[LinuxUsers] Linux desktop PC hardware recommendations

[Michael Sokolov]

David Kaiser <dkaiser at cdk.com> wrote:

> You do realize that there are free and open source Flash player
> codebases, right?  Also, the file format for Flash Video (FLV) is a
> known format.  Once you start taking apart the FLV file, you will
> quickly see that the audio format (mp3) and video packets (mpeg4 with
> h.264 or vp6 encoding) are known formats that are supported by open
> source software.

That's very reassuring to know.  So Dante wasn't quite right, was he?
I do not *have* to install a closed-source binary plugin in order to
watch YouTube videos in Firefox, do I?

> So, it seems ridiculously easy to play a flash video file with open
> source software, but if you want to write a custom operating system that
> sets flags on processes that don't come with source code - you could do
> that too.

Well, it looks like I won't have to do that after all.  That's definitely
a relief.

MS