undefined | Better HN

0 pointsx0x04mo ago0 comments

Even if they have real-world impact: ffmpeg is a volunteer project. With (ffmpeg -codecs | wc -l) 519 codecs. This will trivially exhaust available ffmpeg eng resources.

0 comments

haskellshill4mo ago

There's no law that you have to fix all bug reports. Isn't it better for users and developers alike that they can see the problems of the project. If they don't have resources that's fine, it's not like they are charging money for their product. But why not be honest and not request people sweep bugs under the rug for fear of looking bad?

awakeasleep4mo ago

Because it burns out developers and ruins the project. Its like how the treatment can be worse than the disease in medicine.

The CVEs get reported, then big corps automated systems start flagging all use of ffmpeg, the big corp security software stops builds and removes it from dev laptops, then frustrated big corp engineers start harassing the volunteers and soon its not worth volunteering anymore, and the project dies, and there was never a real world impact.

ndiddy4mo ago

My point of view is that the unpaid ffmpeg maintainers should stop playing along with the corporate "security researchers" and not prioritize a bug over everything else simply because it's a CVE. In this case, the "high priority CVE" is from a reverse-engineered codec a hobbyist wrote to decode video from 1990s LucasArts video games. I think it's unreasonable to expect the maintainers to drop everything to fix a bug in a codec that most people will never use. If the trillion-dollar companies sending AI-generated CVE reports care so strongly about getting them fixed ASAP, they should really be fixing them themselves.

1 more reply

eviks4mo ago

There is no law you can't complain about lack of help on Twitter

Also, could you quote the request to sweep bugs under the rug?

The main ask seems to be "send patches" later in the thread

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse