[FFmpeg-devel] [V3 PATCH 0/3] Codec wrapper for librv11 and RMHD muxer/demuxer

Hendrik Leppkes h.leppkes at gmail.com
Tue Apr 24 02:25:25 EEST 2018


On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 12:47 AM, Marton Balint <cus at passwd.hu> wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, 23 Apr 2018, Ronald S. Bultje wrote:
>
>> Hi Thilo,
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 4:45 PM, Thilo Borgmann <thilo.borgmann at mail.de>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> From the users perspective I don't see why we don't have wrappers for a
>>> commercial codec.
>>
>>
>>
>> Right, that's the core thing.
>>
>> Why doesn't FFmpeg "promote" the use of this closed-source software?
>>
>> Maybe it's because some of us contribute to this project not just out of
>> utility ("I can do XYZ with it"), but out of some sort of idealism ("I
>> like
>> opensource"), trying to promote the common good of free software, kind of
>> like volunteering in some local community thing.
>
>
> That's fine, I even understand and relate to that. However, as a user, I
> utterly don't care about it, as a I user I want to use the best tool
> available today, let it be free or not, open source or not. If you are
> making it harder for me because of your _idealism_, well... please don't.

You could turn that argument easily around at Realnetworks - if the
user experience is the most important, why do we have to bend over and
take it, instead of asking Realnetworks to actually make an
open-source codec?
That would not only eliminate this discussion, but actually allow
shipping of their codec with ffmpeg onto millions of PCs - instant
support for their codec!

You can always make up some argument that somehow the users benefit
from whatever one is trying to push through, but that doesn't mean its
the right thing to do.

>
>>
>> For these contributors, "promoting" closed-source software would run
>> directly contra to this ideal.
>
>
> This is hardly a technical argument.

Does it have to be? This is pretty polarizing topic in open-source
projects in general, and alienating those people does in no way
benefit the project. So we get one wrapper for some codec that may or
may not ever even be successfull, but some contributors may lose some
of their motivation to work? Not a good deal.

- Hendrik


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