formats
From http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20060501 compare :- http://linspire.com/filetypes list of filetypes that linspire can read / write => overlooks the problem of closed / patented / proprietary file formats
- https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RestrictedFormats the reasons why they are not free => too cryptic, from the end-user point of view : "and ? does it work ?"
- why you want to read (description / user-requirements)
- why you cannot read them really well
- how you can read them : is support complete or not + recommended free tool if it exists (with limitations identified) + non-free tools (with their own limitations) + recommended format
e.g. : Flash animation (add a logo)
- used in web sites for animations or ads or even small games or streamed-videos - Proprietary format by Macromedia
- Macromedia's Flash Player is only available for i386 based machines, and Shock Wave is not available at all.
- cannot be used natively on ppc / x86_64 architectures (for x86_64 a chrooted environnement would be possible
- sound is badly managed - at best - by Macromedia's proprietary Flash Player (can cause amaroK not to play sound anymore as /dev/dsp is in use)
- use gnash which is GPL : works partially as still being developed in May 2006, sound support poor, stand-alone player ok but firefox' plugin still being developed in April 2006
- if you want, you still can install flashplayer (i586)
- recommended format : MPEG for videos, SVG+ECMAscript for complex animations (check google earth capabilities ?) or simple animated GIF (soon worldwide patent-free)
legal issues
http://phaeronix.net/legal [en] identifies what is redistributable (but not the compatibility with GPL as all cases seem to be aggregation in a distribution) to check a bit more, in order to identify possible hidden assumptionsformal (maintained) process
this is applicable to club as well :plf dev => cooker => plf official (with a bugzilla to report bugs)
for example, for Club, club dev => cooker => club official
http://club.mandriva.com/xwiki/bin/RpmsFarm/ should include the license (and permit to exclude non-free software, eventually keep open-source)
CategoryCookerDev
