Real's Reality 460
"There's also an interesting conversation going on at Jogin.com, which started with this post from the author, basically a rant, describing how inconvenient and even hostile Real Player is. It would be like any other rant, except an employee of Real Networks replied with some insights into the company's wrongdoings and somewhat explained Real's undeterred hostility towards those who downloaded the free version of its player. Furthermore, a consultant, who used to work at Real Networks, replied, sharing some questionable practices Real engaged in, such as hiding a variety of "add-ons" at the bottom of the page, hoping that the user would not scroll down to un-check the selections, and then charging his credit card for add-ons when he signed up for paid version on Real One."
What do... (Score:5, Funny)
Q: What do microsoft and RealNetworks have in common?
A: It takes a HD format to remove their software.
Re:What do... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What do... (Score:5, Interesting)
Wow, vintage Penny-Arcade :-)
I had a friend whose company contracted for some proprietary software (this was in the BBS days, Stallman's free software was still only a myth, if that even). This thing installed data in unused portions of the boot sector. Even formatting and repartitioning the hard disk would not remove its data, which was primitive copy-protection/license data.
So maybe the only way to uninstall this software was to burn the hard drive... who knows...
Re:What do... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What do... (Score:5, Interesting)
Isn't that what Intuit did not too long ago?
Yes, it's tax time, and I'm on my yearly anti-Quicktax crusade
Re:What do... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What do... (Score:3, Insightful)
Did fdisk /mbr work?
Re:What do... (Score:3, Interesting)
Did fdisk /mbr work?
I do not know... this was a while ago, and my friend is, sadly, dead. Turns out he had diabetes but never saw an MD about the symptoms until it was too late, collapsed on the emergency room floor. They found this out during the autopsy. Anyway, back on subject, I do not know. He did say that uninstalling it the "proper way" worked, it undid the changes to the boot sector. But it also made changes to the original 720k floppy (yep, back in the day) so it would not install on a differen
Fdisk /mbr and other documented historical events (Score:3)
Ok. I don't know this for sure, but I got a pretty good gut-feeling, since I can't recall ever hearing about that /mbr option before.
fdisk /mbr is probably as well documented and mentioned (by Microsoft) as format /mbr. Which means none, zip, zero for any average user.
I have been using third-party tools to install standard MBRs for years, not knowing of format /mbr until recently, which supposebly has been around for years.
Try format /? on your favorite dos-prompt. See any /mbr mentioned? See any
Re:What do... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is really done in some company where they think data security and theft really matters. Burning old scratched tapes or crushing broken HD to pieces was mandatory in a firm worked in.
I used to work in a classified facility. We had hard drive shredders. Yep, you heard me right -- insert a hard drive in the top, metal powder came out the bottom. Even then we could not throw it away, it had to be degaussed first. "Paranoid" does not begin to describe it. We also had a tape shredder, same deal, but with plastic powder instead of metal powder :-)
In both cases, we had to drive bags of said powder, a team effort (just in case al Qaeda hijacked the truck and tried to glue the hard drive atoms back together, they would have two throats to slit instead of one), to a special government incinerator that got super hot (about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit) and the burning had to be witnessed by about five people with special gas masks to protect against the fumes.
We had sledge hammers located strategically throughout the building. In case of terrorist or Russian attack, we were supposed to smash our computers to bits on the way to the bomb shelter since we did not have time for proper disposal.
And just think, all of these security measures are ruined if a single numbnuts downloads spyware...
Re:What do... (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah we have those here too. (Score:5, Funny)
*Grabs monitor and throws it out the window, kicks comp case, picks up chair and smashes case repeatedly, rips out video card and waves it around with his mouth like a dog, pulls out HD and stuffs it down his pants, rips calendar off the wall and lights it on fire, uses burning calendar to light the drapes and carpet on fire, throws pens across the room, pours coffee on papers, flips over the desk, kicks down the door and runs screaming towards elevators*
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Re:What do... (Score:3, Interesting)
Not to mention that some of your most trusted colleagues were not who they appeared. That God-fearing guy from Texas, part of a 4th generation of a rancher family, who drank nothing but Whiskey and spoke with such a charming Southern slang was pobably born in Vladivostok.
Re:What do... (Score:5, Funny)
I've got a simular story. I working in senstive data back in '87/'89. I didn't handle any senstive data just the blokes over in the other cube. I was a low tech. board jocky at the time who's sole purpose in life was to test graphics boards. Meaning I would pull them out of a tub, put them in the workstation, and see if the pretty pictures would come up.
