The Butt Ugly Weblog

GIF dead at 20

Kuro5hin reports that the GIF patent has now expired, and you no longer have to pay to Unisys if you happen to make GIF-writing software, or use GIF images on your web page.

While this is a good thing, we still should definitely keep using PNG, which is a far better image format. GIF should still die; we have better alternatives still.

Update: Note that in Europe, the GIF patent is still valid - so you can make legal web sites using GIF and Free Software tools in the USA, but not anywhere else in the world.