On Sat, 7 Feb 2004, Peter Backlund wrote:
> Shipping software which is open source but which enables the use
> of proprietary plugins easily and is not very useful without
> those proprietary plugins, does not exactly promote "a general
> purpose operating system exclusively from open source software",
> and so that idea would completely go against the stated goals of
> the Fedora Project.
The Helix Player has the capabilities to play MP3, MPEG-4, AMR
(narrowband codec), Ogg Vorbis and H.263 in the OSI-approved parts of
the code base. So I wouldn't exactly call it useless without the RA/RV
plugins. But sure, the thing that distinguishes it from other media
players is of course RA/RV.
The majority of the codecs to play the above formats, are either
proprietary, or are IP encumbered, including MP3, MPEG-4 and
others. Ogg Vorbis is the only one I recognize above which is
truely free. We don't need Helix player to play Ogg vorbis,
I've been using ogg for a few years now and have never installed
Helix player personally. I've also used several of the other
formats without using Helix.
> I for one would oppose the inclusion of any proprietary software
> into the Fedora Core or Extras, or any software (open source or
> otherwise) which exists purely to enable layering of proprietary
> software or plugins on top of that.
>
> That doesn't stop people from going and downloading the stuff
> anyway if they want to use it. Please don't try to change the
> project's mandated goals.
Point taken. Perhaps the Helix Player should go entirely into a
repository outside of Fedora Core/Extras. It might be a bit more
difficult to get permission to host RA/RV, but certainly not
impossible.
www.livna.org perhaps would be best.
--
Mike A. Harris
ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris
OS Systems Engineer - XFree86 maintainer - Red Hat