[GRLUG] Adobe, RealNetworks back Linux on MIDs

[networkman at triton.net]

Thanks John. :)  I'm just starting to get back into Linux again, so I'm
not "up" on what all has been going on.  Your explaination makes a good
deal of sense to me.

Rich



> Presentations?  Maybe we could have a debate about the
> benefits of closed sourced software supporting linux?
> ;)
>
> I don't see anything inherently bad in it. At least it
> shows interest in linux and helps to make linux
> products more competitive in the market as well as
> generating more corporate interest.
>
> As long as consumers can choose which programs to
> install and uninstall, closed and open source should
> be able to  co-exist (as long as you know the security
> risks and bug risks).  The problem comes if you "have"
> to run it and have no other alternative.
>
> Yes, Adobe Flash is by no means perfect and it allowed
> hackers to win the Pwn to Own challenge:
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20080331/bs_nf/59043
>
> I am told that Ubuntu was just as vulnerable by people
> who say they know a lot about security. But Microsoft,
> for one reason or another, is a popular target for
> hackers ;).
>
> The ideal end of any project is to become "open
> source" (and many if not most projects should start
> that way from the beginning), closed source isn't
> necessarily a bad thing for development:
>
> http://discovermagazine.com/2007/dec/long-live-closed-source-software/
>
> I think specifically using Adobe Flash as a negative
> is a bit unfair since Flash is a relatively recent
> acquisition of Adobe (they have had only one major
> boxed release of it I think?).
>
> Most of the people who work at Adobe are all about
> open source, but they feel they need to develop things
> more at their company and of course "the suits" need
> to make money.  The main reason given why they never
> wrote Photoshop for Linux is that they never felt they
> could make money off of it, which may be one reason
> why they are going with the web Photoshop project.
>
> I think a better Adobe counterexample is pdf, which
> they developed and has been a format used for almost
> forever in the linux community, and Adobe has turned
> it over to make an ISO standard.
> http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7542722606.html
>
> Even before it was submitted to be an ISO standard
> there were a great deal of 3rd party apps that you
> could use for pdfs:
>
> http://www.cogniview.com/convert-pdf-to-excel/post/pdf-editing-creation-50-open-sourcefree-alternatives-to-adobe-acrobat/
>
> As for RealMedia . . . yeah . . . at least it is a
> voice of support for linux, albeit one I don't really
> care for.  They don't offer anything usefully
> innovative but always becomes a default standard
> because they have been around for awhile. When it
> started out it was pretty cool (for a closed-source
> product) but then it started getting bloated with ads
> and killed itself.  I would definitely be happier with
> a xiph.org alternative codec (theora).
>
> Even if RealMedia is an impending failure, at least it
> promotes more work on linux, and failures can always
> teach lessons.
>
> --- Tim Schmidt <timschmidt at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 2:33 PM, Rich Nagel
>> <networkman at triton.net> wrote:
>> > Huh?  Why?  I'd think that backing from Adobe &
>> RealNetworks would be a GOOD
>> >  thing. :/
>> >
>> >  Please explain.
>>
>> Flash and Real's video codec are two of the very few
>> pieces of closed
>> source software many people still use regularly.
>> Seeing them spread
>> is not a good thing.
>>
>> A Good ThingTM would be Adobe contributing
>> programmer time,
>> documentation, or money toward Gnash or swfdec to
>> encourage
>> interoperability and standards.  I, for one, am not
>> excited to see
>> closed, buggy, impossible to fix software spread
>> onto platforms I have
>> a chance of using.
>>
>> --tim
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