Ashton Mills17 September 2007, 12:44 AM
It's only just begun, but the challenge continues. Join Ashton Mills as he tosses Windows away and works solely with Linux, for everything. Will he find nirvana, or go crazy? Read on to find out.
So, in the last part, we left off with just having installed and updated our chosen flavour of Linux, which all went rather swimmingly. Naturally, I'm writing this in Gedit (the 'Notepad' of Gnome, Ubuntu's desktop system) and using email but these weren't actually the first applications I tried. No, as a geek who needs his lifeline, Web browsing was the first task.
And also the first bugbear.
The Ratings
In this project we're making the assumption that Windows does all that we need, and we're seeing if Linux and open source software measures up. Perhaps that's not an entirely fair place to sit, however as the de-facto in operating systems for which everyone is familiar, it's our best basis for comparison. So here's how we'll rate the experience of going Windows-free:
Optimal -- Passes with flying colours. The task could not only be completed, but better or easier than under Windows.
Pass -- No problems. The task can be completed exactly as under Windows.
Iffy -- When a task could only be partially completed, or completed but not without issue.
Flop -- Not possible to complete at all. Probably not a good thing.
Surfing with the fox
Firefox is the de-facto browser for most Linux distributions and Ubuntu is no different. Heading to www.apcmag.com was a joy except for the fact that it needed Flash and Java, which quickly saw Firefox sitting back with hands waving.
I was short a couple of necessary plugins.
As with the Windows version, Firefox was happy to try and install the plugins, but it couldn't -- 64-bit versions of these plugins don't exist for Linux.
Aside from this, browsing with Firefox is just the same as under Windows. Even the fonts work well, which has been a problem for Linux in the past.
Now, to be fair, the problem with 64-bit plugins doesn't just affect Linux -- Windows XP 64-bit suffers similar issues, though I think it's fair to say Vista has set a new standard for 64-bit support (it's nowhere near perfect, but it's less cruel and inhumane than previous 64-bit desktop OSs. See James Bannan's account of installing 64-bit Vista on his desktop PC.)
Despite the fact Sun releases 64-bit of Java for Linux, the package lacks Mozilla plugin support (read: Firefox), and so Java still doesn't work in the browser.
There is a known solution -- install the 32-bit version of Firefox and associated 32-bit plugins, which are available for Flash and Java. And as it happens, after a quick search on the Ubuntu forums, there's a handy downloadable automated script to do just that.
Five minutes later and 32-bit Firefox, support libraries, and both Flash and Java are downloaded and installed (with the requisite agreeing to license terms from Macromedia) alongside 64-bit Firefox, so either can be used. It's worth noting that the Java support comes from IBM's Blackdown JRE (Java Runtime Environment) and not Sun, but the two are functionally equivalent.
Heading off to www.youtube.com confirmed for me that Flash was working as expected, and then the Java test page at Sun revealed all was well there too. Finally, no gates are barred from me!
Ubuntu would do well to, by default, install 32-bit Firefox and associated plugins for its 64-bit edition -- there's no functional difference between 64-bit and 32-bit Firefox, but with the latter you can have a fully featured browsing experience. Which is what a desktop user expects.
Web browsing rating: Pass -- No problems. The task can be completed exactly as under Windows.
 In abscentia: Sun's Java site reveals an absent Java plugin for Firefox. |
 The automated installer for 32-bit Firefox and plugins: It seems you just can't avoid the console with Linux. |
Media mayhem
In the process of browsing with YouTube and Google, another flaw appeared -- movie playback of common media formats, including WMV.
The problem is the same as with Firefox -- 64-bit versions of the Windows media codecs don't exist, largely because even the 32-bit versions bundled with many distributions are native Windows codecs. Out of the box I was unable to play .AVI, .MPG, .WMV and even Quicktime formats.
Annoyingly, the issue extended to MP3 files too. Although Totem and Rhythmbox -- two of the included media players (for video and music respectively) are bundled with Ubuntu, neither can play MP3 files!
