Next generation releases of both Firefox and Opera will incorporate the royalty free Theora video codec.
The lossy video compression technology uses only has a small CPU footprint and will allow videos to be viewed in the browser without the use of a Flash player, or any other additional codecs installed.
Wikipedia however has been using the Theora codec for video for a while now. Kat Walsh, a Wikimedia Foundation board member believes “open media formats are critical for ensuring a future where everyone can create and share media freely”.
This is fantastic news for users. If Safari and Microsoft get on board, the future will be looking quite bright.