Working night shifts all of us testers would get tired of the pictures of landscapes, weird ass looking people, and clouds. We would start loading our own pictures into the mix. Some would do cars others planes, but the most popular was, you guess it, porn. I had 500 mb of some of the finest qualty gifs that I could scavange off of usenet.
Well one day I got told to report to work early. Some men in suits where outside the bosses office, I got called in and ask about my harddrive. I thought they had found my secret porn collection but it turned out the blokes up the hill had been "compromised." They where destroying all harddrives and data in the building. Don't ask me why, I did't ask. I just went and fetched my harddrive.
Okay, I figured they where going deguass it, format it, or just beat it with a hammer. Well they took us all out back, there was about ten of us. They took the harddrives from us and set them out in the field. Then some dude in army fatigues pulled an M-16 out of the car, walked out there, and shot each drive 3 times.
The fuckers shot my porn collection...Bastards...
Re:What do... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What do... (Score:5, Informative)
Not if you're using a Mac OS X, all you gotta do is delete the folder the player is installed in. This works for the free version anyways...It also (amazingly) works to copy a folder from one computer to another and it still functions.
This is one thing the Mac does right -- a program's binaries and configuration data are all self-contained. No registry, no /etc. This has advantages. Of course it makes it easier to pirate software. I read here on Slashdot a year or so ago about a guy in Texas who witnessed a man walking into a CompUSA, hooking up his iPod, and downloading Mac Office over Firewire. Because everything is self-contained, all he had to do was drag and drop the "Office" folder and he was done.
When I write software for Linux or for Windows, I try to do the same thing. My Windows software uses the "deprecated" INI files in the executable directory instead of the super-bloated registry, and I try to set up sensible defaults and make programs load from ~/etc if possible in Linux.
Re:What do... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What do... (Score:5, Informative)
My Windows software uses the "deprecated" INI files in the executable directory instead of the super-bloated registry ...
Eep. Stop right there, you're standing on a landmine. INI files on a modern system should be put in the per-user "Application Data" folder. You can retrieve its path using SHGetSpecialFolderPath [microsoft.com] (95/IE 4.0 or 98+) or SHGetFolderPath [microsoft.com] (98/IE 5.0 or 98SE+) using the CSIDL_APPDATA [microsoft.com] constant. If you've fail to do this, your app is currently giving ulcers to some innocent admin of WinNT-family boxes who now has to manually add extra NTFS permissions for the Everyone group to your app's install folder. Your app also doesn't work correctly with multiple users (all users share the same settings), under roaming profiles (settings are per-machine, not per-user), or running off a network drive (Ha! Like *your* app deserves chmod a+w on the Samba server!). As an added bonus, your app may stop working under XP SP2 (or after some Critical Update in the unspecified future) and almost certainly will be b0rked by the time Longhorn comes out (if MS isn't a completely lost cause, they'll have stopped making users Admin by default by that timeframe).
Re:What do... (Score:3, Interesting)
Eep. Stop right there, you're standing on a landmine. INI files on a modern system should be put in the per-user "Application Data" folder. You can retrieve its path using SHGetSpecialFolderPath (95/IE 4.0 or 98+) or SHGetFolderPath (98/IE 5.0 or 98SE+) using the CSIDL_APPDATA constant. If you've fail to do this, your app is currently giving ulcers to some innocent admin of WinNT-family boxes who now has to manually add extra NTFS permissions for the Everyone group to your app's install folder. Your app al
OT: Non-Multi-User Design Rant (Score:4, Insightful)
Broderbund and Maxis are infamous for this. Both "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 15" and "The Sims" require you to run as Administrator.
There is absolutely NO FUCKING REASON why any app -- except for certain system utilities (and games and typing tutors aren't those) -- should require Admin. It's fucking lazy sloppy programming.
Re:What do... (Score:3, Interesting)
Sir, I object to your characterisation of the /etc directory. It is there for a reason. What you describe is fine and dandy for games and assorted disposable desktop crapola but not so fine for most (serious) applications. Having a centralized (but easilly maintained and repaired) repository of configuration data, makes it easy to backup this critical part of the system and also allows for better control of access to it.
