Jim,
One point I think most of the FOSS community misses is that it's great if
you have the technical knowhow to find, install and troubleshoot these free
softwares. The majority of users in the world either don't have the time, or
don't have the expertise to do that or simply would rather point and click.
Probably why Linspire has half a chance to get a foothold in replacing
Windows XP
If you had a choice to buy gas for $3.35/gallon right down the street on
King Street or drive to Millilani (if you live in town) and pay
$3.09/gallon, where would you most like fuel up? A large majority would go
to the more expensive station out of convenience.
There are societal issues that prevent FOSS from becoming dominant. Maybe if
Linux distributions concentrated on that they would be able to infiltrate
the market to a higher degree. I think the new wireless models have taken
notice, free with lots of ads or pay a bit for no ads. We'll see if it works
but as I recall an ISP tried that without success. Maybe a combo FOSS and
for pay model works? Mandriva seems to live by it and judging by the bottom
line they have had some success.
MD
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Thompson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "LUAU" <luau@lists.hosef.org>
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 7:33 PM
Subject: Re: [LUAU] Ubuntu... Legalities
On Jun 5, 2006, at 7:20 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
On Jun 5, 2006, at 6:25 PM, David Kiwerski wrote:
How would you explain Linspire's DVD player that plays commercial
DVD's?
I think he already did.
"The Linspire DVD player is a software multimedia player that includes
legal, licensed commercial-quality codecs and auto- detection of DVDs to
enhance the DVD playback experience under Linspire 4.5 and higher."
This from their website.
Its not 'free' in either sense of the word. It will cost you $9.95
*and* you have to be a CNR "member' ($19.95/year).
http://www.linspire.com/lindows_products_details.php?product_id=11804
http://www.linspire.com/products_cnr_whatis.php?tab=whatis
Not to put too fine a point on it, but, quoting the rest of the first URL
above (which you appear to be unwilling to do):
---
How is the Linspire DVD player different from Xine and other DVD players
available for Linux?
The Linspire DVD player is actually based on the Xine player, but there
are three main differences: First, the Linspire DVD player includes a
commercial license for the DVD playback decoding so you don't have to
find, buy and install this on your own (this can be expensive and a
tricky, complicated process).
Second, Linspire DVD player has been optimized for ease-of-use, making it
one-click easy to install and use.
And third, Linspire DVD player has been integrated fully with Linspire,
making things like auto-play possible so that when you put a DVD into
your Linspire computer, it recognizes it and loads the DVD software
automatically. Linspire users can also, if they choose, install the
regular Xine player (without the items mentioned above) at no charge via
CNR.
---
So what you get by sending $10 to Linspire is Xine plus a license to the
CODECs you need to play DVDs, plus the "CNR" functions (which you only
care about if you're running Linspire). Most linux distros can be setup
to auto-play DVDs.
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