Revision [266]
This is an old revision of IdeasForPlf made by BenoitAudouard on 2006-05-16 03:05:09.
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)