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Mac support
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Please hurry up with native Mac support! Bored with running iPlayer within Windows on my Mac through virtualisation...
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There is sadly no ETA for Mac OS X and Linux versions. It was announced on 30 April this year that non-Windows versions could take up to 24 months, so don't expect it to be in the near future. This project was initiated in 2003!
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I don't know about linux, but BBC's own news site says that "...a version for the Mac could be available by autumn." (see news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/... ).
I imagine that "could" is the significant word there but still it's promising that that's what they're aiming for.This is a reply to this message.
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It's a complete disgrace that they are using public money to develop a system of a single companies product. There are many many alternative options they could have used but they probably either took the easy route or are getting cash from MS. If the BBC really want to be considered a neutral and impartial service perhaps they shouldn't ask people to run an expensive and insecure system from one source. Lets be honest Microsoft at the HDI and Infosec show in London this year said they had to pull XP in the end due to it's insecurity.
Please stop spending my money on funding Microsofts' domination of the home computer market, large public organizationsThis is a reply to this message.
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There are many many alternative options they could have used
Name them.
but they probably either took the easy route or are getting cash from MS.
Accusing people of taking bribes is libel you know...This is a reply to this message.
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Name them
This might be one
www.realnetworks.com...
Calm down, he's not accusing anyone of taking bribes. It's well known that there was a memorandum of understanding signed between Ashley H and Microsoft and that the BBC and them were planning to work together.
FYI I own a mac, I work on 4oD and that's Windows too, yes it's annoying. But as I blogged about eyedropper.wordpress... with roughly 5% of the market share (by looking at browsers who hit bbc.co.uk) you could also argue that to plough money into a mac version wouldn't be cost effective.This is a reply to this message.
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This might be one
www.realnetworks.com...
Nope, RealHelix doesn't support timed expiry at the moment.
Calm down, he's not accusing anyone of taking bribes.
Yes he is. This is what he said -but they probably either took the easy route or are getting cash from MS.
The BBC legally under the Royal Charter cannot take money from MS. Any employee that did would be taking a bribe. That is what he explicitly said.
It's well known that there was a memorandum of understanding signed between Ashley H and Microsoft and that the BBC and them were planning to work together.
That however does not commit the BBC to making any Microsoft purchases, nor does it allow any money to be paid from MS to the BBC.
Phazer
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I would be willing to do testing on my Mac.
10 Mbps Sky Broadband
dual G4 1.25 GHz with 2 GB RAM
OSX 10.4.10
38 years programming experience
29 years computer VIDEO experienceThis is a reply to this message.
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This posting has been hidden during moderation because it broke the House Rules in some way.
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That Microsoft is on record of offering the BBC its Silverlight platform practically FOC, one can then draw one's own conclusions about the 'value proposition' and whether the BBC would be 'better off' wholly buying into Microsoft.
One also wonders whether the fact that Erik Huggers is an ex-Microsoft man, has had any bearing on those particular arrangements.This is a reply to this message.
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The BBC's planned new offices in Salford are, allegedly, to be constructed using "bricks". Conspiracy theorists have already begun to construct elaborate imaginings to explain why the BBC has shunned the use of perfectly good, though less widely used, "breeze blocks".
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Luckily, however, it has been reported that there are a diverse number of brick manufacturers who are not only able to offer a wide variety of brick types, but also consultancy services mediated by an independent third party.
Regrettably, none of the brick manufacturers are, however, in a position to offer the bricks, the mortar, the building equipment or even the plots of land free of charge.This is a reply to this message.
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Get a grip Tiddles, smell the coffee.
End-to-end the iPlayer system uses at least 8 different non-Microsoft software technologies, as well as 3 different Windows components.
Is that enough types of Brick?
And the non-Microsoft components still cost money to develop, to test, to implement and to support.
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Currently.
The BBC has a well-known "memorandum of understanding" with Microsoft. Microsoft has recently visited the BBC with a Silverlight proposal. Microsoft has offered pretty much everything FOC, obviously to get in the door.
The BBC's entire content delivery platform is non-Microsoft, open and pretty much Perl-based.
Microsoft obviously want, like everything else, to turn the BBC into a Microsoft-only machine.
Over my dead TV licence.This is a reply to this message.
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It may have escaped your notice Tiddles, but there ain't no such beast as a "content delivery platform" owned and controlled (solely) by the BBC.
Post "reorganisation", the BBC delivers content in partnership with Siemens and Red Bee, both of whom have independent control over their own hardware and software acquisition policies.
I hate to break the news, but your paranoia needs to be extended to two more organisations!
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The platform is maintained by Siemens in a hardware sense.
The software which produces the BBC's static content pages is almost entirely Perl-based, built mostly within the *BBC* P&D department. Occasionally a bit of Python may sneak out.
You continue to break news worthy of only publication in a sensationalist school rag, with little regard either for the truth nor perspective.
As soon as the licence fee is canned, however, you will find me a happy person, since then at least the BBC will have an excuse to not support the majority (ie "We're commercial now!").
Oh, by the way, BBC support of MAC (ref: OP) for some considerable time is not possible, since Windows Media 10, required by the BBC, does not support Mac OS X and will never do. Which is why Silverlight is not the answer either.
The only multi-platform DRM solution is Adobe's, supporting Windows, Mac OS and Linux variants.This is a reply to this message.
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Sorry mate, but that's a trite dismissal of the true position. Siemens do an awful lot more than polish the boxes and dust off the PSU fans from time to time. Siemens and Red Bee have a massive role, in both hardware AND software, in the whole delivery chain. The static parts of web pages are hardly more than a few percent of the iPlayer system end-to-end.
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Since the Mac market share is rising, it seems especially important to ensure that the iPlayer isn't a Windows-only service. I only hope there's transparency from the BBC in announcing the timetable for a Mac version. The BBC News online report from June 2007 suggested the autumn -- if this is no longer the case, then the iPlayer team should come clean about this as soon as possible. The last thing we want is another SlingPlayer disaster, where a company actually claimed on the box of their product that it was Mac-compatible when it wouldn't be for another six months.
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But you can't libel a monolithic organisation that pretends to be a public service but goes its own way far too often...
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You strawman, OV. I stated that the BBC develop the software which delivers BBC content. That's undeniably true.
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