[CoLoCo] Windows Is A PC Myth

[Michael "TheZorch" Haney]

Collins Richey wrote:
> Agreed. DVD & MP3 and other proprietary support cannot legally be
> shipped with the distribution, but there is nothing to preclude
> shipping a bulletproof script that will do the right thing and
> directing the user to how to use said script. The argument that Ubuntu
> is to be free, gpl-licensed software just does not hold water for the
> average user, at least not until gpl-licensed software can do the same
> thing as proprietary software. In the case of OO, we're already there,
> but there is no real (currently) substitute for the DVD, MP3, nVidia,
> ATI, flash stuff.
Your wrong on one point, ATI's drivers are now open source.  Adobe is 
lifting a lot of restrictions and Flash recently, and Nvidia is under a 
lot of pressure to go open source and I think they should.  A script, or 
even a button on a control panel that says "Enable Proprietary 
Multimedia Support" or something or other in the OS would really help.  
This would launch the script downloading and installing the needed 
codecs making it possible to what DVDs and play MP3s in Ubuntu.

Having a dialog with Apple and getting them to release a version of 
iTunes for Linux would also be really nice.  Having iTunes for Linux 
would really boost the legitimacy of Linux as a viable OS for home 
users.  Right now there is no way to play FairPlay protected media in 
Linux without either using tools to remove the Digital Restrictions 
Management portion or installing 3rd party codecs that circumvent it.  
And, I'm certain that there are such codecs for many OSes.

-- 
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
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