Fox News has fixed this streaming media problem! Read on if you were experiencing the same issues…
Recently, I have noticed that the FoxNews.com website is no longer capable of supporting Linux desktops. In fact, they deliver a message that spells it out for you. The funny thing is, other news organizations IT departments have no issues supporting Linux.
The real problem with FoxNews.com comes when trying to view any of their streaming media or news video cuts. you get a message stating:
Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows XP Media Center 2005, Mac OSX 10.3 or Mac OSX 10.4 is required to view this page
This is technologically stupid considering that all their media was played back in a window with a Flash video widget. Whether their IT is just not capable of testing Linux, whether they have no interest in supporting open standards, remains to be answered. IT divisions like this need to get their collective act together, as this begins to really show how little developers in general are capable of doing with tools and API sets that are specific to O/S’s considered “mainstream.”
The unfortunate part is I now have to get my “Fair and Balanced” online news elsewhere - like Newsmax.com or places that seem to have no issue streaming video or supporting media types in open standard browsers like Firefox.
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[...] VelocityWebDev wrote an interesting post today on FoxNews - Technology Not Fair or BalancedHere’s a quick excerptRecently, I have noticed that the FoxNews.com website is no longer capable of supporting Linux desktops. In fact, they deliver a message that spells it out for you. The funny thing is, ther news organizations IT departmens have no … [...]
[...] their "streaming" media. Is their IT incapable of allowing flash players to run in Firefox?http://www.velocitywebdev.com/2008/04/13/foxnews-technology-not-fair-or-balanced/Adobe - Adobe Flash PlayerAdobe flash player is the high-performance, lightweight, highly expressive [...]
First of all, Fox IT doesn’t do the website. The web team is a separate division. Secondly, the video issue is from Maven. Simply put, the Maven video player by default doesn’t officially support Linux, but will work with it. That’s the long and short of it. By the way, foxbusiness.com had the same issue since its inception last year, but not surprisingly no one noticed that the video player wasn’t working.
Here is the interesting part of the Maven video player - if I ran Konqueror and spoofed the O/S and browser - the video player worked fine. Even if I ran Firefox, the video player would come up and sound would play just fine. So, Linux users had “work-arounds” to view the streaming media. Something much better than the message being delivered. It’s still Fox News IT that is going to get hammered. Perception is always the front door. If Fox News is going to have a web presence with their name on it, it’s their obligation to make sure that the delivered content is working correctly. That’s like saying, it’s Fox News, but it’s not their fault. Sorry, that doesn’t fly.
As far as Fox Business goes, I wonder what the traffic is at that site to begin with? I never understood the separation of Fox News and Fox News Business. Other business only channels have come and gone…why does Fox think they can do any better? But, that’s a different topic…
Incidently, the good news is, all of their streaming media is now working under Linux native with Firefox. Better than it ever has before. So, who do I congratulate? Fox News IT?
