[COLUG] Real Player for Linux according to the New York Times 6/28/04

[David Sherman]

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June 28, 2004
One Small Step in Uphill Fight as Linux Adds a Media Player
By STEVE LOHR
 
NU Linux, the free computer operating system, has had far more success
in winning converts in corporate data centers than on desktop personal
computers. But as more user-friendly software makes its way onto the
Linux desktop, the free operating system is starting to make progress
in its David-vs.-Goliath competition against Microsoft, the dominant
power in PC software. 

Another step in the progress of Linux in personal computers will come
today, when two large Linux distributors, Red Hat and Novell, are
expected to announce that they will ship the media-playing software of
RealNetworks in their Linux desktop products.

RealNetworks, founded by Rob Glaser, a former Microsoft executive, was
the early leader in software for playing digital music and video files
sent over the Internet. Its media-playing software competes with
Microsoft's Windows Media Player. 

That rivalry has become an antitrust issue, and the European
Commission ruled in March that Microsoft was illegally using its
Windows monopoly in PC operating systems to try to control the market
for media-playing software. The commission ordered Microsoft to offer
a version of Windows without a media player - a ruling Microsoft is
appealing. Yesterday, the European Commission agreed not to enforce a
deadline of today that would have forced Microsoft to sell the
unbundled version in Europe, while a court in Luxembourg considers the
matter.

RealNetworks had previously reached distribution agreements with
TurboLinux, which is strong in Asian markets, and Sun Microsystems,
whose Java desktop software runs on Linux.

"Linux is making rapid progress on the desktop, and this makes our
technology the de facto standard for media-playing software on Linux,"
said Dan Sheeran, a senior vice president at RealNetworks.

The media software, RealPlayer 10 for Linux, represents an evolution
of RealNetworks' embrace of open-source software. Under the
open-source model of development, the source code is published and
shared by programmers, who modify and improve a program. Two years
ago, RealNetworks started an open-source project, called Helix, mainly
to develop media-playing software for devices like cellphones and
digital music players. RealPlayer for Linux builds on Helix, but also
includes some proprietary software formats known as codecs, for
compressing and decompressing digital music and video files.

Open-source advocates are trying to get the same kind of
self-reinforcing cycle working for Linux that Microsoft has nurtured
for years around Windows. The more popular the operating system
becomes, the more applications are written to run on that operating
system, which in turn makes the operating system still more popular.

Linux has a geeky heritage - an operating system developed by
engineers for engineers - and it has been embraced first by
technicians in corporate data centers rather than on the desktop,
where acceptance depends on developing applications that ordinary PC
users find appealing and easy to use.

But open-source supporters hope that the RealNetworks announcement
will be followed by others. "We think this is a great example of the
many mainstream products that you will see made available much sooner
than most people had expected for Linux on the desktop," said Stuart
Cohen, chief executive of the Open Source Development Labs, a group
established to promote the use of Linux and other open-source
software, which is backed by several technology companies including
I.B.M. and Hewlett-Packard. 

For the Linux desktop, a number of applications are already available
and more are in development. These include word processing,
spreadsheet, database presentation, e-mail and Web browsing software.
"For 80 percent of the people in the world, Linux is now a perfectly
fine desktop environment," a leading open-source advocate, Bruce
Perens, said.

Linux distributors like Red Hat, whose chief executive is Matthew J.
Szulik, make money charging for technical support and software beyond
the basic operating system. The RealNetworks move is evidence that
leading commercial software companies believe that Linux is poised for
rapid growth on the desktop, said Mike Evans, vice president for
partner development at Red Hat.

Though Linux on the desktop is making gains, it has a long, long way
to go to challenge Microsoft, which has built its PC stronghold over
more than two decades. By the end of the year, Linux will be running
on 1 percent of the desktop PC's worldwide, compared with 2.8 percent
for Apple's Macintosh, and 96 percent for Microsoft's Windows,
according to Gartner Inc., a research firm. Linux does far better
overseas than in the United States, and most analysts expect that
Linux is on track to overtake Macintosh over the next several years.

"The Real announcement is important to improving the overall Linux
desktop experience," said Michael Silver, a Gartner analyst. "But
Linux on the desktop is still relatively small. There is a lot of
interest in it, but it's not mainstream." 



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