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Why BBC is Microsoft Media (Video)

Posted by schestowitz on · 19 comments
BoycottNovell; By Roy Schestowitz 		Mail this story
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Watch the BBC getting grilled at the Parliament over its blind servitude to Microsoft, which it simply cannot defend

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Comments (19)

tracyanne ·
Roy once again you talk through a hole in your rear end. Either that or there's something between your ears that has finally leaked out.

Quoting:I've used the BBC web site on Linux, using Opera for Linux. It works fine. The streams for radio and video work with VCL Player, too. So I don't know why the caption writer on that video is so scathing. Perhaps it was written by a Microsoft employee who was trying to dissuade people from switching to Linux. Or maybe they are just ignorant. If a person has gone to all the trouble of installing Linux, setting up their internet card and getting used to the different programs, surely they would have the sense to download the apropriate browser to view a favourite web site in. Opera for Linux is slick, pretty, fast and has most of the plug-ins needed for viewing videos and listening to audio streams.

Even on my Windows rig, the BBC streams default to RealPlayer (which is also available for Linux), NOT Windows Media Player, in fact, they won't play in Windows Media Player so the accusation that the BBC is in Mocrosoft's pocket doesn't bear examination. Some people just like criticising big corporations for the sake of it. On this occasion, I think it is unjustified. That video was made a week or so after the launch of the BBC iPlayer, there were bound to be glitches at the beginning.

There may be limitations on what people outside the UK can view, but that's neither Microsoft's nor the BBC's fault. It's a copyright issue. It's the programme makers that put the restrictions on it, not the broadcasters.

For just £139.50 per houshold (£47.00 if you only have a black and white TV, nothing for just the radio if you don't have a TV), we get 8 National radio networks, 1 International radio network, 8 TV stations, a myriad of local radio and TV stations, a world-class web site with downloading and streaming facilities so that you don't have to miss programmes. We also have world-class news, documentaries, drama, children's programmes, soaps, educational and entertainment programming on both radio and TV. The BBC gives us better choice and more original programming for £11.63 per month than most cable networks (if you exclude the BBC programmes that they relay) do for double that amount. BBC stationsare always free-to-air in the UK. What do these people want? Jeez!


JohnSA @ Freethiners Pub on yuku http://freethinkerspub.yuku.com/topic/6045
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tuxchick ·
Meh, once it's too much work to figure out what the point is. A text summary would be nice- sitting through an 8-minute muddy video, even with snarky captions, is not my idea of a good commentary/analysis.

While having RealPlayer and Flash are better than nothing, both are closed proprietary applications with their own problems. Flash is chronically far behind on Linux, I guess Adobe is too poor and untalented to fund development, and RealPlayer is little better than spyware. Opera is a great browser, but it too is closed. When it comes to communications, especially publicly-funded communications, I can't see any justification for anything other than completely open, unencumbered transports.
thenixedreport ·
On that note, I do have a question for everyone.... If there was a portable music playing device that was open specs-wise, used the Linux kernel, and played only free formats, would you buy it?
bigg ·
> would you buy it

How much would it cost? If it were reasonably priced, I'd buy it. One of the reasons I don't currently have one is that I've seen my wife trying to buy songs for her iPod using something other than iTunes. I have too much respect for myself to pay money to be treated like that.
jdixon ·
> ...would you buy it?

Probably not. I listen to music at home, in the car, and at work. I have CD players/computers at all three places. I don't really need a portable music player.
tuxchick ·
thenixedreport, I might. Back in the vinyl days the first thing I did with a new LP was copy it to a cassette tape. Commercially-recorded cassettes were such low quality they weren't worth anything to me, and the first scratch on a new LP is heartbreaking. I've stayed away from digital music players because of all the DRM hassles and all the silly folderol over where to acquire the actual music- I can't afford to keep a music lawyer on retainer. But if I could rip my own songs from CDs in a nice open lossless format, or copy high-quality downloadable formats to a portable player, and not worry about jackbooted MAFIAA thugs or stupid DRM schemes, then yeah maybe. As it stands now I'm about fed up with the whole industry and mostly amuse myself by sawing away on my fiddle. The dogs do the singing.
thenixedreport ·
Okay, so imagine if the device not only utilized free formats, it also did so without DRM?

Besides, wouldn't it be awesome to grab some tunes from Jamendo and put it onto such a device? After all, songs on that site are licensed under Creative Commons. :)
rijelkentaurus ·
A lot of portable devices play OGG files, they just rarely say they do.
thenixedreport ·
I'm talking about a portable device that would not only play OGG, but would say so right on the package. It would be for FOSS enthusiasts. ;)
happyfeet ·
Quoting: sawing away on my fiddle


@TC - hey, a fellow fiddler!

(I don't have dogs but if I did they would probably be singing too...)
Scott_Ruecker ·
Did I or did I not see something in the video that said that the player cost $130 million dollars or pounds to develop? Or am I just seeing things?
tracyanne ·
there's a very interesting article about the BBC and Linux in this issue http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=New... of Linux Format, a UK Linux magazine.

The Linux people won.
NoDough ·
Quoting:Did I or did I not see something in the video that said that the player cost $130 million dollars or pounds to develop? Or am I just seeing things?
At 46 seconds in a subtitle. It doesn't specify dollars or pounds, but refers the viewer to groklaw.net. A quick search on Groklaw yields this post [url=http://www.groklaw.net/comment.php?mode=display&sid=20071108235140236&title=iPlayer development cost £130 million pounds&type=article&order=&hideanonymous=0&pid=644095#c644300]http://www.groklaw.net/comment.php?mode=display&sid=20071108...[/url] which specifies pounds.
techiem2 ·
Quoting:On that note, I do have a question for everyone.... If there was a portable music playing device that was open specs-wise, used the Linux kernel, and played only free formats, would you buy it?


/me looks at his Cowon iAudio X5 dual booting original firmware and Rockbox

Ok, I'm not sure how open the specs are on it (and they don't make that model anymore anyway), but they did make it very clear on the site that it supports ogg and works in Linux and Mac. Of course, with Rockbox on it, I never bother to boot the original firmware anymore.

But yes, if someone made one specifically targeting FOSS folks, I'd definitely look into it. /me wonders how well the Openmoko Freerunner will do with media playback....
thenixedreport ·
Reason why I've been asking: I've been thinking up such a device in my head...
Scott_Ruecker ·
So with the Dollar sitting at about 2 to 1 against the British Pound, that's $230 million dollars..

For a Windows only media player..

They soaked the BBC for a cool $230 million..

I'm impressed.

NoDough ·
Quoting:So with the Dollar sitting at about 2 to 1 against the British Pound, that's $230 million dollars..
That's 260 million US dollars. I can understand missing by $30 million today, but that used to be a lot of money. :)
tuxchick ·
hi happyfeet,

The cats aren't too crazy about it either. I tell ya, artists get no respect!
Sander_Marechal ·
Quoting:On that note, I do have a question for everyone.... If there was a portable music playing device that was open specs-wise, used the Linux kernel, and played only free formats, would you buy it?


It depends on whether you consider mp3 an open format. No mp3 support == no sale. About half my library is in mp3 and I'm not willing to convert that to ogg (converting one lossy format to another lossy format is bad for audio quality).

If it has mp3 support I'd buy one for my girlfriend. Personally I don't need one. I'm getting an OpenMoko Freerunner and listen to my mpd/icecast server over wifi and gsm broadband all day long.

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