Probably the biggest thing to ever happen to Linux

[Brandon Sandrowicz]

On Fri, Aug 18, 2006 at 09:24:36AM -0400, ted leslie wrote:
> as quoted in the article
> 
> "We have for the first time a real alternative to the Windows desktop.
> Linux and open source are there,"
> 
> http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39281014,00.htm
> 
> i almost don't believe it,
> i wonder if it only going to be wmv8 and not 9 or something stupid like
> that,
> or maybe MS will then standardize on wmv10 ?
> 
> now games are the only thing left that Linux users can't get (for the
> most part).
> 
> at least i will finally get to play wmv's on a 64 bit arch. and not have
> to dick around with 32bit apps and 32bit dll's
> 
> -tl
> 
> 
> 


FFMpeg has a working wmv3/wmv9/vp 1/whatever decoder in CVS I believe.  And 
Microsoft isnt going to fool around too much with the WMV v9 standard for a
couple of reasons:

1) They pushed through and have gotten it admitted as a standard

2) They have it on as part of the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD specs.  (Players have to be
    able to decode WMV v9, MPEG4, MPEG2, etc to be certified)
    
They're not going to make it a moving target for hardware companies to try and
embed into their players.  For the time being, I know that at least one of the
new HD players is just a linux box, but as the marketplace matures, they are 
going to have embedded decoders on chip (for better performance, less power 
usage, less heat, smaller/better form factor, etc).  Those aren't going to be
replaced everytime Microsoft decide to extend the spec.  I think that for the 
time being even as Microsoft pushes WMV v10 out the door, the majority will be
stuck on WMV v9.

Brandon Sandrowicz

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