Handbrake and Open Source
Handbrake rocks, for PC and Mac, and you should definitely use it if you’re in a video-based business. Download it here.
That said, Open Source rocks even harder. Way harder. And it kicks the pants off commercial software half the time while doing it. Oh, and it rocks harder. Or maybe I already implied that… anyway, I was reading the installments of a newly-added RSS feed for Handbrake and one linked to a post that not only defined the programmer’s definition of open source, but really what it means in the most part for the general developing community. That I thought was cool. According to the developer:
Open source software is exactly what it sounds like: It’s software written by a (usually small) group of highly-dedicated people that solved particular problems they themselves had and thought others might find useful as well.
That sounds pretty good to me. And without even saying it, they named one of the key features that differentiates open source from commercialized development strategies: it’s exactly what it sounds like. You get what you’re told you get, and that’s about it. No hidden tricks, no extra gadgets to distract you from what you came for in the first place, and no obnoxious fee to pay up front, only to be disappointed and find out it’s not what you thought it was in the first place.
