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

[Vittorio Giovara]

On Wed, Apr 24, 2024 at 3:00 PM Michael Niedermayer <michael at niedermayer.cc>
wrote:

> > 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.
>
> Microsofts OS does not limit what can be installed to whats in MS main
> repository, FFmpeg does
>
> Microsoft windows from a user POV includes internet explorer IIRC. Its not
> a seperate
> product from just the legal entity. It was not in the first OS from
> microsoft
>
> microsofts first OS MS-DOS 1.0 ? looks slightly different than the current
> latest OS.
> There was radical innovation, if one likes MS or hate them.
>
>
> >
> > >You can do the same with apple, google, or others.
> >
> > Sure but you can't do the same with iPhone or Google Search.
>
> of course you can, googles search inovated. Theres a image search a audio
> search
> news, travel, shoping.
> These did not exist in the initial google search. And while i dont know, i
> suspect
> google search is very good at finding google products.
> Google didnt became that big by simply "not being evil"
>
> But lets not assume, lets try, if i search for maps i get
> Google Maps as first entry.
>
> or finance, 2nd entry is https://www.google.com/finance/
>
>
> And the iphone uses apples operating system and their app store, with
> many apple apps. Check the first iphone and compare it to the latest
> there is huge inovation with what you can do with all the software
> that comes preinstalled and also what you can install later.
> Thats in stark contrast to
> "FFmpeg as a software project is not a suitable venue for radical new
> innovation"
> when did you last use siri with your iphone ? siri was added in
> iphone 4s IIUC. Thats a big change.
>
> I can ultimately only repeat my oppinion. FFmpeg will innovate or FFmpeg
> will stagnate and eventually be replaced by some other project that doesnt
> have an opposition to innovation.
>
> IMHO we need to find out what direction (of innovation or lack thereof)
> people want. This RFC thread is kind of the first step.
> 2nd step would be a vote.


You are kinda comparing apples and oranges, a platform like an OS or a
service like google Maps are different products than the software that runs
them like FFmpeg. While for sure there can be innovation and radical new
design ideas in our project, the space for innovation is limited by the
intrinsic nature of the software, which is basically "multimedia
in/multimedia out". In other words you cannot make something like a social
network or a crypto exchange or a browser based on ffmpeg.exe, and not
because it's impossible but because it's the wrong tool for the job -
likewise you can't make internet explorer a good multimedia low level
framework - there are other places to innovate with more freedom and fewer
requirements.

Most of the innovations I see the community ask for our project are mostly
non-technical, aka switching to a more user friendly patch system, have
stronger meaningful actions from the CC, and secure funding for larger
projects. These are all hard to do, even more so when the leadership stalls
any action out of fear of losing contributors. I hope we can find a good
compromise in the upcoming months.
-- 
Vittorio