There's many a reason for this, mainly that the MP3 format is proprietary, but it bugs the heck out of me nonetheless -- as with browsing, basic functionality is again missing, and not even a note when attempting to play the files that support is absent (instead Totem and Rhythmbox just fault on an 'unrecogniseable stream' error, a function of the Gnome Media Streamer backend), and no method of solution for how to manually install support is offered.
You can, of course, play MP3s in Linux. As well as just about every lossy and lossless format under the sun. It's just not bundled with Ubuntu. Why? Well, that's one of those murky debatable areas.
As a brief aside: this lack of bundled media support in Linux is unavoidable: the choice of using Linux and open source software as the desktop of choice isn't just about software -- it's about philosophy. While it was frustrating to come across what my desktop lacked, it's hard to fault the distribution when the features missing are proprietary and licensed, and would actually require payment (license fees) for Ubuntu to be distributed with them -- which, in turn, would mean Ubuntu would not be 'free as in beer'. Choosing to go purely open source for software, means choosing the philosophy too. From a purely selfish end-user perspective, is it a pain? Sure is. But then I remind myself that I didn't have to pay $300 for this desktop and its software. So at what point do you fault free?
Support for the various video formats and MP3 can be solved by the installation of Mplayer (or, actually, any number of players) and the required codecs. Fortunately, the script that installed 32-bit Flash and Java for Firefox also installed the 32-bit Windows codecs and the 32-bit version of Mplayer (a popular Linux media player), so as to allow viewing of embedded videos on web sites. Testing with AVI, WMV9, MPG and a MOV (Quicktime) files, all played beautifully in Mplayer. MP3 files, too.
I thought, at this stage, my troubles were over. But not quite.
 Easy Ubuntu: This handy app (separate to Ubuntu) makes it, well, easy to install necessities like Flash, Java and media codecs for 32-bit and 64-bit Ubuntu systems. |
 Totem is Ubuntu's default media player: But it's easy to install Mplayer, Xine, and more through the package system. |
 Overtones of iTunes: Rhythmbox provides music management and playback. |
DVD playback
So, after limited success browsing and trying to listen to music, I loaded up that other essential media sidekick -- DVD playback. As my main desktop system, I'm going to need to my Babylon 5 fix, not to mention watch any new DVDs I buy. So I fired up Totem and selected the DVD.
No go, again. It seems we have a theme.
Now, I won't be so harsh here -- DVD playback under Linux has never been formally (read: legally) endorsed. It's only possible through DeCSS, the famous code (that's short enough to be printed on a t-shirt) released by 'DVD Jon' that cracked the Macrovision protection system and opened up DVDs to the world. In the US it's illegal (under the DMCA) to distribute this 'circumvention device', and so Linux distributions usually don't bundle it. You can download it, as then the onus is on the user, and of course international laws can differ.
So, out of the box, Ubuntu can't play DVDs. As with everything else, it's rectifiable.
In this case a quick search of the Ubuntu forums turned up two handy tools -- Easy Ubuntu, and Automatix. Both provide automatic installation of 'necessary' or 'must have' utilities, everything from native Linux RAR and 7zip compressors through to the 32-bit Windows codecs and, you guessed it, the Linux DeCSS libraries.
Both programs worked like a charm (Automatix had slightly more features available). After installation Totem, Rhythmbox, and Mplayer had no problem playing movie, music, and DVD formats.
While everything eventually worked just as it would under Windows, at the end of the day the bottom line remains -- for Ubuntu at least, media playback is crippled.
Media playback rating: Iffy -- When a task could only be partially completed, or completed but not without issue.
 DVD playback isn't included out of the box: It works well once the required packages are installed, though. |
This edition of the Open Source Challenge seemed to be about what's missing from our Linux desktop. It's great that all of these issues could be rectified through installing software available on the Net, thanks to the Ubuntu forums (credit there where credit is due).
But in terms of the Open Source Challenge, it really has been a challenge to get basic functionality like full web browser support and simple media playback for this purely Linux system.
Open Source Challenge