Real to plug Windows media support into Linux

[DLSS]

source : http://tinyurl.com/qb4vr

Real to plug Windows media support into Linux

SAN FRANCISCO--RealNetworks will release open-source software this year that will let Linux computers play Windows Media files.

The media delivery software company and Novell made the announcement at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo here. Novell said it will include the tool in its Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 in the fourth quarter.

Currently, Linux users can play Windows Media Video (WMV) and Windows Media Audio (WMA) content if they install closed-source modules, said Jeff Duchmann, general manager of client and digital rights management technologies at RealNetworks. That will change as the result of a licensing deal RealNetworks has signed with Microsoft and its settlement of an antitrust suit against the software giant. It will release open-source code to play the files as part of the Helix Community project it launched to bring RealNetworks technology to Linux.

"The work we're doing will all go into the Helix client," Duchmann said in an interview here. However, the software won't support digital rights management available with Windows, he added.

RealNetworks also is evaluating adding support for the AAC compression format, an audio compression format used by Apple Computer's iTunes and others, he said, though that would require further licensing actions for the company. "If we're going to do music services on other platforms, like Linux, we're going to have to support it," he said.

Duchmann added that RealNetworks also hopes to bring its music store technology to Linux.

Expanding application support is a key part of making Linux viable on desktop computers. It's a goal many companies have chased, largely unsuccessfully, for years. Novell is the largest company currently working on the idea, employing a catch-phrase of spreading Linux "from the desktop to the data center."

"We have for the first time a real alternative to the Windows desktop. Linux and open source are there," Novell Chief Technology Officer Jeffrey Jaffe said at a news conference. In particular, there's a big chance for companies to make their case as customers evaluate Microsoft's new Vista version of Windows.

"Over the next six months, there is an opportunity for the IT organizations to do a significant pilot--to find several hundred users who are knowledge workers and let them as a pilot try out our desktop," Jaffe said.

[VaKo]

Dear god no! WMV spreads to yet another platform...

[cooper]

It's there already. It's called MPlayer. And Xine can use those DLL's aswell.

[wetelectric]

I havnt used windows as my main os for a while but when i did i remember associating real player with ads and spam. Im sure i remember they used to phone home, jack your associations etc...

Have they turned a new leaf or something? Maybe its down to the bbc..meh who cares MPlayer xine & vlc

[uber_tom]

i used to have the win32codecs installed for xine, but they don't work on my 64 bit distro and mplayer sucks, so i'm kinda interested.

although i would be far happier if the format was removed from the internet altogether, it looks so cheap.... i really can't think of any other way to describe it. i can spot it a mile off.

[jool]

Without support for the DRM it's pointless anyway. For me at least, since I don't have a large unix-beard I don't really care that I don't get the source as long as it works. We all hate DRM but until the providers realize that it is only hurting the sales it will be used and the open source community will still be locked out.

And no, you can't spot the codec. What you can spot is the type of user that typicaly uses a certain codec.

[blizz]

That DRM madness is making me crazy ;-) But it's always fun to convert it to a free format (if possible). Let's crack everybody.

[PoyBoy]

I want iTunes for linux

Ill stop grumbling when that happens