everyday multimedia not supported in Ubuntu (Re: 3 days from the release, 3 machines, a few issues.

[Mario Vukelic]

On Wed, 2005-04-06 at 12:35 +0200, Philippe Landau wrote:

> you would have to close your eyes if you did not
> want to see the many users reporting similar issues since weeks.
> and of course a lot of those trying ubuntu
> and not getting their music and videos to work
> will just go to another distribution, one that just works,
> without telling you.

I have seen people reporting issues, and you are right that many will
just leave to another distro. However, users for whom it just works
don't report that either.
If people leave Ubuntu for a distro that plays all codecs by default
(could you name one that does? I don't know any), they do exercise their
right to choose. However they trade convenience for freedom, which is
something Ubuntu can't do according to the stated goals

> especially when seeing how people with such problems
> get marginalised and ignored here.

Dunno what you mean by that. IIRC people did receive help on the list


> i don't know why i would want to tell you what you should do.

You are bitching about Ubuntu, when at least part of the problem
(codecs) is a legal problem. This just can't be solved by Ubuntu and I
told you that. Whether you accept that or not is not my concern.
You did tell Ubuntu what they should do though, so I don't really
understand why you are offended when someone tells you what you could do


> 02/27/2005 Re: Multimedia Hell :-/
> > could they pleaaaaaase make multimedia "just work".

No they can't. Political/legal problem.
Besides: I can't play divx in Windows without hunting down a codec
(media player is too stupid to find it). I also can't play old *.mov
files I have, and there seems to be /no/ way (Apple Quicktime complains,
tries to download a codec, and fails). Both work for me in Ubuntu.

> 12/07/2004 Re: Ubuntu is not a good distribution for Multimedia

It is for me. I'm sure it isn't for others. Again, partly legal problem.
Also, I'm sure you can find postings on SuSE lists too, where users
describe multimedia problems

> 11/30/2004 Re: Why aren't  the multimedia buttons working?

Buggy/undocumented hardware, plus vendors don't test with GNU/Linux. 
Installing stock Windows (not the vendor-adapted version that comes with
the hardware and contains all kinds of non-standard drivers and tweaks)
can be quite a challenge to get installed on a laptop too.
I agree that this sucks, but there's really no way out except buying
supported hardware

> 11/30/2004 Re: ubuntu aims
>     (Re: Idea for expanded support of some non-free software
> 11/16/2004 Re: Making it easy - Automatic download and install

Dunno what those are about. I trust bugs are filed and contributions
made?

> 10/29/2004 Re: a linux ready for simple users ?
>     (Re: issues with warty final
> > I wouldn't consider RestrictedFormats a guided script, nor a simple
> > but complete how-to; it's more of a "why-not".

Dunno, do me it seems like a guided script. Not for my mum maybe. But
you _can simply follow each well-described step.