thelinuxlink.net

If Mozilla has its way, you'll soon be able to watch streaming video on sites all over the web without ever having to use a plug-in.

The software maker announced Monday that native support for the open-source Threora video format will be added to Firefox 3.1, the next version of its popular web browser. Theora files can be embedded directly into web pages just like images and viewed in any browser that supports Theora playback -- no plug-in to download, so special software to install.

Monday's news is sure to cause a heap of worry at Adobe, Apple and Microsoft. The giants own the web's leading media playback and streaming technologies, and collect the lucrative licensing payments for their use.

Both audio and video on the web are currently wrapped up in a mess of proprietary file formats, patents and downloadable software players that need to be frequently updated. The clear leader is Adobe Flash, the near-ubiquitous technology used by YouTube, Google Video and almost every website currently streaming video or audio. The Flash Player plug-in is free, and much of the code behind it has recently been released under a permissive open-source license. Huh??? But the Adobe's authoring tools are expensive, and large-scale deployments of Flash content require proprietary, enterprise-class server software. Further down the food chain are Apple's QuickTime and Microsoft's Silverlight playback technologies.