No VLC in the repos

14 réponses [Dernière contribution]
AndrewT

I am a translator!

Hors ligne
A rejoint: 12/28/2009

For some reason, there is no VLC player in the packages. Can anyone tell me why? What non-free components does the VLC player feature to have been excluded?

aitux
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 02/11/2009

This is a very common question, it uses privative codecs :(

El dt 29 de 12 de 2009 a les 19:56 +0100, en/na name at domain va
escriure:
> For some reason, there is no VLC player in the packages. Can anyone tell me
> why? What non-free components does the VLC player feature to have been
> excluded?
> _______________________________________________
> Trisquel-users mailing list
> name at domain
> http://listas.trisquel.info/mailman/listinfo/trisquel-users

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AndrewT

I am a translator!

Hors ligne
A rejoint: 12/28/2009

Which ones? For mp3? For DVD playback?

If this is a case, I'd like to see a libre fork developed.

aitux
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 02/11/2009

Hmmm... I don't remember it, but I'd say that were related to video
playback.

I don't know any libre fork for VLC, at least one video player with the
same technical features. I always use totem, but it works with external
codecs, it's not portable like VLC.

El dt 29 de 12 de 2009 a les 21:05 +0100, en/na name at domain va
escriure:
> Which ones? For mp3? For DVD playback?
>
> If this is a case, I'd like to see a libre fork developed.
> _______________________________________________
> Trisquel-users mailing list
> name at domain
> http://listas.trisquel.info/mailman/listinfo/trisquel-users

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Daemonax
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 09/30/2009

How about mplayer? Why is that not included? I think that the excuse that it can use binary codecs, and that they provide them on their website is a rather weak excuse to not include it. Mplayer has been included in the Debian repos for quite sometime now and I consider it to be the best video player around for GNU/Linux, certainly beats VLC in performance.

djbclark
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 05/13/2009

name at domain wrote:
> How about mplayer? Why is that not included? I think that the excuse
> that it can use binary codecs, and that they provide them on their
> website is a rather weak excuse to not include it. Mplayer has been
> included in the Debian repos for quite sometime now and I consider it to
> be the best video player around for GNU/Linux, certainly beats VLC in
> performance.

Current FSF position seems to be that we list VLC but not mplayer in
directory.fsf.org. The reason we do not list mplayer are below (from
Kelly, our directory maintainer); this rejection was verified by rms on
10/24/2008. So someone may want to look to see if anything has changed
since then.

There are the parts of the README that invite the user to download
binaries.

"MPlayer can play most standard video formats out of the box and almost
all others with the help of external codecs."

"The GUI needs at least one skin and codec packages add support for some
more video and audio formats. MPlayer does not come with any of these by
default, you have to download and install them separately."

"MPlayer has builtin support for the most common audio and video
formats. For a few formats no native decoder exists and external binary
codecs are required to handle them, for example newer RealVideo variants
and a variety of uncommon formats. This step is not mandatory, but
recommended for getting MPlayer to play a broader range of formats.
Please note that binary codecs only work on the processor architecture
they were compiled for."

--
Daniel JB Clark | Sys Admin, Free Software Foundation
pobox.com/~dclark | http://www.fsf.org/about/staff#danny

_______________________________________________
Trisquel-users mailing list
name at domain
http://listas.trisquel.info/mailman/listinfo/trisquel-users

djbclark
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 05/13/2009

Daniel Clark wrote:
> name at domain wrote:
>> How about mplayer? Why is that not included? I think that the excuse
>> that it can use binary codecs, and that they provide them on their
>> website is a rather weak excuse to not include it. Mplayer has been
>> included in the Debian repos for quite sometime now and I consider it to
>> be the best video player around for GNU/Linux, certainly beats VLC in
>> performance.
>
> Current FSF position seems to be that we list VLC but not mplayer in
> directory.fsf.org. The reason we do not list mplayer are below (from
> Kelly, our directory maintainer); this rejection was verified by rms on
> 10/24/2008. So someone may want to look to see if anything has changed
> since then.
>
> There are the parts of the README that invite the user to download
> binaries.
>
> "MPlayer can play most standard video formats out of the box and almost
> all others with the help of external codecs."
>
> "The GUI needs at least one skin and codec packages add support for some
> more video and audio formats. MPlayer does not come with any of these by
> default, you have to download and install them separately."
>
> "MPlayer has builtin support for the most common audio and video
> formats. For a few formats no native decoder exists and external binary
> codecs are required to handle them, for example newer RealVideo variants
> and a variety of uncommon formats. This step is not mandatory, but
> recommended for getting MPlayer to play a broader range of formats.
> Please note that binary codecs only work on the processor architecture
> they were compiled for."

BTW please note the vaguely subtle point here that the problem is that
the codec *software* itself is nonfree, not that the codec plays formats
that may be patent-encumbered in certain jurisdictions, like mp3 in the US.

VLC plays some formats we would suggest people not use due to freedom
issues (FSF recommends speex, ogg vorbis, and ogg theora), but it does
so with software the user has source code for and is free to view and
modify, not with binary blob codecs.

