source: trunk/third/gstreamer/RELEASE @ 18743

                  GStreamer "Hottest Pick" 0.6.0 released[*]

   The  GStreamer  team is happy to announce our first ABI stable release
   series. The 0.6.x series of the GStreamer streaming-media framework.

   At  this  point  in  time  GStreamer  is fully functional for creating
   audio-based   applications,   as   shown   by   applications  such  as
   gnome-sound-recorder, Rhythmbox and nautilus-media.

   Video-based  applications  still  have  some  issues  at  this  point,
   especially in the area of audio/video sync and seeking, but we plan on
   solving those issues during the 0.6.x series.

   We  will  also be releasing a development 0.7 release series, in which
   we  will  work  on  such  things as the remaining video issues and the
   interactivity  support  which is needed for DVD menus and SWF (Flash).
   This  means  developers working on apps needing these services can use
   the  0.7  series  for development and then enable 0.6 support as these
   additions  optionally  get  backported to 0.6 once they are stable and
   work well.

  Thread issues and GStreamer

   Many  of GStreamer's features relies heavily on threads. Unfortunately
   everything  is  not  rosy in the Linux world of threads. If you have a
   glibc version installed compiled with i686 optimizations (which uses a
   different  codepath  than standard i386 glibc), there is a good chance
   you   will   experience   thread-related  crashes  in  gstreamer-based
   applications. There are a few workarounds to this available.
     * You can use an i386 glibc package instead. (Since this is the only
       one  shipping  with  Debian,  debian  users do not experience this
       issue.)
     * You  can  also  try running the gstreamer-based applications using
       the command-line option --gst-scheduler=opt, which invokes a newly
       created  scheduler  that  does  not use threads. This scheduler is
       very  new  however  so you might encounter other issues when using
       it. Please report issues to our bugzilla.

   People  using  the first Red Hat beta called Phoebe are recommended to
   update  to  glibc from Rawhide or from the second Phoebe release. This
   solves  all  thread issues, thanks to the new NTPL thread library that
   is included there.

   The  GStreamer  applications we ship all check for both gstreamer-0.6,
   gstreamer-libs-0.6  and  gstreamer-play-0.6; if those aren't found the
   0.7  version  of those files are checked for. We suggest anyone making
   GStreamer-based apps do the same.

   We are starting to have a really nice collection of applications under
   development using GStreamer. If you are looking for something specific
   check out our [1]applications status page.

Features

     * Pipeline based media architecture
     * Over 130 plugins
     * All parts interchangeable
     * Few  dependencies,  only  glib,  popt  and libxml for core (libxml
       optional)
     * Python Language bindings
     * Good documentation
     * Will be widely deployed through bundling with GNOME 2.2
     * Design catering also for applications needing low-latency
     * Highly portable, already running on most mainstream CPU's
     * Modular  design and use of 3rd party best of breed libraries means
       no bloat
     * LGPL  licensing  lays  no  restrictions  on application developers
       licensing.
     * Easy  for  applications  to  ship their own plugins to the core as
       needed
     * Compiles with both GCC and Forte compilers

GStreamer Homepage

   More  details on these features can be found on the project's website,
   [2]http://gstreamer.net/.

Support and Bugs

   We  use  [3]Gnome's Bugzilla for bug reports and feature requests. The
   "product  name"  is  GStreamer  (capital  G).  Please do the following
   before writing a bug report :
gst-feedback &> feedback 2>&1

   and  attach  the  file  "feedback" to your bug report, so that we have
   some information useful in the debugging process.

Developers

   GStreamer  is  [4]hosted on SourceForge. All code is in CVS and can be
   checked  out  from  there.  Interested developers of the core library,
   plug-ins,  and  applications  should  subscribe to the gstreamer-devel
   list.  If  there  is  sufficient interest we will create more lists as
   necessary.

   We  are  still  looking  for  people  with access to FreeBSD, Solaris,
   HP-UX,  Irix  and  True64  that  would  be willing to try building and
   testing  GStreamer.  Patches  fixing  such problems are also more than
   welcome.

Contributors to this release

  Patches to the core of Gstreamer

     * Wim Taymans <wim.taymans(AT)chello.be>
     * Erik Walthinsen <omega(AT)temple-baptist.com>
     * Thomas Vander Stichele <thomas(AT)apestaart.org>
     * David I. Lehn <dlehn(AT)vt.edu>
     * David Schleef <ds(AT)schleef.org>
     * Brian Cameron <brian.cameron(AT)sun.com>
     * Joshua N Pritikin <vishnu(AT)pobox.com>

  Plugins and Sample Applications

     * Julien MOUTTE <jmoutte(AT)electronic-group.com>
     * Cameron Hutchison <camh+gst(AT)xdna.net>
     * Ronald Bultje <rbultje(AT)ronald.bitfreak.net>
     * Steve Baker <stevebaker_org(AT)yahoo.co.uk>
     * Iain Holmes <iain(AT)prettypeople.org>
     * Jérémy Simon <jsimon13(AT)yahoo.fr>
     * Jan Schmidt <thaytan(AT)mad.scientist.com>
     * Daniel Fischer <dan(AT)f3c.com>
     * Martin Schlemmer <azarah(AT)gentoo.org>
     * Andrew Turner <zombie(AT)4free.co.nz>
     * Owen Fraser-Green <owen(AT)discobabe.net>
     * Leif Morgan Johnson <lmjohns3(AT)eos.ncsu.edu>
     * Benjamin Otte <in7y118(AT)public.uni-hamburg.de>

  Misc

     * Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller <Uraeus(AT)gnome.org>
     * Alp Toker <alp(AT)atoker.com>

   [*]: GStreamer is Hottest Pick in the UK Linux Format #36, out now !

References

   1. http://www.gstreamer.net/status/?category=2
   2. http://gstreamer.net/
   3. http://bugzilla.gnome.org/
   4. http://gstreamer.sf.net/