Making remarks in the vain of "Let every application be a king of
Re:What do... (Score:3, Insightful)
Sir, I object to your characterisation of the /etc directory. It is there for a reason. What you describe is fine and dandy for games and assorted disposable desktop crapola but not so fine for most (serious) applications. Having a centralized (but easilly maintained and repaired) repository of configuration data, makes it easy to backup this critical part of the system and also allows for better control of access to it.
I agree -- etc is a good idea, but so is having a self-contained application directo
Re:'cept (Score:3, Insightful)
That is not the way he described it. Besides, current Linux scenario is close to this with /etc being the system-wide repository and ~/.myapplication being the place where an app will put its per-user config.
What he was praising was a Mac OS X method whereby everything is in "personal preferences" and application directories. That is neither robust or wise muti-user policy, because it exludes centralized administration which is crucial to any corporate d
Some nerve... (Score:5, Funny)
Sad.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sad.. (Score:2)
Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Where real starts to bother me is the registry entry that runs something every time you boot. And if you delete said registry entry, it replaces it the next time you run the program. It pisses me off when programs use my system resources without my knowledge for ANY reason, but I'm pretty sure this one is spyware, which is extra irritating.
On the off chance that there are still people out there who need to hear this, do yourself a favour and use Media Player Classic and Real Alternative (and Quicktime Alternative) in Windows, or Mplayer in Linux.
Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Informative)
And here are some URLs:
Real Alternative & Quicktime Alternative [hccnet.nl] (middle of the page)
Media Player Classic [sourceforge.net] (again, middle of the page)
Enjoy!
Re:Sad.. (Score:5, Interesting)
That's when real player is NOT running!!!
What about Apple? (Score:3, Informative)
All so that when some idiot plugs his iPod into his PC the thing will pop up iTunes or whatever and do something or other, and the idiot can exclaim "Wow
Re:What about Apple? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sad.. (Score:3, Informative)
You can usually leave the key in the Run section of the registry and just delete the value (the path to the program). A blank key won't do anything and won't throw any errors. Many applications only check for the existence of their keys and never realize that they're empty. I'm not sure about Real software, but this trick
Bloated (Score:5, Insightful)
I know why I don't use Real player anymore...
Real Player used to be a simple piece of audio (then later video) playing software. Now its becomeiwng one of those applications that wants to dominate your system and do everything from playing media to making eggs. RealMessage Center? A constantly running tray icon? Asking me every 2 seconds if I _really_ want it to not be the default player for everything...
RealNetworks might not be having troubles if they were able to produce significantly more advanced codecs and didn't resort to bloat. No innovation, no company, regardless of whether your player can polish my shoes or not.
Re:Bloated (Score:4, Interesting)
Respect *just* for porting to Linux? Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why? I mean really, why? "Ooooooo, it works on Linix. Ahhhhhhhh..." Sorry, but Real is a real piece of shit, and they will have to do a lot more than port it to Linux to win "real" respect.
Re:Respect *just* for porting to Linux? Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bloated (Score:5, Insightful)
porp
Re:Bloated (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Bloated (Score:4, Informative)
Your best bet is to download Real Alternative [hccnet.nl]. It bundles the Realplayer Codecs (the newest 10.0 version) with the simple Media Player Classic UI, so you can watch and listen to Realplayer content without the annoying popups and spyware.
I used to hate RealNetworks (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I used to hate RealNetworks (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I used to hate RealNetworks (Score:3, Insightful)
RealOne sucks (Score:3, Insightful)
Is there any open source alternative for media serving? Why can't people just use that?
Open source (Score:3, Interesting)
Car Talk (Score:5, Informative)
http://cartalk.com/Radio/windowsmedia-switch.html [cartalk.com]
Car Talk will now be available via the Windows Media Player, rather than RealMedia. That's right, we're unceremoniously dumping RealMedia.
Why? Because, for a long time, we've had tons of complaints about RealNetworks. And the one that ticks us off the most is the perceived trickery they use to sell their premium products. This is just our opinion, mind you, but it's shared by enough of our listeners, that we finally decided to take action.
Here's the problem. In order to hear our audio, you have to go to Real.com and download their "free" RealPlayer. But when you get to the web site, the free player is harder to find than Osama Bin Laden at night. And the site seems to do everything it possibly can to get you to "buy" a player instead. You have to work very hard to get the free player. And we think that stinks. And get this. It stinks so much that it even makes Microsoft look good by comparison. That's something, huh?
