seanmonstar

Google is trying to force everyone off of closed codecs like H.264 and use open codecs, like WebM. Other companies have tried to force away bad technologies, and while they were hated at first, eventually everyone realized it was a good move.

What’s surprising (perhaps it shouldn’t be), is that one of the companies to have done this previously is Apple, and yet, much of the Apple crowd have grabbed their pitchforks. It seems to me, that just like Apple, the company, those Apple fans care less about open standards, and more about Apple’s standards.¹

Update

Regarding why Google isn’t doing the same for Flash: Chrome bundles Flash for security reasons. Most people would download Flash anyways, but they likely wouldn’t bother to keep it up to date. That means their web experience would be riskier.

HTML5 video is still very new, so it’s still pretty easy to mold the direction it is going. Besides mobile devices, most web users don’t see an HTML5 video player. At this point, it makes more sense to ask, “Apple, why do I need an extra encoded version just for you?”