libav_0.6.2-1_i386.changes is NEW

[Reinhard Tartler]

On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 09:39:22 (CET), Fabian Greffrath wrote:

> are there any *technical* reasons for our switch from ffmpeg to the
> libav fork?

Well, for the 0.6.2 release, you could argue that it doesn't matter a
lot, since there are effectively only two releavant patches included
from the 0.6.1 release.

>  What are the technical differences now and in the long term?  Will
> libav retain ABI-/API-compatibility with ffmpeg?

This remains to be seen. At the moment and AFAIUI, it is questionable if
there will be future FFmpeg releases at all. Michael Niedermayer has
asked me last saturday if I would be willing to continue to do FFmpeg
releases. I didn't answer yet but asked for a few more days to think it
over. In any case, Michael confirmed to me in the same irc query that he
will try to stay API/ABI compatible with Libav. In the Libav camp, there
are not direct plans to willingfully break API/ABI as well.

For large scale distribution like Debian, Libav has clear advantages
over FFmpeg:

 - reliable release process
 - friendly and receptive upstream
 - actively maintained regression test suite (FATE)
 - maintainer (i.e., me) active in upstream

Moreover, Libav is currently working to setup a bugzilla instance, which
will make forwarding bugs much easier because in contrast to roundup and
trac (which is what FFmpeg now uses), allows proper version tracking.

I hope this suffices as explanation.

-- 
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4