nemesis <nam### [at] nospamgmailcom> wrote:
> gregjohn wrote:
> > From the Canonical store:
> >
http://shop.canonical.com/product_info.php?products_id=244&osCsid=8744725ba585c862dcded69ac929b6a8
> >
> > In setting up linux on my home PC's, I spent many nights in anguish over this
> > issue.  If someone told me linux costs $40, I'd have jumped for it.
>
> That's not Ubunu, that's a CD packed with proprietary multimedia codecs
> for Ubuntu.  The 2 reasons I could see for someone buying it is if they
> wish to somehow thank Canonical for the great distro or if they don't
> have internet access to fetch the mplayer or xine packages in the Ubuntu
> repositories.


Many distros will not play MP3's immediately upon install, even if they "come
with" music playing software.   I understood this to be due to two reasons: i)
legal issues related to the IP around these codecs, and ii) philosophy of open
source  thing.   I imagine that paying for these would allay fears (IANAL).  I
would have paid $40 just for convenience's sake when I started tinkering with
Linux.

Telling folks just to do without Flash ("crippled codecs"?) is the "live in a
mud hut" approach to computing.

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