We've heard from many of our fans that have been duped, and who have accidentally shelled out their hard-earned dineros. And we won't even get into the ways that the RealPlayer tries to take over your computer once you install it. So, after surveying the alternatives, we're switching to Windows Media Player (which works on Macs, too).
Re:Car Talk (Score:5, Interesting)
From TAL's site...
We recognize there are issues with RealAudio - but there are other quirks with Windows RealMedia Player and other formats, too. And the "free" technologies some of you have kindly suggested have their own costs - mainly, they still require staff time (particularly time to convert our many, many shows) and server/bandwidth space, which are in very short supply here. We promise that we've investigated many options, and have chosen what we think is the best, and really, the only viable solution. Recognizing that we can't make everyone happy, we do the best we can, as we keep our promise to offer TAL shows free online.
Re:Car Talk (Score:3, Informative)
Real's problem (Score:4, Insightful)
I remember using Real Player back in like 1996. It was incredible stuff, and it just worked. But then they fell into the trap a lot of other software companies do. They tried to make their software do EVERYTHING, and instead of one doing a couple things well, it did everything poorly.
Re:Real's problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Real's problem (Score:3, Interesting)
hidden add-ons (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:hidden add-ons (Score:3, Interesting)
In thier defense, I just installed the new version and it's much cleaner than RealOne.
I rather wish I didn't need it, but I've got some old video in real format and no way to convert them.
Obsoletion coded into RealPlayer? (Score:2, Interesting)
Another "Blame Microsoft" Business Model (Score:5, Insightful)
Real Spy (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Real Spy (Score:3, Informative)
Take a look at a few links that question/discredit him.
http://grcsucks.com/
http://theregister.co.uk/
http://vmyths.com/resource.
Re:Real Spy (Score:3, Informative)
Although I wouldn't touch anything related to Real with a 10 foot pole either, there are plenty of more reliable/credible ways to come to that conclusion.
Your links for the c&p impaired:
http://grcsucks.com [grcsucks.com]
http://theregister.co.uk/content/55/24189.html [theregister.co.uk]
http://vmyths.com/resource.cfm?id=59&page=1 [vmyths.com]
WM and Real - Just Say No (Score:5, Interesting)
Get that, Real? Some of us avoid your products because of your policies and would rather not see the cute little movie rather than give in. Enjoy your bottom line.
The best realplayer was... *drumroll* (Score:5, Insightful)
Great design. I loved it... then it started happening *cue sad music*... The upgrades... they said "RealONE" was the thing... but all it did was take away my ability to listen to crap online for free.
Free Carolina Hurricanes webcast? Gone. $29.95 a month.
Free Carolina Panthers webcast? Gone. Buy NFL Field Pass.
Free racing webcasts? Gone.
Now, I don't mind ads. Heck, I run a website, I live on ads [cheap plug]go to oldos.org [oldos.org] and clickyclicky on my google text ads [/cheap plug]. I wouldn't mind listening to ads during the game, watching cheap flash ads before listening, or anything like this. How come TV can survive without needed subscriptions (skin-e-max and h-blow excluded), but internet webcasts can't?
Well (Score:3, Funny)
*BUFFERING*
Encoder (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Encoder (Score:3, Insightful)
I have yet to see someone use WMP over Winamp for instance. I see a lot of Nero, CDex and Trillian as well.
Striking out with Baseball (Score:5, Interesting)
While no huge amount of money for REAL, it was one of the single largest revenue sources, much of the rest of the revenue stream was from individual purchases of the player.
Supposedly this year its gone to someone else.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/02/10/technology/tech
How do you "accidently" buy RealOne? (Score:4, Insightful)
But, how are people accidently buying the premium version? How do you accidentally type in your credit card information? I don't know about the rest of the world, but when I type in my credit card info I am *not* surprised when I get billed.
Happy Trails!
Erick
Re:How do you "accidently" buy RealOne? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How do you "accidently" buy RealOne? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How do you "accidently" buy RealOne? (Score:3, Insightful)
I use to love Real (Score:4, Interesting)
Back in the day... (Score:5, Interesting)
Just for a reference for what I use now:
Some might say that I gave in to the corporate machine; no, I'm simply using the best product for my needs and in WinXP, WMP works very well for most stuff; except for MP3s which I use Winamp 2.x or iTunes. And on Mac, you must give Apple credit for building some good software because iLife '04 rocks. As for linux, I don't use it as a desktop anymore because i can pretty much do it on OSX. Linux: Server yes, Desktop no.Amigori
Actual letter to Real Networks (Score:5, Funny)
TO: Real Networks
SUBJECT: Fuck You All
I am holding myself back in the most intense way at the moment.
