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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, March 17 2013 @ 09:29 PM EDT |
Though it's true you don't have to pay to play most file formats, that's only
the case if you have some technical understanding of file formats and player
capabilities.
For the majority, playing a video file is just to click a "watch video
webcast" button on a web page where the computer does its magic and the
required video just plays.
The fact that the button links to ".wxv" file which can be manipulated
via some mms:/protocol and expose a ".wmv" file is just too much black
magic for most users. And due to their ignorance, they would just buy media
player on their shiny new windows 8 locked down machine as it does not come as
standard. This just to play ".wmv" files.
Such problems can be avoided if governments require true open file formats be
used by all of its branches as part of an open government philosophy. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: PJ on Monday, March 18 2013 @ 04:32 PM EDT |
You know, every time I mention something like
this, someone posts something like this.
As it happens, my Linux box is broken, in the
sense that my Acer won't let me put the current
Linux kernel on it. If there is a solution, I
haven't found it yet, and I've tried a lot of
solutions.
So it's on the sidelines. So I had to go back to
an old MacBook Pro, and on that you can't view
the file, unless you agree to a thingie that makes
Windows Media available. But I stopped using Microsoft
Windows precisely because years ago I read the
terms of use and was unwilling to agree to them.
I still feel the same way, so the fact that Apple
has maybe paid to use it in Quicktime doesn't
change my complete unwillingness to use it. The
issue isn't that I don't know how technically. I
know how. I refuse to use a product that comes
with those terms of use. And I should not have
to. That is the point.
All the rest is arguing about how many angels can
fit on the head of a pin, in that you are
missing my point: I don't want to use Windows Media
under any scenario, and that includes a virtual
setup or any other situation you can imagine.
If my Linux box was available and running, I could
solve the problem, but that solves the problem for
1% of the population, you know, and that is
not acceptable either.
The government shouldn't be using proprietary
software and forcing us to use it too. Period.
If they want to use it, at least make it available
in a free as in freedom also. Not everyone
cares about the free as in freedom part, but I
do, and that is why the argument that there are
ways to use proprietary formats doesn't get the
job done for me.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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