Apple ships Linux-enabled QuickTime Server

Apple's open source QuickTime Streaming Server software has been updated to support not only the company's own MacOS X Server operating system, but Intel-based Linux systems. The update allows software developers working with that platform to create Linux streaming media products without having to make changes to the core components of the source code, said Apple. At the same time, the update, which takes the software to version 1.0.1, doubles performance to 2000 concurrent media streams, the company claimed. And the pre-compiled MacOS X version is now available in French, German and Japanese language editions. Updates to QuickTime Streaming Server (the pre-compiled MacOS X release) and Open Source Streaming Server are available now, free of charge from Apple's Web site. The support for Linux on Intel comes largely from the open source community itself. Apple said over 14,000 copies of the open source version of QuickTime Streaming Server (the full release minus the MacOS-specific user interface code) since it was released ten weeks ago. Many of them will have been developers working on non-Mac platforms, but since Apple's goal here is to promote QuickTime rather than the MacOS, that may not matter too much to the company. What Apple wants to do is ensure QuickTime becomes the standard for Internet multimedia, and that means beating RealNetworks. Apple's approach is to get QuickTime on as many Net servers as possible, and right now that means supporting Linux. It can't ignore other versions of Unix and Windows NT, but that's the beauty of the open source model -- someone, somewhere out there will develop it for you. ® See also Open source server leads Apple streaming scheme