ubuntu aims (Re: Idea for expanded support of some non-free software

[Eric Feliksik]

Philippe Landau wrote:
> Jeff Waugh wrote:
>> There aren't a lot of really great solutions to the problem of 
>> proprietary formats and protocols, particularly those that are patent 
>> encumbered, no.
> 
> open source is there to change this.
> in the transition period,
> there is no way around supporting mainstream proprietary formats.
> is it possible to have at least one canonical team member
> work on this full time ?
I'm sorry, this is ridiculous. Really. See the previous discussion you 
had, and now you ask for full time :)

> 
>> However, we can increase demand for unencumbered formats such as the 
>> Xiph stable - Ogg with Vorbis, Speex, Theora, etc. 
> 
> great, how could canonical contribute to this ?
> 
I think it's a good idea too. Well, by having users, and then providing 
good ogg support and defaults. Yes, the "having users" is hard without 
good support of multimedia, but the software industry is about evil 
pushing of standards... And that's a hard battle to win against players 
like microsoft, but it's centainly not won by making paid employees 
package non-free software.

I know a small part of the solution. Yell at people when they use 
non-free formats. Costs you some friends, though.