Theora for something different that web video. Theora has the advantage of being bit lighter on resources.

ZeroGravitas• 16 years ago

They're very happy:

I, FOR ONE, WELCOME OUR NEW WEBM OVERLORDS:

http://xiphmont.livejournal.com/50239.html

and more officially,

Xiph.Org announces support for the WebM open media project:

http://xiphmont.livejournal.com/2010/05/20/

It's worth bearing in mind that Monty created Vorbis, as used for audio for WebM, but Theora was donated from On2's VP3 so there may be less sense of ownership. Plus their basic mission is royalty-free, open-source friendly media so this is a big thing for them.

They seem to be hinting that they can let Google do the publicity and get back into their core competency of R&D for future formats that will be substantially better than encumbered alternatives.

Free Software Foundation statement on WebM and VP8

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