[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] 5 year plan & Inovation

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Le 21 avril 2024 23:40:08 GMT+03:00, Michael Niedermayer <michael at niedermayer.cc> a écrit :
>On Sun, Apr 21, 2024 at 05:11:36PM +0800, Rémi Denis-Courmont wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Le 17 avril 2024 21:58:32 GMT+08:00, Michael Niedermayer <michael at niedermayer.cc> a écrit :
>> >Hi all
>> >
>> >The pace of inovation in FFmpeg has been slowing down.
>> >Most work is concentarted nowadays on code refactoring, and adding
>> >support for new codecs and formats.
>> 
>> OSS projects of age similar to FFmpeg are either mature (like FFmpeg), or more or less dead. Besides, FFmpeg is an established brand, which means that it's expected to be good at what it's been doing... and not expected to be good at anything else.
>> 
>> Of course there are also specific aspects: back then, every company made up its own codecs. Nowadays, there's at most three tracks (for video): H.26x, Chinese AVSx and AV-x, while AVC or HEVC have become "good enough" for most applications.
>> 
>> If (generic) you want to work on radical innovation, I think you will be better served by creating a new project. Both the FFmpeg project structure and brand would probably do you a disservice otherwise.
>
>I will disagree on this a bit
>
>If we for a moment look at the commerical world (but its not fundamentally different in OSS)
>
>Projects/Companies are created to fill some need, initially they
>often need to concentarte on a narrow market because they dont have the
>resources to do "everything" and if they try they go bankrupt.
>Once they are established and have the resources they grow or they die
>
>Microsoft started with a OS in 1985, added an office suite in 1990
>internet explorer in 1995, xbox in 2001, Microsoft Azure in 2008
>and you can fill in more.
>Today Microsoft is one of the largest companies in teh world.

Microsoft expanded into new fields with Xbox and Azure, yes. But Windows is still an OS, and Office is still a (un)productivity suite.

Accordingly, maybe you can innovate with a new project within the same legal entity as FFmpeg (be it SPI, FFlabs or whatever).

But FFmpeg as a software project is not a suitable venue for radical new innovation.

>You can do the same with apple, google, or others.

Sure but you can't do the same with iPhone or Google Search.