[gentoo-dev] Re: [gentoo-dev-announce] Last rites: www-plugins/gnash

[Duncan]

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