Linux video - but for whom?

Sam Varghese
Thursday, 18 January 2007 15:18

Opinion and Analysis

Microsoft Office 365

Then again, some who have installed Flash 9 found that they are being asked to upgrade to Flash 8 when they click on the video!

Said one Slashdot poster: "I have flash 9 and it still tells me I need 8 and above. I think there's something about Firefox or Linux that is preventing it from detecting my version right. Does anyone have a youtube link?"

A third poster, after having followed advice on the Slashdot forum to download and install the Flash player, said: "Umm... still doesn't work from PPC/Linux. And considering that's the platform Torvalds develops on, you'd think they could at least release the video in a format he could watch from his own computer. It's not hard to release a video in MPEG format people!"

There were plenty of complaints on the official media organ's site as well. One poster said: "Kind of ironic that your video about the linux kernel can not be watched on a computer running said kernel, since flash 8 is not available for linux..."

And a second was no less sarcastic: "Really funny ZDNET guys!! Is this supposed to be a joke? An article about Linux that none of us can SEE, Ha hahahahahahah," wrote Kirby Foster.

Some got downright dirty. An anonymous poster to ZDNet wrote: "what tool thought posting a video interview of THE Linux developer in flash format was a good idea ? let's review:

- flash works only on x86 linux
- flash does not work on anything
- flash is garbage
- people who post video interviews of Linux developers in flash formats are tools."

A fundamental lesson in FOSS has been demonstrated - if you talk the talk, then you must be prepared to walk the walk. 

.