I don't care if this is the wrong address to send this to. Your website is a labyrinth of misdirection in which finding the simple thing you want is nigh-impossible. This, after about 20 clicks, was the first email address I came to. If you, as the person receiving this letter, have a shred of humanity left, you will submit this to the proper people. And now, on to my letter.
Where do you people get off?
My task: download Realplayer in order to view some streaming content. A simple project, one would say. Well, first you have to wade through the aforementioned sea of misdirection, all of it aimed at extracting your visa number to buy the completely useless realplayer plus. I realize you people need to make some money, but save it for the server business - it's bad enough that back in the day, you were inferior to several other streaming technologies, but somehow, like scum in water, you rose to the top. Leave the users who are stuck with your products out of your sick little power games.
All I want is Realplayer Basic, to play realmedia, and ONLY realmedia. I am not interested in realjukebox, realdownloadagent, or realbuttplug. I specified this when I was installing it. I also am not interested in having your inferior product play my mp3s, or any format other than your own. This was also specified when I installed. How difficult a concept is this? Anyone can grasp it. And I won't even get into the god-knows-how-many useless "subscribe to our spam service!" checkboxes I have to uncheck, including five which are HIDDEN AT THE BOTTOM OF A STACK OF UNCHECKED ONES. With each click, the bile rises higher in my throat. If I knew a satanist, I would have him summon demons to terrorize your offices.
So then, I go to launch an mp3 out of Agent, and not only does your software launch even though I SPECIFICALLY TOLD IT NOT TO DO THAT, but it's not even Realplayer - it's Realjukebox which I also SPECIFICALLY TOLD IT NOT TO INSTALL.
And here's the real point: if you're going to go ahead and do a fascist coup of my system's preferences and resources (getting your filthy little icons out of my system tray gets more difficult with each new version), why bother pretending that you are giving me a choice? Just go ahead and take it, save me the trouble of unchecking all those boxes and saying No 20 times. Just go ahead, play your little game, and let me get on with removing your annoying system resource wastes from my pristine desktop.
In closing, I would just like to say that I view your company as the most evil force operating on the internet today, and while I would end this with "may God have mercy on your souls" for anyone else (including Bill Gates), for you, I only pray that the people behind your software's design are raped by syphilitic camels at some point.
Burn in hell.
Re:MOD PARENT UP! (Score:5, Informative)
Oh come on (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh come on (Score:3, Funny)
The term 'asshat' is also conspicuously absent.
Real sucks ass and here's why: (Score:5, Informative)
buffering... buffering...
-Huge application window hogged by distracting crap.
buffering... buffering...
-When people download a media player, it's probably because they want to view some media right fucking now, not after filling out a long-ass registration thing and setting a shitload of preferences.
buffering... buffering...
-That stupid Goddamned tray icon that will not die. Where's the "FUCK OFF" button when you need it? Anytime I see that shit in the systray on a client's machine, I go right into regedit and nuke it because the incessant blinking drives me into a rage.
And last, but certainly not least:
buffering... buffering...
Real's website, program and license feels dirty. (Score:5, Insightful)
Real could of owned the world, but heres my run down of why Real hurt themselves, they harrased the customer.
1. Takes 10 minutes of hunting around the website for the free version. Even when you click on the "Free" version, it prompts you to buy it.
2. When loading the program, it asks you to register, then prompts you to buy it, and then loads an html webpage.
Back in the day,
Now Microsoft is using the mpeg4 format, and seems to be taking over HDTV format on Dvd's. They win, everything. They will be the OS and multimedia format of the future.
While I agree Microsoft did use its power to assist in taking over, Real networks interaction with customers was on the level of spammers, horrible salesmen from hell. Customers had a bad experiences and walked away.
I can't seem to read the article. (Score:3, Funny)
Underhanded business practices too... (Score:5, Interesting)
About 3 years ago I made mention in a closed streaming media group discussion of Real's flaws in their DRM 'solution'. This was widely published, and I was not the starter of the thread. However, I did drop the line (or something like it) of the solution being 'amateur hour'. Real's at-that-time marketing manager was on the list, and proceeded to track down my particulars and call up management at my company accusing me of 'hacking' their DRM product. I understand he was quite miffed. Ofcourse I posted this back to the list and didn't hear a peep.
