Why is this bad? Firefox can't use h.264 because of licensing issues, so they really can't do anything about it. That's why they're focusing on Ogg/Theora. If Google comes through and opens up VP8, they can support that.

Its bad because the few that use html5 video currently are using h.264 (Example youtube).

It would be great if browsers that supported html5 video tags would just use whatever codecs were available on the os. That way people could just use whatever they wanted. h.264 be damned.

And all Google has to do is move YouTube to VP8. I'm sure they're looking at doing that, and once it happens, h.264 is likely going to be an also-ran. Unless Jobs follows through on his FUD about infringements on h.264 patents in which case we all get to watch the lawyers get richer. Again.

I've already had a good rant relating to this here.

But I have another concern. These ideas of using javascript and canvas and whatnot to do fancy stuff are all well and good if the user has a fast enough computer. To my knowledge there's no standardised way to let websites advertised system requirements. Are we going to get further into a situation where the web sleepwalks into demanding more and more powerful machines to run sites with worse and worse bloat, just like commercial software developers have done with desktop apps. Consequentially to that, we end up with a "two tier" web, where sites carrying unnecessary bloat along with useful information are inaccessible to the poor and those in the developing world. (I mean, what's the POINT of canvas? It seems to me it does everything SVG does, but worse). And while with desktop applications people can and do keep using older versions (even past end of security fixes, not that that's a good option), people don't have that option with websites.

smeeze*;
As a long standing member and "guru in training", you know that we frown on bad thread titles. The irony here is that your title for this one says it all!!!

Seriously, please use descriptive thread titles.

I don't get it. What's "Bad, Bad, BAD!" here?

That pretty much says it all...it means that you couldn't use H.264 (or any other codec for that matter) with FF, because there simply would be no support at all.

I agree that this whole H.264 patent business is getting way out of hand.

OK, I get it now.

Wouldn't it be great if they could just settle on a non-patented codec?

According to Jobs, every video codec is patented.

I wonder if Jobs will also go after Google, once VP8 is fully open and running.

After all, remember Jobs said that even Theora 'falls into the patent pool'. How? Only he knows apparently.

Jobs is a.......Well better left unsaid!

He seems to think that just because he has the iPhone and pad that he can try and change the web to fit himself and his drones!

I hope the iPhone and pad suffer a long agonizing death! I hope the likes of Android and webOS kill it for him! He is so egotistical that it kills me!

I would venture to say that I disrespect him waaaaaaaaaaay more then any other OS maker (I will not include names here)!