GNU & GIFs

March 5th, 2007

Hi guys, I just learned that the whole website of gnu.org doesn’t use GIF images. I just read through the reason and was bombed 🙂

Crux of the Reason: Unisys and IBM have patented the LZW compression algorithm which is used in generated GIF images. Read the full article.

Also, the page links to a library called libungif, which uncompresses GIF images written using the LZW algorithm and writes them in uncompressed format. The philosophy section of GNU.org is very interesting. Please go through it.

hmm…

Posted by Aswin Anand Filed in Casually Speaking ..., Uncategorized
4 Comments »

4 Responses to “GNU & GIFs”

  1. Yuvi Says:
    March 7th, 2007 at 4:46 am

    Please don’t tell them that the word “Oxygen” has already been trademarked…

  2. Aswin Anand T.H. Says:
    March 7th, 2007 at 9:40 am

    @yuvi:
    Lol… they are one good bunch 🙂

  3. Yuvi Says:
    March 7th, 2007 at 9:58 am

    They are, but, I zealously hate zealotry….. 😀

  4. Aswin Anand T.H. Says:
    March 7th, 2007 at 11:43 am

    @yuvi:
    Me too… especially their badvista initiative. It earns them a very bad name.