The long and short of this story - not only does Real make a shitty spamware/adware/annoyanceware product and try to get developers for free with their 'community source' claptrap, but they also go to interesting lengths to stir up bullshit to protect their interests.
These days I am still at the same company, and architect my own product line. Whenever a customer asks about support for RealMedia, I laugh. Then I tell them this story. And thats the last we hear of the request. Oddly enough, I have never had anyone doubt me - gee I wonder why!
A tip for Real - listen to your customers. And if you have bugs and/or shitty software, fix them.
No such a bad player. (Score:5, Funny)
The only Real software I have use for... (Score:4, Insightful)
Surprised, but not really (Score:5, Interesting)
Helix Player (Score:3, Interesting)
registration... (Score:5, Funny)
fucku@real.com
realplayersucks@realplayer.com
pissoff@real.com
bob@bob.com
bill@microsoft.com
fucku2@real.com
fucku2xwithdonkey@real.com
fuckusidewayswithbroomstick@real.com
At this point I was tired of making creative statements of protest against registration so I gave a fake hotmail account.
Re:registration... (Score:4, Funny)
I use this one quite often. For sites that inexplicably require way too much info, I often become Bob McBob of Bob's Bobbery, 123 Bob St., Bobville, TX 77333.
Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
Both were canned, and none of their suggestions were taken.
So, to sum up most of the replies in this thread.. (Score:5, Funny)
The product sucks because it's heavily emcumbered.
I recall when RealPlayer 1.0 came out. I found it, and started downloading it immediately.
Then the next version came out, about... oh, about 12 minutes after my modem finished sucking down the first one. Err...
So, pull that one down, because they changed the format and nothing works with the old one. That one's good for a week, and they have a "cool" version for sale as well.
I'm deciding if I'm going to buy this "cool" version and show my support, only to discover that a "new" version is now out, and the current one is useless. I'm starting to see a pattern, here.
I start to download that one, only to discover that 2 more version have been released before my modem can finish. I start to download those, and Real responds by publishing 12 more upgrades, all of which force the obsolence of their predecessor.
About that time, cablemodems are invented, so I get one. I begin to download that week's RealAudio version... at a whopping 3mbs. But, it's no use. In the 25 seconds needed to pull it, those fucks have released 18 more incompatable versions, all of which make the prior ones useless.
So, screw Real, they're little more than an upgrade scam. THAT is why they're a failure.
Man ... it's not that bad on OS X ... (Score:5, Interesting)
I find that a lot of software for OS X is like this, whereas the Windows versions almost always require some sort of surgical procedure to remove. Do the Windows programming departments of companies nowadays have more programmers just to put in the extra, spyware garbage? Because that kind of stuff certainly isn't in any prominent OS X applications that I can think of.
Older versions of RealPlayer (Score:3, Informative)
I call "shenanigans"! (Score:5, Interesting)
We (company of 40,000) looked at their multicasting technology and news delivery in 1997. We liked what we saw and wanted to license or buy it for the entire company. They said "NO" - Real still wanted access to our desktops in the form of ads. I guess they thought there was a lot of money in that.
Think logically, why would any CIO sign off on a product to keep his employees busy watching ads instead of doing real work?
They did crawl back (at least a year later) and try to sell just the engine piece but no one was interested. There was better stuff available out there and cheaper by the time they realized their mistake.
Missed opportunity for open source (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, let's look at Freeamp. First of all, it's now called "Zinf" [zinf.org], continuing the tradition of stupid names for open source programs. Second, when we go to the Zinf home page, we have to click on "Download", one of a number of options (including "SF", which developers know as SourceForge but users do not.) On the "Download" page, the first option, in typical user-clueless style, downloads the Linux source distribution. You also have to download and build the "MusicBrainz 2.0 client library", whatever that is. "RPMs will be available soon for RedHat 9". No date is given.
Further down, there's a Windows version, but it's three revs behind. But at least there's an installer and a binary.
If you want to build the thing, there are obscure instructions. ("You'll need perl and NASM in order to compile the latest MP3 decoder assembly optimizations. If you don't have NASM, you can still compile successfully, but you'll only be able to use some of the older optimizations written in gas.")
The Windows version is built with MSVC 5, circa 1997. Builds require some workarounds. ("NOTE: In order for the build to succeed you will need to install the SGI STL. ")
Now consider a typical Windows user. Will they be able to figure out what they're supposed to do?
