[desktop-discuss] Comments on SXDE 01/08 from a newish user

[James Cornell]

Brian Cameron wrote:
>
> Darran/James:
>
>> 2.) I agree, since GIMP is included with Solaris/OpenSolaris, though 
>> most people don't work in RAW, let alone does most cameras for users 
>> have RAW image support, but nonetheless this is a reasonable request 
>> and I think another RFE is in order if you think it would be 
>> beneficial without too much work involved to make it happen.
>
> dcraw was ARC'ed as LSARC 2008/058.  This isn't UFRaw, but I believe it
> provides some functionalities useful for importing camera RAW formats.
> /usr/bin/dcraw seems to be already installed on Solaris Nevada build
> 86.
>
>> 3.) Their website doesn't take into account the GPL linking pollution 
>> with patented software, Sun cannot risk such a thing until every 
>> gstreamer backend has an exception if it is regular GPLv2 (LGPL, MIT, 
>> BSD do not have this problem)
>
> Note that Java Media Player and RealPlayer support MP3 audio.  So
> there are other audio programs on Solaris which do support MP3
> out-of-the-box.  The problem is just with GStreamer.
>
> Rhythmbox does support MP3 if you have the GStreamer plugin installed.
> However, since Rhythmbox is under the GPL license it cannot be
> distributed with a non-GPL compatible GStreamer plugin.  The MP3 plugin
> is non-GPL compatible because it isn't free, you must pay a licensing
> fee to use it.
>
> Note that there is no GPL violation with end-users separately
> installing non-GPL compatible plugins and using them with GPL
> programs like rhythmbox.  You just can not distribute the two
> together.
>
> So, you can download the MP3 plugin for no charge from the Fluendo
> webstore, and use it legally.  It is no-charge because Fluendo purchased
> an unlimited use license and they are kind enough to provide the plugin
> to Linux and Solaris users without passing the cost to the end-user.
>
>   https://shop.fluendo.com
>
> They do charge for their WindowsMedia Audio and Video plugins.  They
> aren't too expensive, and they do make Solaris work with these
> popular media formats.  Which is nice.
>
> Regarding DVD playback:
>
> Historically Sun has not pursued getting licenses needed for playing
> DVD's.  Also note that most DVD's are encoded in media formats like
> MPEG-2 which require additional licenses.  Obviously Sun could decide to
> acquire such licensing at any time, but I am not aware of any such
> plans.
>
> I am currently working with Fluendo to try and make available legal
> Solaris MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and AC-3 codecs.  If this happens, this gets
> Solaris one step closer to supporting DVD's (unencrypted ones at least).
>
> There are some 3rd parties which seem interested in providing a
> legal DVD Player for Solaris, such as Fluendo.  However, I do not
> believe any such players are available at the moment.  So I don't
> believe there are any legal solutions I can recommend.
>
>> MP3 is forthcoming, Sun pays for royalties, it's a GPL linking issue 
>> with gstreamer backends which are dangerous to have lingering for 
>> combination of any gstreamer backend GPL licensed with non-GPL causes 
>> pollution and causes pain. 
>
> It is hard to say how long it will take to resolve this issue.  I am
> currently working with the various GStreamer projects to add licensing
> exceptions so that non-GPL compatible GStreamer plugins can be
> distributed with applications such as rhythmbox.  Our hope is that we
> can work with the community to resolve these issues and ship a MP3
> plugin with GStreamer in the future.  In the meantime, downloading and
> using the Fluendo MP3 plugin is the best solution.
>
> > (Note, IMHO, its quality seriously sucks, it
>> lags badly for no reason)
>
> I have never noticed the Fluendo MP3 codec having lagging issues.  Are
> you using Sparc or x86?  Sun used to ship a GStreamer MP3 plugin.  Did
> you also notice lagging issues with that plugin?  I would expect both
> plugins to have the same issues since they are built using the same
> code and spec-files.
>
> Brian
x86 (Opteron 1218 specifically) on B86.  The old plugin didn't seem to 
do it.  I am using ZFS and JDS (Which may contribute to resource draw) 
but nothing else and I've even disabled a few services.  I have 2GB of ram.

James