Video: Alan Cox and the state of free software
by The editorial team
In this year’s Red Hat Magazine survey, you told us overwhelmingly that Alan Cox was the Red Hat person you wanted to hear from. Recently we had the chance to walk a windy beach with none other.
This video is the first in a three-part series addressing patents, open standards, and the challenges facing the free software community.
Download this video: [Ogg Theora]
Video and production by Tim Kiernan, Kim Jokisch, Jim Haverkamp, and Kristin Hondros .
Video and production by Tim Kiernan, Kim Jokisch, Jim Haverkamp, and Kristin Hondros .
December 19th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Could have been interesting but Alan is being too abstract, dude.
December 19th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
could you be more specific?
December 19th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Nice video, but quick complaint: Please don’t letterbox 16:9 films into a 4:3 download. When watching full-screen on a 16:9 display the film only fills the middle half of the screen. Media plays can handle native 16:9 files just fine, and will automatically letterbox it (or not) to fit any size of display.
December 20th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Excuse me for being vitriolic, but this is a series about patents and open standards, presented in a Flash container?
December 20th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Amir, you’ll notice that we offer it as an Ogg as well. We want people to see the video, plain and simple. And, unfortunately some people out there can’t play Oggs, so when they try to play it and it doesn’t work, a good majority of people will just give up.
We don’t want that. We want them to get the message and Flash is something that virtually everyone (who can’t play ogg) can play. We could have gone with Quicktime or Windows Media Player as well, but I think flash is the best of all of the other evils.
So, there’s a tradeoff – do we want to get the message across or do we want to only display stuff as Oggs? It’s a tough call, but I think by offering both and letting people know the difference, we stand a much better chance of changing the way things work.
Thanks!
~Colby
December 21st, 2007 at 3:53 am
It’s an interesting video. The comment however that really annoyed me was Alan saying how difficult is it to get free software into schools, particularly in the UK. I work in a UK high school and the problem is not the schools it’s the Linux companies like Redhat. They just don’t know how to deal with schools. I have the approval of the Head to go ahead with Linux. Basically if I can prove what I have said about Linux he will support a change and Windows will be history. With that support ( and I take my hat off to him ) I contacted Redhat, Ubuntu and Novell. This was about a year ago and so far Ubuntu have ignored me. Novell have sent me three emails saying they will be in contact soon and Redhat…well that’s the interesting one. Initially they were quite keen but as time went on they lost interest. I have put Ububutu and Novell lack of response down to them just not being interested in schools, why else would they just basically ignore us. Redhat however, it seems, just doesn’t understand schools. Schools work at a glacial pace. Any major change has to be done in the summer holidays. Students have project that run for long periods. For example a student may start a Access project in year 12 that runs for two years. Sometimes I find Linux so painful. Here we are, with a basic go ahead, money to spend if needed, 99% of the skills ( I think ! ) and can we get any help.. can we !&^%*
December 21st, 2007 at 6:42 am
Colby, I know it’s a difficult subject and we could get into an endless discussion. I can’t play the theora codec on my linux box at work, too. The Flash player itself isn’t too bad, but at least the newer Flash streaming technology (proprietary VP6 over proprietary RTMP protocol) is definitely the worst case scenario, and I’d rather use an old evil like WM than pave the way for a new one. You use the Soerenson codec, so that’s not quite as bad.
That said, I’d say I have heard just about any argument about that topic – I’m administering the on-demand and live streaming setups at a public broadcasting station. Recently I participated in a meeting between 3 large multimedia/internet companies and technical representatives of most publicly funded German broadcasting stations (don’t be mistaken, they are not niche players like PBS, they are really big stations). An interesting discussion emerged that reflected a culture clash: the companies were raving about their newest technologies and how they would help protecting our IP assets and lower the TCO and “our” response was always: “How about using standards?”. Most irritating to them was the fact that to us it is not sufficient that their technology would reach 98% of the surfers. We said that we are publicly funded so we are responsible for making it accessible to everyone and that would basically mean we should promote standards like H.264. It’s not about making it accessible for 64bit Linux users, it’s about keeping public information open to the public.
But this is only a dream yet. I hate to say it, but we currently also publish media as Flash/VP6 (in addition to all the other proprietary stuff) for the same reasons that you gave. But even the “Flash fans” admit that the streaming part of it is a pain in the ass and needs to be replaced by something open, standardized and technically superior. So at least people inside public broadcasting companies slowly understand how bad the situation really is, also in terms of cost caused by the maintenance of a multitude of different systems. It will take years, though, to implement the open alternatives.
December 21st, 2007 at 9:41 am
Amir writes, “Most irritating to them was the fact that to us it is not sufficient that their technology would reach 98% of the surfers. We said that we are publicly funded so we are responsible for making it accessible to everyone and that would basically mean we should promote standards like H.264.”
I have to say that this is in refreshing contrast to the idiocy currently being practised at the BBC where, despite collaborating on the development of truly open audiovisual formats, the most accessible format they deploy as a mainstream Internet service is some kind of Flash-based video (or perhaps their YouTube material), excusing the disgrace that is their peer-to-peer, Windows-only iPlayer “service” by using figures like that magic 98%.
And it is especially refreshing to hear a broadcaster acknowledge the source of their funding without then trying to explain away the restrictiveness of their digital services by using words like monetization and claiming that they do not own the content that they have commissioned and that the public has (through them) paid for.
December 21st, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Amir, great point! I’m happy to see someone write back with suggestions on ways to make this whole thing more open. It’s nice to have an intelligent conversation about these types of things.
That being said, we’re more than open to any ideas on how to get our stuff out there and I admit that I wasn’t aware of the new Flash technology (VP6 vs RTMP). So, I’d love to hear any more suggestions on what you would like to see on here as far as accessibility goes.
Well, I’d love to hear from anyone – we want you to see these videos. We want you to be involved with us and we want to be involved with all of you. What can we do to get the content to you?
Feel free to write me at colby (dot) hoke (at) redhat.com.
Amir, I’d especially like to exchange emails with you.
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:36 am
Sir,
I want training material of “Redhat Linux” in PDF format.
Thanking you
Muqtadir
January 25th, 2008 at 11:02 am
[...] Video: Alan Cox on community and the enterprise. Posted by Sir Marcos In Red Hat 26Jan 08 In the second of a three-part series, Alan Cox talks about community and the enterprise. See the first episode. Download this video: [Ogg Theora] [...]
January 25th, 2008 at 11:27 am
[...] Video: Alan Cox on community and the enterprise. Posted by Sir Marcos In Fedora, RHEL, Red Hat 15Jan 08 In the second of a three-part series, Alan Cox talks about community and the enterprise. See the first episode. [...]
February 6th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Jessie
Great post. I have added you to my digg bookmark
June 21st, 2008 at 1:51 am
If you are trying to get Linux into a school system. This is easy. Download Ubuntu and burn a couple of copies. Put each copy in the cdrom drive of all the schools computers.
Machines boot up runing live linux.
To heck with distribution wars and support. Nobody needs it except if you are using Slackware. Then you need an IRC client and your set.
If you were choosing distributions for a school:
SUSE will cost you
REDHat will cost you
Ubuntu is free. At least until their money runs out.
November 30th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Hi,how can I download free Linux software in my PC?or do I want to buy any CD?please I need ur sugustion If any body knows let me know at my mail ID immediately.
November 30th, 2008 at 1:32 am
my mail ID is rathikala.m@gmail.com