[Flac-dev] Should FLAC join Xiph?

[Emmett Plant]

Really, it's a case of resource management and helping things along in an
inclusive manner, as opposed to an exclusive manner. Sure, we could just
start building on it and give it out, but that's not really our style. I'd
much prefer to take some of the resources we have and offer them to a
project that has proven that it can kick a lot of ass on its own.

There's no question in my mind that if FLAC weren't to join Xiph,
development would continue and everything would move on as it has already.
No one would keel over dead if the projects weren't collaborating closer
than they currently are. On the other hand, we've got a fairly large
fanbase, and people tend to show up at our door first when they want open
multimedia standards.

So, marketing-wise, it's probably a good idea. Does it need to happen? No.
Would it help FLAC? I think so. You'd get an all-access pass to our
resources and people, and maintain independence from a design and
development point-of-view. Would it help Xiph? Yes; We would finally get to
offer a lossless audio compressor as a part of our big package.

We're small, and we have limited funds, so when we spend money to go out and
pimp stuff, we're going to pimp our stuff, not anyone else's. If we had a
ton of money, we'd pimp everyone, but it's not feasible. It's not that we
dislike everyone else, it's just that we have to take care of our in-house
stuff first. Bringing FLAC to the party means we'll spend a little more, but
that's okay with us, it's worth it.

That being said, though; We've made it more than clear that anything that
Josh and co. want to do in regard to keeping the native .flac format around
is completely up to them. It's not a 'join Xiph and only use Ogg'
proposition. Josh would remain the Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler of FLAC,
and personally, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Emmett Plant
CEO, Xiph.org Foundation

On 11/21/02 2:11 PM, "Steve Lhomme" <steve.lhomme at free.fr> wrote:

> What keeps people around Xiph from using FLAC in OGG already and report
> bugs? If marketing is what you're looking for it's OK. But that would
> be bad to consider people around Xiph so close minded that they would
> use your codec only if you are part of Xiph... *grin*