Apple 'abandons' QuickTime on Windows | Hacker News Reader

Apple 'abandons' QuickTime on Windows

bbc.com

9 pointswckronholm16 comments

At my place of work, we are heavily invested in a web application hosted by a vendor who insisted QT was needed to play all the little sounds on the web interface that the user hears. It was literally the only reason we had to bring it into our environment, and they insisted we have it and there was no other way they could play sounds through the browser. This should be interesting.

What are the most common current uses of QuickTime?

I'm on Mac but I use it for recording my desktop multiple times per work.

If you’re using a relatively recent version of OS X, Quicktime Player is mostly just a first-party front end for the Quicktime-replacing AV frameworks that got ported to OS X from iOS a few versions back. It probably keeps the Quicktime name only for legacy reasons and so upgraders aren’t confused as to where the default media player disappeared to.

Interesting. This is literally the only thing I use it for.

http://i.imgur.com/2HX9M0r.png

I think the OP meant "on Windows".

Yea I figured (thats why I said 'on mac') but I also don't know if Windows has this feature. I'm assuming not.

Years ago, iTunes would aggressively push users to install QuickTime. Many will not yet have uninstalled it.

Didn't iTunes initially require QuickTime?

Yes. Sounds more dramatic to say it was aggressively pushed though.

At the time I used it (around 2006), I don't believe QuickTime was required, but it was Trojan-horsed onto me every time iTunes updated. It was an opt-out, and Apple definitely fostered the impression that it was required (it was for some features I guess).

It also hijacked file associations without warning, which was one of the most annoying/aggressive things about it.

I'll also add that having to install bloated garbage like iTunes in the first place was aggressive (due to Apple's policy of locking iPod owners into using iTunes), so adding another piece of bloated garbage on top of that was really irritating.

When I was dealing with it, it wasn't required and it was pushed - installed by default with iTunes IIRC, which of course meant that this unnecessary software was installed for almost all users.

Media programs that use the codecs - namely adobe video stuff, but pro tools/cubase and some audio tools as well.

its used as a container for a lot of TV/film work.

Its notorious for not being colour correct, or stable.

In my case, the ability to use RGBA .mov files in After Effects.

It's not common, but the product my work makes uses it as a cross-browser, cross-platform (Windows and OS X) way of embedding video into a web page with good scrubbing and multitrack audio support.

We're replacing it with native HTML video, but comparing the number of workarounds and shims needed to get feature parity across browsers and platforms, Quicktime is certainly the easier choice. It's just not future proof.

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