[Klug-general] Re: Mark Shuttleworth interview

[Karl Lattimer]

> > > Yes but were not saying that.
> > > We are saying use a tool that everyone can use. Not just a minority
> > > group of users who all happern to use the same operating system,
> >
> > I don't see how that applies... until
> >
> > > Ok in
> > > this case that minority group happerns to be the majority.
> >
> > YOU DESTROY YOUR OWN ARGUMENT WITH A LAUGHABLE CONTRADICTION!!!
> >
> No I don't Majority is not the same as Everyone.

You said minority group, followed by reversing the argument by swapping
minority for majority, that is a contradiction in your statement. so in
fact you do.

> 
> Ie Everyone is made up of Microsoft Users (Majority in this case) plus
> Linux Users plus Mac Users plus BeOS etc etc
> The aim is to get everyone. 

Actually the aim is to reach a significant percentage of the available
demographic, and cater to the majority, by proxy excluding a minority.
Heck, I would love to have a playstation 2 in sky blue with a lightning
effect like those disc things you see in pubs, is it gonna happen, hell
no... I'm a minority, I _COULD_ modify an existing ps2, this would be
more along the lines of this majority vs. minority debate.

> In this case Microsoft plus Linux plus Mac
> not just Microsoft. This is the media the aim to get as many people as
> possible. Its not my fault the split is not equal.

The truth about this is simply there isn't a media streaming platform
available which can reach everyone, only a majority, and each company
has to weigh up license costs with distribution costs with bandwidth
costs etc... RealPlayer is closest to everyone, but this doesn't come
preloaded on any OS except SLED 10 AFAIK. Mac makes up about 12% of the
desktop market last time I looked, microsoft are around 80% and other
(linux/beos/solaris/bsd/nexenta/qnx) takes up the remainder. Take this
into account, I'm sure that 90% of companies would rather not have their
audience download an extra piece of software in order to get something
to play, isn't that what the windows reduced media edition case was
about after all, and of course that minority of mac users can still get
wmp for mac which integrates perfectly, with crossover office you can
even get apple quicktime AND windows media working inside of native
firefox.

Ask yourself this question "If I were to distribute media to a mass
audience of uncertain demographic what format would I choose and how"

my response at the end of the email.

So if what you're saying is that channel4 should force people to
download extra software in order to get it to play on some platforms,
what should that extra software be, real player for everyone, or windows
media player for mac, crossover office for linux. By excluding a
minority and requesting that they are the ones that carry the brunt of
the getting it to work hassle they save the majority who don't need to
go through any rigmarole.

Its a numbers game, of course another way would be to offer choice,
however to do this they would need to pay for both real player and wmp.
BBC did this, it cost them a fortune but its great that they thought
about it like that. 

I think this argument is dead, and I wouldn't consider c4 in the wrong
about it, it is ironic, but after all does it affect me in the long
term? not at all because I know fine well that in a short few months
everyone will be looking at fluendo simply because you can support all
formats/platforms based on client communication and a kickass streaming
server which will allow multiple format streaming including real, wm and
theora simultaneously at a far cheaper license cost than ms or real can
offer.

Not to mention that the quality of the video surpasses both proprietary
formats ;)

The fluendo philosophy is to not exclude anyone and to not require any
extra effort on their part, this is the way we should all be thinking.

K,

My response to my open question, if you said you'd choose X open source
package because its open source/free then have you considered patent
issues wrt VLC for instance, have you considered the costs associated
with legal issues surrounding patent infringement, did you even stop to
think that you're own petty ideology concerning how these companies
should behave does not make them money, does not help them reach larger
audiences, and would only serve to isolate the demographic we are trying
to convert to use free and open software.

If you chose real then have you considered that it is more expensive
than WM, incurs its own issues and requires the majority of users to
download extra software. 

You have to see it from their point of view. Stop sticking by your
morals like they're the most important thing in the world, people die
because of corporations greed for oil and you want to complain about one
of the best news agencies behaviour over media formats!