FFmpeg renamed to Libav

In January, a group of active FFmpeg developers took over the helm of the FFmpeg project and appointed new maintainers after a dispute with the old project director, Michael Niedermayer. They accused Niedermayer of slowing down the development of the codec library, which handles more than 100 audio and video formats, with unnecessary discussions and pettiness.

Now, the developers have effectively forked the library and renamed it Libav. They have also moved the homepage to libav.org. They say that although the old FFmpeg email lists and IRC channels are still active they are to be replaced by Libav mailing lists and IRC channels. There is also a posting from one of the developers that details the new maintainers' intentions and plans for the av codec library, how they plan to administer the project in the future and a code of conduct for participants.

Update: Interestingly, the posting also notes how the developers are looking to learn from the experience of MythTV; that project switched back from using Git to using Subversion source code control after "inexperienced git users made a lot of beginner errors after the switch". This means a limited number of committers for the project currently, and the appointment of new ones by consensus, are to take on the "duty, not a privilege" of managing patches.

(crve)