XGL and the future of X Windows

[Behdad Esfahbod]

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006, James Knott wrote:

> Well, I have installed xvid, which got me absolutely nothing.  As for
> "xvid" being in the URL, that means absolutely nothing to someone, such
> as myself, who has no interest whatsoever in multimedia, except as a
> tool to play files.  I am only a MM user, who's not interested in having
> to track down the latest codec etc.  If it doesn't play with what I've
> got or can easily add, I'm not interested.  There are many MM formats
> that play well in SUSE, right out of the box or in Windows.  Why should
> this file be so difficult for someone who has no interest in MM stuff to
> play?  What's wrong with the existing formats that already play on my
> systems?


The only widespread video compression formats that compress
significantly better than MPEG are DivX, Mpeg4, XviD, Theora, and
Real, Microsoft, and Apple formats.  Of these, only XviD and
Theora are not patented AND can be replayed using Free Software.
Of these two, Theora is significantly harder to get played on
non-Linux systems.  That leaves you with XviD.  It's nothing new
either, it has been in use as a Free alternative to DivX for a
few years...

If you are not happy that it doesn't play on your operating
system, the right to talk about it (other than asking for advice)
is your operating system's bugtracking system or video
publisher's one (and those happen to be very near in this case).
None of them follow TLUG mailing list I believe.


--behdad
http://behdad.org/

"Commandment Three says Do Not Kill, Amendment Two says Blood Will Spill"
	-- Dan Bern, "New American Language"
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