Comments on: Dell’s Ubuntu Computers Coming Thursday?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 23 May 2007 19:39:08 +0000

I haven’t had the experience of installing codecs in Ubuntu, but I can see where CoryC is saying. From what I gather the older versions of Ubuntu were a little more painful when trying to install the codecs for your media, but Ubuntu 7.04 made it a lot easier.

There are other legal things I think they need to overcome as well, such as the installation of Nvidia drivers. Eventually Linux will start getting the legal support that they need to make it an operating system for everyone, it will just take some pressure on the companies preventing the free use of some things.

By: raindog

raindog — Tue, 22 May 2007 19:23:31 +0000

Adding these codecs is very easy. It hardly takes a geek to do it. If I send an ogg vorbis file to a friend with Windows XP he may very well have to download a player capable of playing ogg files. (I personally don’t use mp3 anymore as I find ogg vorbis to be superior in sound quality and compression.)

In Ubuntu 7.04 if you put in a file that requires the download of an additional codec, Ubuntu will attempt to find and install it for you ( except for dvdcss though).

I understand the complaints of those who see it as a hardship or at least an inconvenience to install additional codecs to get functionality that they have by default on Windows, but I find the issue to minor at best. Just my $.02.

raindog

By: CoryC

CoryC — Tue, 22 May 2007 19:00:46 +0000

Not being able to play MP3 or DVD is a major set back for users and is just another reason Linux is not ready for the masses. People take those kind of features for granted these days and saying that if I want to play a DVD I "need the libdvdcss2 package" is crazy. I don't see anyone in my family going out and installing additional software packages just to watch a DVD or listed to MP3 files. Until Linux addresses these kinds of "legal issues" it is destined to to be used only by computer geeks and those with a large IT department.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:26:20 +0000

Automatix does add a ton of great stuff to Ubuntu, ranging from eye candy to drivers. There’s nothing like being able to check a box and hit install!

By: cannontrane

cannontrane — Tue, 22 May 2007 01:35:48 +0000

Even better than using that guide to get the codecs and such is “Automatix”.
[getautomatix.com]

Makes Ubuntu the *h&t!