[vbox-dev] v4.0.0_BETA4 - IVRDEServer - VideoChannel & VideoChannelQuality

[Klaus Espenlaub]

On 20.12.2010 22:14, Mario Lobo wrote:
> On Monday 20 December 2010 10:08:16 Achim Hasenmüller wrote:
>
>  > Well, extension packs are separate from VirtualBox and just the fact that
>
>  > VirtualBox was updated doesn't necessarily mean that the extension packs
>
>  > need an update as well. In fact, it worked perfectly on your system.
>
>  >
>
>  > We do not have a central repository of extension packs (yet) so we can't
>
>  > really do what Firefox does. If the extension pack is not compatible with
>
>  > your version of VirtualBox, there will be a notification.
>
>  >
>
>  > Achim
>
> Forgive me if my question is a lame one.
>
> I am a FreeBSD host user and I have been using VBox by building it from
> the ports since it first appeared there.
>
> It is the first time I hear about "extension packs". Also, in the ftp
> link for the beta download, there is:
>
> Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.0_BETA3-68940.vbox-extpack
>
> Could anyone explain what they are or what are they for? Are they
> "inside" the OSE source code we use to build the FreeBSD port from?

Extension packs are a new thing with 4.0.0. Up to 3.2.x there were two 
flavors of VirtualBox - the binary packages from virtualbox.org and the 
packages built from the VirtualBox OSE sources. The former had a couple 
more features and a different license, the latter was released as source 
code under GPLv2.

With 4.0.0 the VirtualBox packages from virtualbox.org are built from 
the GPLed sources (which now cover more code than ever before), and 
contain no closed source components. The remaining closed source 
components (VRDP, USB 2.0 and Intel PXE) are now in a separate package, 
the mentioned Oracle extension pack. It can be installed with any 4.0.0 
package, independently of who built it - Oracle or any 3rd party.

Since extension packs can be created by anyone this means VirtualBox now 
has an open architecture, where 3rd parties can add functionality (we 
expect an extpack containing the web frontend and maybe a VNC extpack).

In principle. The Oracle extension pack doesn't contain code for 
FreeBSD, and thus there is no real change (except that it benefits from 
the previously closed features which are now open source). It covers 
Windows/Solaris/Linux/OSX, as before.

I expect the web frontend extpack to be platform independent (as I heard 
it will be using python), so that one might work with FreeBSD.

Klaus

>
> Thanks,
>
> --
>
> Mario Lobo
>
> http://www.mallavoodoo.com.br
>
> FreeBSD since 2.2.8 [not Pro-Audio.... YET!!] (99% winblows FREE)