Re: Songbird porting...

Dick asks:
> And why is songbird so much better than rhythmbox that
is provided by
gnome already on opensolaris?

Steve and Brian gave good answers. My answer deals with
Rhythmbox being great for what it does and it came before
SongBird publically existed (I've package maintained
Rhythmbox on Sun Solaris 8 before OpenSolaris.org existed
and before it was a official part of Sun JDS). SongBird
0.5RC2 reflects the Apple iTunes 'look-and-feel' that some
iPod music management users may like. SongBird comes with
extensions, iPod support, and many nice features under one
umbrella. SongBird is simply my iTunes contender - but
Rhythmbox is still up there as well.

James Cornell asks:
> Supported codecs out of the box? (Add in comments about
legal rights
> too if Sun's really concerned about it)  Sun's MP3
codec is bundled with OpenSolaris/Solaris, right?

The limitations are in the front-end audio tools. The
back-end GStreamer 0.10 audio framework was extended to
support the modern audio codecs available under Linux/BSD.
Use audio conversion apps to support the legacy audio
codecs. 

Legacy audio codecs as in:
"8svx aif aifc aiff aiffc al au auto avr caf cdda cdr
cvs cvsd dat dvms fap fssd gsm hcom ima ircam la lu mat mat4
mat5 maud mp2 mp3 nist nul null ogg paf prc pvf raw s3 sb
sd2 sds sf sl smp snd sndfile sndt sou sph sw txw u3 u4 ub
ul uw vms voc vorbis vox w64 wav wve xa xi"
 
~ Ken Mays
 
 
This message posted from opensolaris.org
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Brian Cameron wrote:
>
> James:
>
>> Kinda funny that essentially every common codec is
"legacy"... makes 
>> me laugh a bit since they are still in use and are
essential to 
>> end-user transparency.  I really am a tad ticked
off about the GPL 
>> even more now, a step backwards for all media
projects on all 
>> non-commercial systems, just pathetic if you ask
me.  :-(
>>
>> Getting exceptions for every SINGLE gstreamer
plugin, backend, 
>> frontend, program, library, what the heck is wrong
with the world... 
>> sheesh.
>
> GStreamer and its plugins are LGPL, which has no legal
issue with
> non-free code.  The problem is only with the actual
end-user
> application.  If the end-user application is GPL, then
it needs an
> exception.  Also there can be problems if an
application (or GStreamer)
> links in a GPL library.  For example, we had to replace
the GStreamer
> CDDA plugin when we realized that we were using libcdio
which is GPL.
>
> The GNOME community has already relicensed totem with
such an exception
> and is currently working to relicense the other popular
programs
> (gnome-media, rhythmbox, and sound-juicer).  It's too
early to tell if
> they will be successful with relicensing, but I have
high hopes that we
> will soon have a media stack in Solaris that can use
GStreamer with
> non-free plugins.  This might mean replacing rhythmbox
with Songbird,
> for example.
>
> But the situation with the GPL isn't quite as
complicated as you suggest
> since LGPL doesn't have any issue with non-free
plugins.
>
> Brian
>
Thanks Brian.  I know about the LGPL and linking, I wasn't
aware that 
the frontend was the issue.  But okay, just hope it all gets
settled soon.

James
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James:

> Kinda funny that essentially every common codec is
"legacy"... makes me 
> laugh a bit since they are still in use and are
essential to end-user 
> transparency.  I really am a tad ticked off about the
GPL even more now, 
> a step backwards for all media projects on all
non-commercial systems, 
> just pathetic if you ask me.  :-(
> 
> Getting exceptions for every SINGLE gstreamer plugin,
backend, frontend, 
> program, library, what the heck is wrong with the
world... sheesh.

GStreamer and its plugins are LGPL, which has no legal issue
with
non-free code.  The problem is only with the actual
end-user
application.  If the end-user application is GPL, then it
needs an
exception.  Also there can be problems if an application (or
GStreamer)
links in a GPL library.  For example, we had to replace the
GStreamer
CDDA plugin when we realized that we were using libcdio
which is GPL.

The GNOME community has already relicensed totem with such
an exception
and is currently working to relicense the other popular
programs
(gnome-media, rhythmbox, and sound-juicer).  It's too early
to tell if
they will be successful with relicensing, but I have high
hopes that we
will soon have a media stack in Solaris that can use
GStreamer with
non-free plugins.  This might mean replacing rhythmbox with
Songbird,
for example.

But the situation with the GPL isn't quite as complicated as
you suggest
since LGPL doesn't have any issue with non-free plugins.

Brian

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Ken Mays wrote:
> Dick asks:
>   
>> And why is songbird so much better than rhythmbox
that is provided by
>>     
> gnome already on opensolaris?
>
> Steve and Brian gave good answers. My answer deals with
Rhythmbox being great for what it does and it came before
SongBird publically existed (I've package maintained
Rhythmbox on Sun Solaris 8 before OpenSolaris.org existed
and before it was a official part of Sun JDS). SongBird
0.5RC2 reflects the Apple iTunes 'look-and-feel' that some
iPod music management users may like. SongBird comes with
extensions, iPod support, and many nice features under one
umbrella. SongBird is simply my iTunes contender - but
Rhythmbox is still up there as well.
>
> James Cornell asks:
>   
>> Supported codecs out of the box? (Add in comments
about legal rights
>> too if Sun's really concerned about it)  Sun's MP3
codec is bundled with OpenSolaris/Solaris, right?
>>     
>
> The limitations are in the front-end audio tools. The
back-end GStreamer 0.10 audio framework was extended to
support the modern audio codecs available under Linux/BSD.
Use audio conversion apps to support the legacy audio
codecs. 
>
> Legacy audio codecs as in:
> "8svx aif aifc aiff aiffc al au auto avr caf cdda
cdr cvs cvsd dat dvms fap fssd gsm hcom ima ircam la lu mat
mat4 mat5 maud mp2 mp3 nist nul null ogg paf prc pvf raw s3
sb sd2 sds sf sl smp snd sndfile sndt sou sph sw txw u3 u4
ub ul uw vms voc vorbis vox w64 wav wve xa xi"
>  
> ~ Ken Mays
>  
>  
> This message posted from opensolaris.org
> _______________________________________________
> desktop-discuss mailing list
> desktop-discussopensolaris.org
>   
Kinda funny that essentially every common codec is
"legacy"... makes me 
laugh a bit since they are still in use and are essential to
end-user 
transparency.  I really am a tad ticked off about the GPL
even more now, 
a step backwards for all media projects on all
non-commercial systems, 
just pathetic if you ask me.  :-(

Getting exceptions for every SINGLE gstreamer plugin,
backend, frontend, 
program, library, what the heck is wrong with the world...
sheesh.

James
_______________________________________________
desktop-discuss mailing list
desktop-discussopensolaris.org