Comments on: RealPlayer dropped from openSUSE, here’s why

By: Hao Zhe XU

Hao Zhe XU — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:07:11 +0000

I don’t like to install rpm packages “outside” yast, as yast takes care of the dependencies and updates, if I install realplayer 10 and I want to update to 11 some day, do I just install 11 and it will overwrite 10’s files, or I have to remove 10 first? …I don’t want to bother with these problems.

By: Boycott Novell » Do-No-Evil Saturday - Part I: OpenSUSE Board Discussion, 11.1 @ Beta 4

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:53:46 +0000

[...] everything is about addition though. OpenSUSE finally sheds off RealPlayer, which proprietary spyware. I can’t believe that it’s because of the cost issue (as [...]

By: JosipBroz

JosipBroz — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:27:39 +0000

In my, opinion, WE as users should drop support to the proprietary formats and not wait for the great corporations to decide that in our place: WE should drop mp3s and embrace ogg on a global basis, we should drop the *.doc, *.jpg and *.pdf formats etc etc. Now THAT would send a message to the industry. I never install RealPlayer: I won’t hog my system with another superfluous media player just so I may be able to watch a bunch of boring low-quality videos encoded in a pretentious proprietary format I can most certainly do without! We, as users, should stick with a handful of open formats and never write/encode/create anything in other formats. That would progressively flush away all the problems with proprietary formats, patent fees, copyright infringements and potentially even DRM. And while we’re at it, why stop at the format alone – let’s boycott their CONTENT as well! Contrary to what most people think, there IS a way to tell all those greedy corporations to go stuff themselves: just never buy/download anything from them! There’s SO MUCH public domain stuff available just a mouse-click away! And I mean QUALITY music, GREAT movies, INCREDIBLE online books, real CLASSICS. With all this wealth at my disposal, I can honestly live without the last Britney Spears video or the latest Hollywood crap, can’t you? Let’s see who they’ll accuse of violating patent/copyright/DRM then! And yes, I AM opinionated.

By: PeterPac

PeterPac — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:18:59 +0000

Freedom of choice should be up to the user and not preached by any maker. If Real makes a Linux version than it is up to the user if they want to utilize it or not and should not be governed by what a distro states. This idiotic war of words between what should or should not be utilized by a owner of a computer amazes me. I always felt what works best for the individual is the way to go. They can use proprietary, open-source, or both as long as it satisfies the need that the owner intended it for. No one has the right to tell anyone that my way is the only way and we should be telling them what works for you is the way. If our product is the one they like, great for us and great for them and lend our support the best we can, if not, there are many more to chose from.

By: ben.kevan

ben.kevan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:47:44 +0000

My guess is the content of the license. We haven’t had a look at the license and if we did that may explain something.

By: Alberto

Alberto — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:42:47 +0000

Thanks for your explanation. But I think Novell has a similar agreement with Adobe to distribute Adobe Reader and Flash.
It would have costed nothing to ask for the permission to redistribute it, and it would avoided to remove another useful application for some users.

Clearly, it is easier to remove it.

Regards,
Alberto

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:46:59 +0000

Unless it’s beta, in which case you can’t distribute it. Oh, that’s Novell / SuSE.