Linux: The Mom & Pop's Operating System

Linux Gazette ^ | July 2010 | Anderson Silva

[daniel1212]

Thanks. I actually do not have a 64 bit box; i just responded to a freeper who had one.

I am able to umute the volume, butt will try Gnome, though i did not see that optionm at login.

As for codecs, as i mentioned in other posts, the legality of them is an issue with me, and i would ask if this are?

[daniel1212]

The RPM fusion link is not working.

[zeugma]

As for codecs, as i mentioned in other posts, the legality of them is an issue with me, and i would ask if this are?

I'm pretty sure some of the codecs are legal, and some are not. It's not something I particularly worry about. Most of them can't even be purchased even if I wanted to, or gave a damn about software patents. If that concerns you, you're probably better off with proprietary operating systems.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no legal way to watch a DVD on a linux computer. Screw that.

[zeugma]

Try this.

http://rpmfusion.org/

[daniel1212]

Actually, because of the illegality aspect (in the US and Japan at least), Fluendo offers GStreamer codec plugins that provide native support for many proprietary media formats (costs €28 around $40). This pack gives you GStreamer plugins for the following:

* Windows Media Audio Decoder
* Windows Media Video Decoder
* Windows Media ASF Demuxer
* Windows Media MMS Networking
* MPEG2 Video Decoder
* MPEG4 Video Decoder
* MPEG2 Program Stream and Transport Stream demuxer
* MPEG4 ISO Demuxer
* MP3 Audio Decoder
* AC3 Audio Decoder

Not that i am going to buy them, as i have Windows, and Linux is something to experiment on, and the legal codec issue is one aspect that challenges it. I can use it with the multimedia handicap.

Here is couple other possibly legal options to play such. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1177279/how_to_get_free_legal_multimedia_codecs.html?cat=15

I have also read that OpenSUSE comes with mp3 playback out of the box, due to having a contract with a company in kind of the same way as adobe has with it’s adobe flash player. The distributor pays money to a company like Fluendo, then they ship with the non-free codecs by default. At least that’s one poster’;s take.

Tthere is controversy here as to whether using a player like VLC is legal under Linux, versus encoding, which would not be

“The combination of CSS decryption software and use of formats covered by software patents places a fully-functional MPlayer in the legal bind shared by most open source multimedia players. In the past MPlayer used to include OpenDivX, a GPL-incompatible decoder library. This has since been removed, making MPlayer use only GPL-Like or BSD-like licenses. Usage of patented codecs in free software however is a still pending potential problem affecting FFmpeg, MPlayer and similar software when used in countries where software patents apply.” - Wikipedia

As for software patents, while i like and support open source and freeware, i see software patents as justified, for as some people write books for a living, others write code, and both deserve to be paid for their work just as much as a mechanic does. The problem is that because you can cheaply duplicate compiled code, so the time and labor put into it is less appreciated.

I do see the typical (and legal) limit of one archive copy of software or media as unreasonable, due to the more vulnerable condition of code.

[daniel1212]

After trying Open Suse 11.2, but having YAST freeze the whole system on more than once, i installed Mint on this PC, which i also have an older PC, and which i have found to be the best so far, partly due to its Control Center. Although sound does not work except when headphones are selected instead, nor does the installed Adobe flash, which is often a problem in some other distros.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Aren't we failing to fault the manufactures who write the drivers for their products for failing to do so for Linux....

Recently acquired a Lexmark printer...and they do have a driver for Ubuntu which I installed and voila... the printer works on the 32 bit version of Mint....

Now if they would supply a driver for the scanner I could use that too.

So why is it a Linux problem if some function of a product doesn't work?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

What I don’t like about Linux, is every time you want to access something on the drive or even do updates, you have to put in your password.

I think that varies across various distros...

With Mint select the autologon option without password when it is installed and the entry of the password is greatly reduced.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

the Linux company

There is a company that does commercial support for Ubuntu,...aimed at other companies...their company name is Canonical...

But I don't believe there is anything called "The Linux Company"

There is a user group which shepherds the various versions of the linux kernel....but is not a company.

There are separate user groups that "shepherd" Gnome and KDE and XFCE etc...

[daniel1212]

I have noted that the problem is much with vendors not accommodating Linux, but you also have the problem of varying degrees of ease of configuration among different distros, and the reality that some hardware “just works” with some distros, or has drivers, while others the same hardware will not, and is difficult to find. I was able to get my Lexmark 32 to work with Linux Mint, but not with PCLOS.

Both Windows and Linux need a control center that is more comprehensive in supplying both info and configuration - in detail.

In addition, and off the subject, controlling PCs by speech command has a lot of potential. Just like you can configure keyboard shortcuts (I use AutoHotKey), so we should be able to configure voice commands to do likewise. As long as we do not think we are God!

[ATLDiver]

Well simply a manufacture isn’t going to supply time (money) developing a driver for one of their products that only represents a small market share.

Some companies are better than other for supplying *nix drivers than others but let’s not forget that Windows-based machines still make up 80+% of the market. if you’re Lexmark, what platform are you going to focus on?