[FFmpeg-user] Yes or No? About the processing pipeline.

[Andrew Randrianasulu]

чт, 19 июн. 2025 г., 18:06 Mark Filipak <
markfilipak.imdb-at-gmail.com at ffmpeg.org>:

> On 19/06/2025 10.42, BloodMan wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > W dniu 2025-06-19 o 16:03, Mark Filipak pisze:
> >> Linux is FOSS. There are no interface standards in Linux because no one
> is paid to establish and
> >> enforce standards. The result is programs that don't interoperate --
> Hell, Linux applications
> >> don't even have consistent font sizes.
> >
> > You use arguments that are not arguments - they are misunderstanding.
> >
> > If someone pays a lot for the system, wants to have a sugary interface
> of the system and programs,
> > at the same time assumes that the creator forced it, standardized,
> designed, polished, smoothed and
> > pampered (supposedly) and prohibits otherwise and tramples the rights of
> the owners of the purchased
> > equipment and system - they go to Apple.
> >
> > If someone pays for the system, allows chaos of various interfaces
> because at the same time the
> > creator constantly introduces new standards, designs but does not
> prohibit otherwise, so there is
> > more freedom - they go to Microsoft.
> >
> > If someone likes chaos or assumes that chaos can occur when no one takes
> money for it, at the same
> > time has full painful power over the system and programs (sometimes even
> too painful) but is certain
> > that the system will run just as efficiently on a supercomputer as on
> the controller of an old
> > machine tool - they go to FOSS / Linux.
> >
> > I, I suspect like most (I hope), chose Linux not because it is so modest
> - but because I have and
> > can have control over almost everything.
>
> I understand everything you've written, BloodMan, and I agree with all of
> it.
>
> For example: If Windows ran only if I allowed it to access the Internet,
> I'd switch to Linux in a
> heartbeat. That's because Microsoft has earned a reputation for betraying
> its customers. I use Linux
> to access the Internet because it has earned a reputation for protecting
> its users.
>
> But I do my work in Windows because my Windows applications are very good.
> I don't do work in Linux
> because Linux applications are generally not good. They're not good
> because there are no consistent
> standards. That's a failing of Linux because Linux is just a runtime
> executive, not an operating system.
>

You mean GUI stuff on top of everything else, right? Something users in
Windows interact most?

I guess compilcated story about X server and GUI toolkits in 1990s plays
some role in it. X server was MIT and not GLP, partially because it started
at MIT ? Different proprietary Unix vendors adopted it as standart + Motif
GUI on top of that. X and co were written in plain C (C89 at that point?).
It turned out C was not best choice for language to write gui with. C++ and
obj-c surfaced, but obj-c got little traction in X world (but was big in
NeXTSTEP/macos X) and libre equivalent of Motif (lesstiff) only surfaced
lately, when visually cool programs started to use either gtk+ (mostly C,
originated as widget set for GIMP) or Qt (trolltech ... not sure if they
were trolling or not with this name!). Qt was strangely licensed at version
1.0, they fixed that in 2.x and above, but split already happened, so some
software continue to use gtk+, some  cling to Qt, some tried its own thing
... Standarts exist, otherwise even simple copy/paste will not work, but
default visual styles usually different, and philosophy behind UI in gtk
and Qt lines also differ.

On your question about money ....

Capitalism is no fun at all, especially when it started to erode very
foundation for life here on this planet (it turned out you need to start
doing something about emissions *before* they reached critical levels, not
after!) but not likely to get away voluntary.

But I guess your question was mostly about *individual* developers or very
small teams, who do a lot of "small program market" work on Windows? Yeah,
I guess it harder to sell text editor for $10 if one already exist for free
;) But even in Windows/Mac/Android world most software is meh? And most
individual developers either bought up and forced to play by company's
rules, or disappear, often than not with their sources, binaries and
development history.

I agree that Windows/Mac for long time were much more stable/consistent to
use compared to LInux world where "you always can recompile it" idea was
pushed a bit too far (IMO).

Speaking about ffmpeg as project, it is not just cli but also software
library, and widely used as such. But all this API drop/change in 25 years
also render some old software unworkable with new versions of libav*
libraries. Linux distros tend to keep only one version of given library,
this makes them smaller at cost of keeping compatibility with older FOSS
programs.

Where are developers, one can ask? Well, vacuumed by big companies of
course! And users pay for instant gratification to big software companies
not for multiyear road where you write standart first, then write software
to it. Everyone "want" features fast, no matter how hacky internal
interface is. Windows still have much bigger installed base, so many
developers still cling to it, because dominant platform! And this situation
partially due to Microsofts not so honest business in 90x, and partially
due to NDA on how hardware works, so for many years GUI
performance/stability/featureset  was not great, or wifi was not working,
or specialised pci/e hardware only had drivers for Windows/Mac ...
Situation better now, but due to constant hw push only some features works
on some cards with libre drivers and managing giant (they grow in last 20
years!) collections of routines like qt5/6 or llvm, or rust is become issue
in itself ...

I wish I was able to say "Slow down!" to all sectors of this  damaging
speed race, but money talks louder than reason ......






> I have the best of both worlds, and I like it that way. I work in Windows
> and I communicate via a
> Linux virtual machine -- but not Microsoft's virtual machine. ;-)
>
> Would I be happy with only Linux applications? Not at all. Would I be
> happy if the developers of my
> Windows applications brought out Linux applications? You bet I would. Is
> that ever going to happen
> in the FOSS world? I don't think so.
>
> FFmpeg transcends both worlds.
>
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