One too many mornings

I’ve hesitated to use mplayer for Linux for while now as it never comes packaged for debian. This is because it includes support for non-free av codecs. While I don’t support the use of non-free codecs I do want to listen to the BBC archives. Since they are streamed as real media, which is a particularly ugly bastardisation of open standards, I’m forced to use them. I will also be petitioning the BBC to stop using non-free formats for transmitting their archives.

Due to the fact that mplayer is not included in debian, building it requires the editing configure scripts to resolve build dependencies, this probably the single most off-putting part of using an open operating system and one that is mostly solved by using debian. The sooner there are no widely used non-free av codecs the better (chance would be a fine thing!).