Or worse, someone who bought a Linux machine at WalMart and wants to run Freeamp, er, Zinf. Will they succeed building this on Thiz Linux? What do you think?
Try Media Player Classic (Score:4, Informative)
Did some searching, found Media Player Classic [sourceforge.net] (Article) [neilturner.me.uk]- it's an open source clone of Windows Media Player before it got all colorful, space wasting, and less functional (WMP 8-9). Plus, with a bit more Google searching, I found Real codec packs [free-codecs.com] for it as well. On the rare occasion I need to play Real content, I can.
Real's merits (Score:5, Interesting)
I run Linux. The realplayer on linux runs fine, it plays live real audio and video streams for me. (mplayer does everything else)
Windows users may want to go try one of the new players. (there's one written in python you know... it is very simple, no bloat.)
that's up to you though, it doesn't affect me much.
Real network's server software is pretty good though. Better than windows media server.
- It runs on linux.
- It has an excellent system for live stream redundancy. Every step of the way from the camera to the player you can have multiple redundant systems so that no matter what; your live event does not die. I cannot over-state the importance of this when you are running a live event for a paying customer!
- It is extremely modular. Especially now with the mostly open source helix software you can write/modify most capabilities.
I am admin for several Real and windows media servers.
Windows servers are an all around pain in the ass. Maybe that biases me towards Real.
The windows media server is a black box, when it does something odd like suddenly stop logging or something all I can do is apply the standard MS remedy: restart the service.
With the helix servers running on linux I can see what's going on. maybe I've just been spoiled by using OSS all the time.
Oh, and have you ever encountered a bug is MS software, emailed a developer and had the problem resolved?
helixcommunity.org actually has developers you can talk to.
helix is great (Score:5, Informative)
Clean looking player, no bloat, great quality, plugin gets even the most troublesome pages (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod, for example) working just sweet
There's a 0.2.1 Milestone (crack out the party hats - we got a 0.2.1 milestone!, but I digress..) out. There are Solaris, Symbian (!), GNU/ Linux RPMs and tars with installer, as well as the src, obviously
you can get it here [helixcommunity.org]
There are still shed loads of forms to click and agree to, you gotta signup, etc, etc. but they *say* this is part of their new, GPL-friendly and OSI-certified ways.
A tip for downloading RealPlayer One (Score:4, Informative)
why hasn't anyone mentioned this? (Score:5, Informative)
Redundant as Hell, I'm Sure, but ... (Score:4, Funny)
Has anyone ever noticed that
THEIR
SOFTWARE
SUCKS
A
BIG
HAIRY
NUT
!
?
Haven't allowed it on any machine of mine in about 3-4 years -- haven't missed it, either.
Thank you for this opportunity to share.
PA newspost, and the true state of buffering (Score:3, Interesting)
As of today, Penny Arcade had a newspost [penny-arcade.com] from Tycho that takes a paragraph at the bottom to disparage Real and plug RealAlternative like so many Slashdotters have already done here.
On a pretty much unrelated topic, I thought it might also be interesting to point out that none of the major media players, as far as I can tell, suffer from the buffering which has been the butt of so many (!) jokes in this topic already. All of them have some feature (under different names, of course) that allows them to build up their playback buffers as fast as the Internet connection will allow, which basically gives you minutes of buffer after only a short period of time. Borders on progressive download, I guess. That and RealPlayer 10 has a feature that allows you to cache a user-specified amount of the past stream, even for live streams.
Perhaps I'm too quick to consider forgiving Real for their privacy issues, but as far as playback quality goes (both in terms of streaming and codecs), bashing Real for being bad at that would be just plain misinformed.
Re:Kudos to prostoalex (Score:3, Funny)
Re:WinAmp (Score:5, Insightful)
Unintrusive? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Apple anyone??? (Score:5, Funny)
Upgrade to Pro / Run now / Cancel
NO, I don't want to upgrade now, just RUN.
Upgrade to Pro / Run now / Cancel
NO! I don't want to upgrade to the pro version! JUST RUN!!
Upgrade to Pro / Run now / Cancel
GET OFF MY SCREEN!! When I want the pro version I'll get to
Upgrade to Pro / Run now / Cancel
HELP! GO AWAY!!
Yup.. unintrusive.. Completely. (Of course, those aren't the exact wording on the buttons, but you all get the idea)...
Anyway..