RealNetworks are doing what?!

Apparently, they’re releasing the source code for RealPlayer (Linux version) sometime in the near future.  Whilst binaries of this have been available for some time (Real has been one of few major software vendors to commit to long term support of such a platform, which has been excellent – I won’t comment on the OTHER issues surrounding their software, but their cross-platform thing has been good).

Their Helix Community (Helix Player) project has been around and opensourced for some time (under the terms of their own license, the RPSL), but there is now talk and a suggestive line on the website which would imply that Real are likely to release the source to their flagship product, RealPlayer.  “Coming soon.” is the official line next to the RealPlayer download link on http://player.helixcommunity.org – not that it matters much, because apparently the Helix Player now supports OGG, a handful of Real’s formats (that being the thing which they had previously held as proprietry and hadn’t been supported by the Helix product tree), as well as MPEGs plus a few million other weird and wonderful media formats.  I haven’t seen anything indicating with any great certainty whether the RealAudio/Video and streaming formats are covered by this license, however this page would suggest that perhaps they have been…  it seems like a completely unviable business direction to take, especially coming from a firm with something of a history of not so consumer-focused products (read: spyware).

Their encoding products have always been really easy to use, and just generally rocked, and I’m hoping that this move doesn’t affect that.