Google's open sourcing of the VP8 codec as part of the WebM project has been applauded by companies and organisations around the world, but doubts persist about the code, the licence and patents

Canonical is the first Linux shop to have agreed to license the codec in question, H.264 from MPEG LA. Even though Red Hat and Novell are also available for use on PCs, they have not licensed H.264.

You've heard all of the advantages that HTML5 brings to your web experience, but how far away are we from enjoying the benefits of HTML5? With several browsers already supporting HTML5 video, I selected Google Chromium which was available for my Ubuntu 10.04 desktop and gave it a try.

Jobs replied, saying that “[a] patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other open source codecs now.” The news spread like wildfire. This episode provides a good example of how software patents harm innovation and why they are ultimately incompatible with Free Software. Any program - Free Software or not - is threatened by patents.

"With the introduction of HTML5 and its implementation in all major web browsers, it's becoming clear that Adobe is now in a place where a lack of innovation from the company could cause not only a loss of profit for Adobe, but also the eventual abandonment and deprecation of the product "Adobe Flash" by every product and service that currently supports it."

"Apart from many performance improvements and an official 64bit version, "Firefox 3.7 Alpha 4 Pre" doesn't have many new features that 3.6 doesn't already have." ... "Another new thing we noticed is the ability to resize text boxes (textarea tags.) The video below shows the feature being used on the InaTux.com forms..."

What journalists are missing out on is that H.264 is a patented codec, and that the patent holders expect to collect royalties. The last H.264 patents expire in 2028. Mr. Blizzard draws some apt parallels with GIF and MP3, and the problems caused when patented, royalty-burdened technologies collide with a supposedly open and unencumbered Web.

The Ubuntu release schedule isn't always clear to everyone. There's the regular releases, the LTS releases, server releases, and Alpha, Beta, Omega, and Zeta releases. OK, the last two were fake, but it can all get pretty confusing to new users.