I think anyone interested in Linux saw this NY Times article today. I agreed with the article for the mostpart except for the end where the author stated that “one challenge for Linux users is finding media players that work with encrypted music and DVDs. Ubuntu comes with a movie player, but it is not automatically configured to play copy-protected commercial DVDs. To watch a movie, the Linux user must install necessary codecs, or decoders. One way to do that is to first download a program called Automatix from www.getautomatix.com.” Apparently, he was not running the Gutsy beta.
Full story »
akf
16 years 28 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago
That's really sad news for Free
That's really sad news for Free Software. :-(
sgbeal
16 years 28 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago
The *buntu family doesn't install
The *buntu family doesn't install those by default because there are potentially huge legal ramifications (emphasis on "potentially"). Neither does Suse nor, AFAIK, any other major distro. They cannot be faulted for that. The distros DO, however, often offer a single package (or app) which installs all of the necessary stuff.
This is nothing new - the same thing has been done for YEARS with the "msttf" (Microsoft TrueType fonts) installer, which is simply a script which downloads the fonts from an MS website and installs them. It's simply a way of working around potential legal problems or licenses which do not allow distributors to bundle the software.