Re: media files

["J.B. Nicholson-Owens" <jbn forestfield org>]

Luis Villa wrote:
> I'm hoping to get these onto a test liveCD shortly, we'll see about 
> that :) Anyway, this means I'm going for 'good' and not 'perfect'.
> I'd love, of course, for others to come and help out and get it
> closer to perfect.

On this wiki, you'll find DaveNeary saying:

> Perhaps I don't understand all the issues, but don't we already ship
> codecs for mp3? Plus, the point is to showcase the GNOME desktop, and
> a big part of that is interoperability with existing 'de facto'
> standards like .doc, .xls, .ppt and .mp3

As for interoperating with MP3 files, that's just not possible in 
software patent encumbered countries like the US because there is no 
free software MP3 player (the ostensibly free MP3 programs can't be 
distributed without paying the MP3 patent license fee).  Now, 
technologically speaking, this is not a problem because there's nothing 
MP3s can do that we can't do better with Ogg Vorbis.  Anyone concerned 
with supporting superior technology has no problem dumping their MP3s 
and using unencumbered Ogg Vorbis instead.  But some are not concerned 
with software freedom or (in this particular case) using the best 
available technology.

Conflicts between software freedom and interoperability are not 
addressed in the wiki page and related GNOME marketing thread I've read 
thus far.  Is it more important to distribute software that can play 
patent-encumbered and proprietary formats, or is it more important to 
showcase free software?  Or is the goal something completely different?

Clearly the parent post is calling for feedback, but it's hard to know 
what to say about the project when one doesn't know what the goals are.