On Thursday 09 August 2007, Fergus Wilde wrote: > On Wednesday 08 August 2007 20:52, Tero Pesonen wrote: > [snip > > > I don't feel comfortable recommending Linux desktop to others. > > Because when they will need help, I probably won't be able to help. > > And they should not need help from me with basic issues such as > > burning disks or having some proprietary video formats play back. > > > > Tero > > The proprietary video formats issue is one for the lawyers, not Linux > people. These formats don't play back because copyright and patent > owners or abusers will not allow free access to them and have > threatened and bullied, and even prosecuted, people trying simply to > view files using open source systems. > > This distinction is extremely important. Badger your government about > it, not those working on Linux multimedia, who have shown time and > again that they can easily overcome any technical issues when not > threatened by corporations and their legal teams.
I do understand this. I'm not blaming people working on opensource multimedia -- they are the people who make it possible for me to view these videos! The problem is, that an average user coming from Windows does not (based on my experience) know anything about the whys and hows relating to video codecs on opensource platforms. If things won't just work out of the box or with the install of a media player, the said things become an issue. Most people have never even heard of video codecs in their life. They just start Windows Mediaplayer or whatever and open the video file, or as is often the case, the video source or file automatically opens the correct player. On Linux I've always had to manually find and install the codecs. I don't know if the latest SUSE has changed that, or what is the case on Ubuntu or others popular now. It is no problem at all to me. It could be a problem to many others though. What comes to politics, I enquired those I deemed worth voting for in EU and local elections about their stance on software patents in the EU. Not that it makes much difference, though. Whatever the government's stance on this, it always seems to follow that of Nokia. The industry dictates these things here, I guess. Tero > > -- > Fergus Wilde > Chetham's Library > Long Millgate > Manchester > M3 1SB > > Tel: 0161 834 7961 > Fax: 0161 839 5797 > > http://www.chethams.org.uk -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
