> > Reading thru all the objections at ExtremeTech, it appears that > > in each case Ubuntu was constrained by license issues. So I > > think the review was unduly harsh. Even he pointed out that > > Ubuntu made it easy to get around these issues. He just wanted > > them to be fixed "out of the box". But if that isn't legally > > possible, how are they to do it? > > What is interesting about the patent issues is that even if you obey the > licencing/extortion scheme, you can still get sued. Microsoft found this > out with MP3 when someone else who owned a piece of the format sued. > > We are close approaching a time where it will not be possible to do > anything interesting or useful without violating the law in some form. > > > I think the reviewer should be called "Whiny Brat". > > I think you are being overly kind.
;-) But *granted*, if a user wants to manually install something, they would spend their time with Gentoo. ;-) When the click & users being our parents (<-- will always be click & play fans) and other windows attached users just expect things to work. I see no reason why Ubuntu couldn't provide an option during install to install 3rd party apps via the network. I don't think Adobe is going to want to sue anybody wanting to make their format more popular..except for maybe microsoft for unknown Godly reasons. As far as win32 codecs, again, I still say users should be prompted with an option during install and during first boot-up. After the install, should still be as easy as installing an additional package. Some good examples are Mandrake (Mandriva) and Gentoo. >From my impressions of Ubuntu several months ago, I liked the install as it detected almost, if not all, of my hardware and the install seemed to go smoothly. But, for people like my parents to use, they're not going to know how to install XYZ package to via a dumb website using Flash, or having a popular win32 codec. I thought our Government just spent vast amounts of our tax payer's money on this specific issue in order to resolve it. Next scenario, a corp publishes a patent on diapers and we can no longer use diapers on kids. Then, the government has to use our tax payer money to make it legal so we don't have to carry pooper scoopers & a bag around with our kids on a leash. :-/ This means 12+ mos of walking around in poop on the sidewalks. dunno... -- Roger http://www.eskimo.com/~roger/index.html Key fingerprint = 8977 A252 2623 F567 70CD 1261 640F C963 1005 1D61 Fri May 4 12:02:58 PDT 2007 _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list euglug@euglug.org http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
