> >How well supported is multimedia (mpeg, avi, wmv > etc) going to be in project >Indiana? I ask this > because it sucks in Solaris 10 and even Nevada / > >OpenSolaris builds that i have trialled to date. > > Euan, > Multimedia on Solaris is well supported as it was > about 3-4 years ago. Not as up-to-date as the latest > Ubuntu distros, depending if you use Nexenta or not, > but you can play DVDs, play FOSS 3D games, and listen > to various audio playbacks. > Some things require licensing, or self compilation or > packages, and other things require a bit of time and > patience. Recently the OpenGL 3D component was fixed > so now things like 3D screensavers and game > development/porting are very possible wit Indiana.
That may be the case and glad to hear it, but in ubuntu it all works out-the-box which to me makes a huge difference. I spent ages trying to get a media player to work to no avail. I read somewhere the codecs seem to be revoked for totem due to a licensing issue, but then how come ubuntu has them as a restricted download (automated). I dug around and mplayer is available for ssolaris also one called VLC which i liked on Windows but I had to compile it myself. What's that all about, can't one person do it and share the binaries? I would love to help contribute to the cause and indeed I will some day, it's finding the time and I'm on a huge learning curve. I am a software developer but no experience with unix/linux programming... yet. Personally, I believe software is only as good as it's availability, the last 5% of work to make it distributable can make 95% of the difference in the real world. I no it's a matter of time and opensolaris will get better, that's why I wrote my o riginal post. I spotted the mention of a gui package manager, inspired by the linux world no doubt. I was curious as to how soon it would be up to the level of ubuntu and other modern linux distros. The sentiment being "Let's make Solaris available for everyone, not just engineers an computer boffins who have the time to learn how to compile", Solaris deserves better than to just be restricted to the rack mounted server. For now, I remain to have ubuntu on my desktop /laptop and my server is Solaris 10. Ubuntu will make for an NIS client, although it was a struggle getting there. But It's not mixing as well as a Solaris NIS client (desktop) would. I REALLY want to have a solaris distro on my desktop and laptop but I need my little creature comforts like audio /video, and I don't think we should have to go to the command prompt to install things. Currently, drivers are my biggest headache, followed by my lack of knowledge, then there's the time spent learning how to set thing s up. We need more GUIs, and more automation. > Indiana DP2 is not equal to Ubuntu 8.04 yet - but it > can get there with some elbow greasing and user > knowledge. > > The main thing is providing basic tools for kiosks, > internet cafes, students and business people on the > road. We need things like a decent localisation and > accessibility infrastructure while also having office > productivity suites (OpenOffice) during Live-CD mode. > Basically, Ubuntu 8.04 is a good example on what > Indiana DP 2 could achieve currently and advance from > there. The latest Indiana DP 2 official release > almost got it right - minus a few bugs and space > concerns. > > Will Indiana be good for desktop computing? Sure. I'd > think about as good as the Live-CD of Ubuntu 8.04 is > today. Just give it time to mature. I agree whole-heartedly, and whilst I am skeptical it will be as good as Ubuntu, I hope you are right. > > ~ Ken Mays -- This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ indiana-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/indiana-discuss
