7 posts and columns on Free Software Foundation

Codec Capers: Google Drops H.264 Support in Chrome

in News on January 11, 2011 at 3:42 pm PT

Here’s one way to spur adoption of your new video codec. End your browser’s support for a widely used rival codec. That’s what Google did today, announcing that its Chrome browser will ship without native support for H.264.

Google’s “Royalty-Free” WebM Video May Not Be Royalty-Free for Long

in News on May 20, 2010 at 3:45 pm PT

The announcement of Google’s new WebM video format and release of the VP8 video codec as an open standard have been hailed by some as the move that will free the Web from the proprietary H.264 codec widely used for online video today. That seems ideal. But like many ideals, it may prove to be unattainable, particularly now that video standards group MPEG LA is mulling a patent pool for VP8.

A Boy Named Sue-Happy

in News on October 19, 2009 at 9:13 am PT

Looks like Darl McBride, SCO’s “sue-happy cowboy” CEO, has seen his last roundup. In a new 8-K filing with the Security and Exchange Commission, the company reveals that, under the order of a bankruptcy court, it has eliminated the chief executive officer and president positions and consequently sacked McBride.
thrown

Not the Dreaded Blue Sky of Death Again …

in News on October 2, 2008 at 12:00 am PT

If Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Free Software Foundation founder Richard M. Stallman are planning a membership drive for their new Anti-Cloud Computing Coalition, they best not go knocking on Steve Ballmer’s door. Because the Microsoft CEO might not agree with their assessment of the Cloud Computing sobriquet as “complete gibberish,” “idiocy,” “stupidity,” and “worse than stupidity.” At an event in London today, Ballmer said Microsoft will debut its own “cloud operating system” at its Professional Developer Conference at the end of this month.

QOTD

It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: It’s a marketing hype campaign. Somebody is saying this is inevitable — and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it’s very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true. One reason you should not use Web applications to do your computing is that you lose control. It’s just as bad as using a proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else’s Web server, you’re defenseless. You’re putty in the hands of whoever developed that software.

– Free Software Foundation founder Richard M. Stallman joins Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s Cloud Computing Skeptics Support Group