jtesolin:

Hi! Thanks for the excellent article. Did you try downloading VLC media player? It can play just about any format including dvd images.

Anonymous22:

So, the article "The Open Source Challenge" talking about switching to "open source" spends almost an entire page talking about installing proprietary software. I think someone missed the point.

lindsay_bulldogs:

My understanding is that DVD playback is usually bundled with the dvd player. Hardly makes windows any better as you still have to install the software to play movies and the codecs to play those movies. Lindvd fixes this issue as far as legalities go. Codecs you can buy of the Web for Windows and or Linux. Of course it is easier to install said codecs in Windows as it is as easy as downloading an exe and running it. Little bit different in Linux but is still easy to do.

I think this is not a big reason for not choosing Linux. I currently use both Fedora and Ubuntu. The biggest frustration I have had is that Grub occasionally stuffs up because my drive config changes.

Robin Pfeifer:

I'm sure someone else has mentioned it somewhere in the commentary, but you have to take into account that what you're testing there is Ubuntu 6.06, released in June 2006. There have been two full releases since then and the next one will be released in October.

Linux lifecycles are far quicker than those of Windows. If you had tested a current Ubuntu flavour, you would have noticed that while the support for mp3, dvd etc. still isn't out-of-the-box due to the unchanged legal situation, the attempt to play back an mp3 file for instance will now result in a pop up giving you the chance to download and install the necessary plug-ins.

In addition, in the first part you wrote that after updating you now had an up-to-date Ubuntu: that's not true. You have an up-to-date Ubuntu 6.06, but wide parts of the system and the software base will not be changed ever, even though there is five year support. An example: the version 6.10 introduced a different start-up technology which 6.06 will never have. Also, mewer versions of software such as Open Office, Firefox or whatever may depend on newer system libraries than is standard for 6.06; these won't be updated either.

When a new version of Ubuntu comes out, your Ubuntu will give you the option of upgrading to the new version; but that only works (and in fact happens) from one version to the next. As yours is so old, there won't be any upgrade to a newer version anymore. It would have been upgraded to 6.10 when that came out, then 7.04 this April and 7.10 come October, but you missed that chance.

Robin

Lindsay:

I actually buy APC magazine and I am fairly sure that at the time the article was written 6.06 was the latest. Maybe at time of print from memory 6.10 had just been released. I agree and I am sure Ashton agrees that Ubuntu is getting better in each release.

kozlov:

I think that note for media playback is not fair. In Windows Ogg/MPC/DivX/XviD support is absent, my XP (yes, I know - Vista, but I've learned on XP) hasn't DVD support, too. So why Linux is getting so low note?

grege:

You have done a good job with this series, which I have followed in the magazine, however it needs to be stressed - XP does not have DVD support either, you must install Power DVD or similar, only then can Media Player handle DVDs. Ubuntu makes it easy to install support for Divx, Xvid, Real and Quicktime all of witch Windows has to have added as well, except in Ubuntu you click on box in Add/Remove Programs with no fear of getting a Virus or hijjacked home page. A 32 bit Ubuntu would have been much easier to configure.
I now only buy peripherals that I know will work, Google answers all. I have used Creative Audio cards since the CMS in the eighties, but I am now switching due to the X-Fi drivers being withheld, the supplied 64 bit beta driver is not much use. I do not play games and happily use Ubuntu for everthing.