Everything Else

Sounds promising!

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011 ... erved.html

Not so fast... we will need a WebM-capable application first. This announcement opens the door for IRIX because unlike Flash, such an application can be ported (or written), but someone has to walk through that door, which is going to be a major undertaking. Any takers? A better web browser is what the SGI community needs more than anything else.

I always found the web to be a pointless distraction to enjoying an SGI with IRIX.

skywriter wrote: I always found the web to be a pointless distraction to enjoying an SGI with IRIX.

This.

skywriter wrote: I always found the web to be a pointless distraction to enjoying an SGI with IRIX.

If I want to reference something online or grab the URL for a source package while I'm working on an SGI, it's much easier to do so on the same machine than turn to another machine and copy it over. Firefox 2 is generally okay for this, but it's not that great either.

I'm dubious about the introduction of a new format, it seems rather a lot like some PR move for HTML5... Getting some uptake on it is critical and a new format will of course cut off people with unusual/old hardware/software until someone gets it ported... According to wikipedia it's some mashup of not-quite matroska with not-quite ogg/theora? I may be wrong but to me it just seems pointless.

Generally I'd agree that introducing new formats is not necessary, but in this case we're talking about replacing Flash, which only runs on platforms Adobe feels like releasing it for, with something that anyone can port to their platform of choice. That's definitely worthwhile.

ianj wrote: Generally I'd agree that introducing new formats is not necessary, but in this case we're talking about replacing Flash, which only runs on platforms Adobe feels like releasing it for, with something that anyone can port to their platform of choice. That's definitely worthwhile.

Exactly! Hopefully this starts a trend for more open formats on the web. I would rather do 100% of my web browsing on IRIX rather than switching to another box. Now all we need to for someone to port Firefox 4 to IRIX, easy right?

Hmm, html5 was/is supposed to replace flash, and it should be able to with integrated scripting and svg canvas support; the compression format behind video playback seems a little unrelated, couldn't it just use ogg if the requirement is free implement/use (AFAICT ogg/theora/vorbis/FLAC are BSD-licensed)? Well, I speculate and CBA to find out, but it still seems like an existing solution was there so as to avoid reimplementing wheels.

skywriter wrote: I always found the web to be a pointless distraction to enjoying an SGI with IRIX.

skywriter wrote: I always found the web to be a pointless distraction to enjoying an SGI with IRIX.

Must really agree on that, I did not get my Indigo to just surf on that I can do a a Solaris box BUT it is however nice to be able to surf from a IRIX box.

But if we take the latest browser or any software and manage to port it I doubt that any IRIX box can handle the load, the old MIPS boxes are to slow, I know how my Sparc boxes are running firefox and the gnome crap and they are 1.6GHz machines with pretty good graphics.

Receiving H264 or similar on a IRIX will that really work or do we need a coprocessor also?

mila wrote:

skywriter wrote: I always found the web to be a pointless distraction to enjoying an SGI with IRIX.

Must really agree on that, I did not get my Indigo to just surf on that I can do a a Solaris box BUT it is however nice to be able to surf from a IRIX box.

But if we take the latest browser or any software and manage to port it I doubt that any IRIX box can handle the load, the old MIPS boxes are to slow, I know how my Sparc boxes are running firefox and the gnome crap and they are 1.6GHz machines with pretty good graphics.

Receiving H264 or similar on a IRIX will that really work or do we need a coprocessor also?

Eh, the SGI I use most of the time runs at 800MHz. Seeing how Firefox 2 performs on it, I don't anticipate a more capable browser being a problem, nor do I think faster SGIs should be held back by concerns about the abilities of their '90s predecessors. Yes, an Indigo is not going to be able to do much with a current web browser, but that doesn't mean such a thing has no place on IRIX as a whole. While I don't go to my SGIs with web browsing specifically in mind, I do things on them that involve a web browser, whether that be looking up documentation or grabbing the URL for some source code, and something other than an old version of Firefox would make that process more pleasant.

As for SPARC, I have a 900MHz Sun box in the other room that can handle Firefox just fine (that includes Facebook, Youtube, and other such fluffy entertainment sites). The "if it can't do it as fast as a brand-new x86 PC, it's not worth it" argument gets old.

duck wrote: Hmm, html5 was/is supposed to replace flash, and it should be able to with integrated scripting and svg canvas support; the compression format behind video playback seems a little unrelated, couldn't it just use ogg if the requirement is free implement/use (AFAICT ogg/theora/vorbis/FLAC are BSD-licensed)? Well, I speculate and CBA to find out, but it still seems like an existing solution was there so as to avoid reimplementing wheels.

Theora was based on On2's VP3 (with improvements from the open source community) while WebM is VP8 (with improvements from the community and Google). WebM is basically the natural evolution of the Theora community idea but with a better codec at its core.

What it boils down to is that WebM is technically superior so Google are pushing it instead - it makes sense to me: get the best open-source / unencumbered IP out there to compete with the very, very good patent-encumbered solution that a major competitor is pushing (Apple with H.264).

And as for "HTML5" (really animated SVG/canvas) replacing Flash, that'll have to wait until all browsers support SVG animation, canvas, and video *consistently* enough to be useful.

bri3d wrote: Theora was based on On2's VP3 (with improvements from the open source community) while WebM is VP8 (with improvements from the community and Google). WebM is basically the natural evolution of the Theora community idea but with a better codec at its core.

What it boils down to is that WebM is technically superior so Google are pushing it instead - it makes sense to me: get the best open-source / unencumbered IP out there to compete with the very, very good patent-encumbered solution that a major competitor is pushing (Apple with H.264).

This was the bits I was missing, now it does make sense. Thank you.

skywriter wrote: I always found the web to be a pointless distraction.

There! I fixed that for you.



Regards,
@ndy