BBC "Not In Bed With Bill Gates" 335
whoever57 writes "The BBC's head of technology denied rumors that a secret deal with Microsoft was behind the XP-only launch of the BBC's iPlayer. According to Ashley Highfield, the reason that the player only supports Windows XP is that only a small number of Linux visitors have come to the BBC's website. Why he would expect a large number of Linux-based visitors to the site when the media downloads are Windows XP only is not clear. He also thinks that 'Launching a software service to every platform simultaneously would have been launch suicide,' despite the example of many major sites that support Linux (even if this is through the closed-source flash player)."
Miscounting (Score:2, Interesting)
BBC's charter (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Definitely a screwup somewhere (Score:3, Interesting)
It would be interesting to do a survey of Linux users to see how many regularly use bbc.co.uk. I suspect the figure would be well up in the hundreds of thousands. 400-600 is just beyond belief.
Re:1% of user base (Score:1, Interesting)
And that's why Google is over $700 a share now? Because Linux and Linux-support don't provide return on investment?
How did this ever get modded up?
Re:Lame reason. (Score:4, Interesting)
Now I imagine that relates to visitors to the rather useless BBC front page, using the same info as used to compile the blog post at http://www.currybet.net/articles/user_agents/2.php> which claims that only 0.41& of BBC visitors use Linux.
I'm a regular visitor to various bits of the BBC web site and I regularly come across other Linux users and just about the one thing we have in common is that we very rarely visit the front page - like most experienced computer users we go straight to sub-site we want.
Guys, what did you expect? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Of course it was (Score:5, Interesting)
If MS and the BBC were in cahoots, don't you think there would be a Vista version? Microsoft doesn't want you buying XP any more.
400 to 600 Linux users? (Score:2, Interesting)
There must more than 600, because a "Latest BBC Headlines" bookmark comes "preinstalled" with Firefox.
(At least with the ones I've seen)
Re:Lame reason. (Score:1, Interesting)
That doesn't make the numbers right (Score:1, Interesting)
Hell, there's more than 800 visit the BBC site from one company along (using linux).
So stats from bbc.co.uk may be representative but that doesnt mean the stats are either correct (incorrect logs) or that he's quoted the actual figures.
Re:Lame reason. (Score:4, Interesting)
Personally, I've browsed the BBC websites (I don't know that I've ever been to the front page) via Mac OS X, Mac OS 9, various Linux flavours, FreeBSD, PalmOS, and even Windows Mobile. I don't think I've been there once via a Windows-based browser (except maybe some of the news articles).
It would be extremely interesting to see how his metrics are being compiled.
Re:Guys, what did you expect? (Score:3, Interesting)
Interview on Groklaw (Score:4, Interesting)
Mark Taylor of the UK Open Source Consortium makes the point that the BBC has spent 100 million pounds on the iPlayer project. They're also going broke and will have to sell their flagship London headquarters building for - guess how much?
So, this project has already beggared the BBC. Am I too paranoid in seeing this as the first step in yet another Microsoft 'embrace and extend' play? They've had ambitions to own broadcast TV for ages. If they can prove their DRM works for a major broadcaster over the net, next step will be to DRM the broadcast TV. After that, if your TV doesn't have Windows Inside, you'll be shit out of luck.
Re:Lame reason. (Score:2, Interesting)
5 pounds per licence holder (Score:3, Interesting)
Yet another Freedom of Information request worth making: ask the BBC to break down the money spent on this.
If we knew the facts, I truly believe arrests would be made