An order of Ubuntu, and could you MepiSize that 3798

On Wed, 19 Apr 2006 23:48:06 -0400, rapskat

Last time I tried Ubuntu, I had trouble with DVDs, but I got mp3 playing without much difficulty, as I recall.

I believe there are instructions somewhere on where and how to get it all. Just don't ask me where :-) It shouldn't be too difficult to find, though.

Must admit, it's the first I've heard of it in regard to Ubuntu. I know SUSE does this. It can be got round by ripping out SUSE's crippled xine libs and replacing them with a working version, plus libdvdcss, etc. Then it works a treat.

This crippling of media players is the major issue I have with SUSE, which is excellent in just about every other respect. It's one things to leave out some functionality, when it can easily be dropped in as needed. But to make it difficult to add it in seems the wrong way to go about getting new users to take up Linux. This is far more the kind of problem that will put new users off than worrying about having to use the CLI.

Interestingly, a review I read a couple of days ago of SimplyMEPis was rather less than glowing. I've only used it as a Live CD, myself, but I thought it was pretty good. The reviewer particularly disliked the animated aquarium on the panel, which I thought was rather fun. I think he also mentioned some difficulty with media playing :-(

It's an issue which needs addressing, but IMO it can't really be called a 'fault' of Linux. In a more sensible world, such matters would not arise. Since we don't seem to have a sensible world, some compromises do have to be made. It's unfortunate that Ubuntu have gone a bit too far in that direction.

-- Kier