Windows Media Photo. So what?

Oops. my last post (really..)

Hope the non-techies can relate ;)
A topic started in tipidpc.com (warning techies, this site has an addictive content). "Tech news: Microsoft beats JPEG with new photo format for Vista." SEATTLE Microsoft (evil) Corp. unveiled a new photo format it claims will provide better quality at half the size of a JPEG image. Windows Media Photo (WMP) will be built into the next-generation of Windows, called Vista.

http://tipidpc.com/viewtopic.php?tid=61467
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188103092

Well, JPEG format became a de facto standard in the world wide web and also in big camera/video companies, since 1990s. But there are some formats (such as jpeg 2000) that are better than JPEG, mostly open-source. For example zip, a format with old compression algorithms(mostly lossless compression) for data files, which is very popular, has weak compression algorithms compared to many open-source programs when it comes to speed-compression ratio (see Paq program/algo).

Basically my point is formats like JPEG and zip became a standard because the people make them standard. JPEG and zip are superior in the 1990s, when personal computers spread like mushrooms. So until now, these formats are widely used, even by large cameras/video companies. For me, Microsoft cannot forcefully replace JPEG as a standard for the next 2-3 years, which is said in the article.

And it's no big deal for linux users (like me) on this new WMP format (except when WMP becomes mainstream, which will never work). In the open source world, the standard for compressing files is tar gz, and PNG, a picture format like JPEG, is becoming popular than before.

just my two cents ;)

~cidd~
my pathetic and cheap PC Specs:
Sempron 64 3000+ am2 @ 1800 ghz
Epox mgf-6100 mATX mobo (crappy nf410 chip)
crappy generic 512 ddr2 533 ram (i've only got 12% overclock because of these)
Maxtor 80gb SATA
5 year old 16x liteon cdrw and a crappy DVD-rom
2x180mm fan
crappy old school ATX case

ps: people please give me money for a decent VC (maybe a 7600gs ddr3), a DVD-rw, and branded rams (i need a 50%+ overclock).