RealNetworks Follows Through on Open Source Committment

By Brian
Proffitt
Managing Editor
Linux Today

Following through on a promise made last summer, RealNetworks
has announced the source code availiblity of the third and final
product in the Helix media system: the Helix DNA server.

The announcement, one of the first to come out of the LinuxWorld
Conference and Expo here, means that for the first time, a
completely open-source media content system is available to the
general public.

Earlier, RealNetworks had released the source code for its media
player and media producer. In October, RealNetworks released the
Helix DNA Client source code. In December, RealNetworks released
the Helix DNA Producer. Today’s announcement completes the set.

RealNetworks has had some challenges getting their product line
open sourced, but for the most part, they have been pleasantly
surprised at how fast their product has been welcomed by the open
source community and by their client base.

A reflection of that high degree of acceptance came in the form
of RealNetwork’s second announcement: that over 10,000 developers
have signed up to participate in the Helix Community project: a
number that far exceeded RealNetwork’s projections.

“We were figuring a lot less [by this time,” said Dan Sheeran,
Vice President of Media Systems.

The third announcement will go a long way towards improving
those numbers: the Open Source Initiative has officially approved
of RealNetworks’ Public Source License
(RPSL)–the company’s own version of an open-source license. With
this approval in hand, many more developers who may have been
wavering based on licensing principles could join the Helix
effort.

The release of the Helix DNA Server is significant news on its
own. This software streams MP3, RealAudio, and RealVideo.

According to Sheeran, RealNetworks plans to add support for
MPEG-4 after the MPEG-4 systems license terms have been released by
the MPEG-4 licensing body, MPEG LA.

Developers can create their own extensions for other media types
such as Windows Media and QuickTime, or they can license these
extensions from RealNetworks through the Helix Community. Besides
Linux, the Helix DNA Server is available for AIX, HP-UX, Tru64,
FreeBSD, Solaris, Windows NT, and Windows 2000 operating
systems.

The source code for the Helix DNA Server (as well as the other
two components of the Helix platform) is available at the Helix Community< Web site.
Binaries are also available, but for quality assurance purposes
only, as Real will still sell its Helix components as consumer
offerings.

According to RealNetworks, the Helix DNA Server will be licensed
under both a public source license and a commercial community
source license. Both licenses are free of charge for research and
development use. The public source license has no royalty for use
or distribution; the Community Source License includes a $500/unit
royalty for commercial use of the Helix DNA Server inclusive of
RealAudio and RealVideo support.

Sheeran, like most of the RealNetworks team, has been very
pleased with the response to Helix thus far. The journey has not
been without some challanges, however. One of the biggest hurdles
has been the condition of the source code itself.

“The realization that all of your comments in the code are
viewable by thousands of people,” was the way Sheeran described
this hurdle. Beyond the potential for releasing electronic
graffiti, Sheeran descibed a more fundemental challenge.

“[It’s] the fundemental shift in knowing that everything we
write is available to developers without access to our original
developer team,” he explained.

Initially, the RealNetworks team grumbled a bit about all of the
extra work entailed in getting the code ready to be open sourced.
But, Sheeran continued, that grumbling soon died down when the
developers saw the advantages of having bugfixes start flying into
the code. Sheeran added that many of the company’s developers were
“open source developers at heart,” so working on something they
already believed in helped.

And the payoff, it seems, has been substantial. The volume of
response for the Helix Community has been phenomenal to the
RealNetworks staff.

“The level of activity has exceeded our expectations,” Sheeran
said.

More to the benefit of the bottom line, vendors have been taking
a strong interest in developing with Helix as well, which
translates into more revenue for RealNetworks. In particular,
Sheeran said, embedded device firms were stronly looking at the
Helix platform, a development that is welcome to RealNetwork’s
accountants.

Through it all, the company has been amazed at the diversity if
the benefits, as developers are expressing interest in taking Helix
into projects that RealNetworks would have never imagined the
products could go.

“It’s fun and exciting to see people doing that,” Sheeran
said.