--
Daniel JB Clark | Sys Admin, Free Software Foundation
pobox.com/~dclark | http://www.fsf.org/about/staff#danny

_______________________________________________
Trisquel-users mailing list
name at domain
http://listas.trisquel.info/mailman/listinfo/trisquel-users

aitux
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 02/11/2009

El dc 30 de 12 de 2009 a les 07:35 -0500, en/na Daniel Clark va
escriure:
>
> VLC plays some formats we would suggest people not use due to freedom
> issues (FSF recommends speex, ogg vorbis, and ogg theora), but it does
> so with software the user has source code for and is free to view and
> modify, not with binary blob codecs.
>

Then, VLC can be added to the Trisquel repos? Totem also plays mp3, avi
and that kind of formats, and it is on them.
--
Aitor Ruano Miralles <name at domain>

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Trisquel-users mailing list
name at domain
http://listas.trisquel.info/mailman/listinfo/trisquel-users

aitux
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 02/11/2009

Nice to have FSF staff in Trisquel mailing lists :D
Thank you for your help ;)

El dc 30 de 12 de 2009 a les 07:20 -0500, en/na Daniel Clark va
escriure:
> name at domain wrote:
> > How about mplayer? Why is that not included? I think that the excuse
> > that it can use binary codecs, and that they provide them on their
> > website is a rather weak excuse to not include it. Mplayer has been
> > included in the Debian repos for quite sometime now and I consider it to
> > be the best video player around for GNU/Linux, certainly beats VLC in
> > performance.
>
> Current FSF position seems to be that we list VLC but not mplayer in
> directory.fsf.org. The reason we do not list mplayer are below (from
> Kelly, our directory maintainer); this rejection was verified by rms on
> 10/24/2008. So someone may want to look to see if anything has changed
> since then.
>
> There are the parts of the README that invite the user to download
> binaries.
>
> "MPlayer can play most standard video formats out of the box and almost
> all others with the help of external codecs."
>
> "The GUI needs at least one skin and codec packages add support for some
> more video and audio formats. MPlayer does not come with any of these by
> default, you have to download and install them separately."
>
> "MPlayer has builtin support for the most common audio and video
> formats. For a few formats no native decoder exists and external binary
> codecs are required to handle them, for example newer RealVideo variants
> and a variety of uncommon formats. This step is not mandatory, but
> recommended for getting MPlayer to play a broader range of formats.
> Please note that binary codecs only work on the processor architecture
> they were compiled for."
>
--
Aitor Ruano Miralles <name at domain>

_______________________________________________
Trisquel-users mailing list
name at domain
http://listas.trisquel.info/mailman/listinfo/trisquel-users

djbclark
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 05/13/2009

name at domain wrote:
> For some reason, there is no VLC player in the packages. Can anyone tell
> me why? What non-free components does the VLC player feature to have
> been excluded?

FYI vlc 1.0.x from the PPA would install except that libx264-65 is
removed from Trisquel Dwyn; anyone happen to remember the reason for
that package being removed?

What I can find looking quickly is that there are likely patent problems
with libx264 in some jurisdictions including the US, but not software
freedom (binary blob) problems.

Brett - would a GNU/Linux distribution including libx264 cause issues
for people wanting to host a mirror of the distribution in the US?

BTW according to http://bugs.gnewsense.org/Bugs/00314 vlc and libx264
will be in gNewSense 3 (which is Debian GNU/Linux based).

--
Daniel JB Clark | Sys Admin, Free Software Foundation
pobox.com/~dclark | http://www.fsf.org/about/staff#danny

_______________________________________________
Trisquel-users mailing list
name at domain
http://listas.trisquel.info/mailman/listinfo/trisquel-users

aitux
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 02/11/2009

El dc 30 de 12 de 2009 a les 07:51 -0500, en/na Daniel Clark va
escriure:
> name at domain wrote:
> > For some reason, there is no VLC player in the packages. Can anyone tell
> > me why? What non-free components does the VLC player feature to have
> > been excluded?
>
> FYI vlc 1.0.x from the PPA would install except that libx264-65 is
> removed from Trisquel Dwyn; anyone happen to remember the reason for
> that package being removed?
>
> What I can find looking quickly is that there are likely patent problems
> with libx264 in some jurisdictions including the US, but not software
> freedom (binary blob) problems.
>
> Brett - would a GNU/Linux distribution including libx264 cause issues
> for people wanting to host a mirror of the distribution in the US?
>
> BTW according to http://bugs.gnewsense.org/Bugs/00314 vlc and libx264
> will be in gNewSense 3 (which is Debian GNU/Linux based).
>
So then, VLC should be available from the Trisquel repos, maybe on the
next release :P

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Trisquel-users mailing list
name at domain
http://listas.trisquel.info/mailman/listinfo/trisquel-users

sweetandy
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 01/25/2010

I was actually able to compile VLC from source using only ffmpeg-like codecs, all available in the dwym repos; I'm working on setting up a PPA for VLC and other things designed specifically for Trisquel GNU/Linux, and getting the package available for people.

Psyber.Netik
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 02/08/2010

It's obvious that due to nature of the GNU Linux culture that there are multiple DVD media players all capable of (more or less) the same thing.

So my question is this... Which is the best player to use that fits the 100% Free Software claim, but is still easy to use and versatile?

I've been a big fan of VLC for a while now. And it seems there are some comments as to it's FSF Authenticity. Would someone like to clarify or comment?

Psyber.Netik
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 02/08/2010

How goes this?

AndrewT

I am a translator!

Hors ligne
A rejoint: 12/28/2009

VLC is fully libre, but because it depends heavily on KDE libraries and takes up a lot of disk space, we include Totem instead. It has been in the repos since the release of 3.5.