Real's Reality

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/2009-1023_3-5168648.html?tag=nefd_lede' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/2009-1023_3-5168648.html?tag=nefd_lede</a><br /><br /></div>C|Net has written a very interesting article on the perilous challenges faced by Real Networks, one of the internet's earliest multimedia pioneers. The article illustrates Real's illustrious, if chaotic, history and offers a blow by blow account of its journey. <br /><br />The way I see it, Real was the victim of its own success. A classic tale of hubris. In the early days, Real Player was actually half decent streaming media software, before Rob Glaser turned it into the bloated Frankenstein Adware client that we see today. I refuse to even install it on any of my machines. Microsoft is winning, and winning fairly in my opinion. Although I strongly dislike the equally bloated and poorly designed Windows Media Player interface, Windows Media 9 technology is far superior to Real's offering, or even Apple's Quicktime.

[Jason Dunn]

Ah, Real. I used to be a HUGE fan of Real Audio, and used HTTP streaming on a few of my early personal sites. I thought it was the COOLEST thing in the world. But then Real's player started to get bloated, then hid the free version, and they were gunning for all sorts of crazy business models. Ultimately I just got tired of feeling like I was fighting their application for control of my own computer, and Windows Media just seemed like a much easier alternative.

[James Fee]

Not only that Jason, it always tried to take over your computer. Why the hell would I want to watch a DVD using Real Player. :roll:

[bcre8v2]

RealPlayer was the leader! Today it is a nusance.
They figured that they owned the streaming video/audio markets and could generate more revenue by advertisement. Unfortunately, this model became excessive. I haven't used RP in over 2 years, nor do many of my peers. It is simply bloatware. Thank goodness for choice.
If you require a ".ra" alternative, Google "realplayer + alternative"

[that_kid]

Real used to be Really good but after a while it was a Real pain. After battling with it trying to steal my preferences and all those #@#$ icons in my system tray, with the blinking and flashing oh my god I couldn't take it. I actually still run real player 9 or whatever it was before it became realone for those sites that haven't switched over. I agree that windows media player is bloated but at least it works well.

[James Fee]

Well the only reason I had RealPlayer installed was MLB feeds (http://www.mlb.tv), but now I might not need it and if that is the case, I'm done.

[mcsouth]

I made the mistake of installing Real player on my home PC about a year or so ago - within hours, I hugely regretted it. My PC went from being a reasonably stable (for Win98SE, anyways ;) ) and speedy workhorse to being a crash-happy, sluggish nightmare. I ended up with a lot more crap on my system than just a player. I ended up with an app that hijacked all kinds of file formats (sorta like Quicktime does :? ) without my permission or knowledge.

In the end, even uninstalling Real player wasn't enough to bring my PC back to 'normal', and I ended up doing a complete format-C and reinstall.

Today, I don't subscribe to NASCAR online feeds, because they use Real Player. I strongly advise friends and family from installing Real player on their PC's. And I damn near sent my wife's new Dell laptop back to Dell for a full refund when I discovered that they had Real player installed on it!

I'm not sure exactly what Real would have to do to ever get my confidence in their product back, but thankfully, I can live quite nicely without it for now......