desktoplinux.com— Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu 6.10 and uses the Ubuntu installer, adds browser plugins, mp3 and other media codecs, DVD playback, Java, and more.
Nov 16, 2006View in Crawl 4
It's legal if you don't get caught, and that's all that matters. Honestly, I don't really care for nonsensical laws, so I choose to not follow them.Screw the technicalities, I give this distro 43 thumbs up
@drewskyjones"No offense, but I rarely have driver problems in Windows since XP...it almost always finds the right driver on its own, occaisionally requiring me to supply a disk."Have you installed XP a lot (especially on a laptop)?I accept XP (well 2000) is the best OS MS have produced to date and that most (only most) major manufacturers provide reasonable support for drivers for XP.However a from scratch install requires considerable effort/knowledge in any OS.XP's real competitive advantage is 90% (yes Im making that figure up off the top of my head) the OEM install!
go to mplayerhq to get the codecs...use xine or mplayer to play the videos....use the media connectivity plugin for firefox to launch the video player to play web videos.
There is NOTHING ILLEGAL about distributing the MP3 codec or other patented stuff. In Europe and many other contries, that is. As long as you use a patent for non-commercial purposes, you are perfectly ok. Our laws explicitely allows this - it's not about "not getting caught" as some people here suggest.It's a matter of fact, that most Linux users around the world are suffering from the horrible US laws, even if they don't apply in most other states. Distributions like Debian and Ubuntu are a little over-occoupied with the United States, if you ask me. (And I still do remember the time they had NON-US software packages for cryptography and alike...)
You probably don't want to use 64bit ubuntu anyway, unless you want to deal with a lot of compatibility issues. I run the normal 32bit on an amd 64 x2 and it runs like a dream.
@carefreetoast4He's not insulting people TRYING to learn, he's insulting the people who refuse to learn and then bitch about why they can't do something.
US software patent laws are out of whack, but at the same time removing them alltogether kinda removes any possible reason for a company to do research and development. But there's gotta be a happy medium, like making software patents apply only to commercial products, whereas the patent's don't affect free and open source. (as long as they're not funded by a competitor or something like that)I dunno, there's gotta be a way that still encourages companies to innovate, but at the same time allows open source to flourish as well. (Not that open source can't innovate, but companies are often the innovators)
I seem to remeber having a simlar problem not being able to see the video on files, but hearing the sound. Then I figured out it was because of these "codecs" I needed to install. That was on Windows Xp.
Closed AccountNov 16, 2006
It's legal if you don't get caught, and that's all that matters. Honestly, I don't really care for nonsensical laws, so I choose to not follow them.Screw the technicalities, I give this distro 43 thumbs up
itismeNov 16, 2006
@drewskyjones"No offense, but I rarely have driver problems in Windows since XP...it almost always finds the right driver on its own, occaisionally requiring me to supply a disk."Have you installed XP a lot (especially on a laptop)?I accept XP (well 2000) is the best OS MS have produced to date and that most (only most) major manufacturers provide reasonable support for drivers for XP.However a from scratch install requires considerable effort/knowledge in any OS.XP's real competitive advantage is 90% (yes Im making that figure up off the top of my head) the OEM install!
sailorNov 16, 2006
go to mplayerhq to get the codecs...use xine or mplayer to play the videos....use the media connectivity plugin for firefox to launch the video player to play web videos.
xmilkyNov 16, 2006
There is NOTHING ILLEGAL about distributing the MP3 codec or other patented stuff. In Europe and many other contries, that is. As long as you use a patent for non-commercial purposes, you are perfectly ok. Our laws explicitely allows this - it's not about "not getting caught" as some people here suggest.It's a matter of fact, that most Linux users around the world are suffering from the horrible US laws, even if they don't apply in most other states. Distributions like Debian and Ubuntu are a little over-occoupied with the United States, if you ask me. (And I still do remember the time they had NON-US software packages for cryptography and alike...)
dgh1973Nov 17, 2006
You probably don't want to use 64bit ubuntu anyway, unless you want to deal with a lot of compatibility issues. I run the normal 32bit on an amd 64 x2 and it runs like a dream.
ademanNov 17, 2006
@carefreetoast4He's not insulting people TRYING to learn, he's insulting the people who refuse to learn and then bitch about why they can't do something.
ademanNov 17, 2006
US software patent laws are out of whack, but at the same time removing them alltogether kinda removes any possible reason for a company to do research and development. But there's gotta be a happy medium, like making software patents apply only to commercial products, whereas the patent's don't affect free and open source. (as long as they're not funded by a competitor or something like that)I dunno, there's gotta be a way that still encourages companies to innovate, but at the same time allows open source to flourish as well. (Not that open source can't innovate, but companies are often the innovators)
ryzoNov 17, 2006
<a class="user" href="http://torrentspy.com/torrent/913131/Linux_Mint_2_0">http://torrentspy.com/torrent/913131/Linux_Mint_2_0</a>it's new though so be patient
ryzoNov 17, 2006
<a class="user" href="http://torrentspy.com/torrent/913131/Linux_Mint_2_0">http://torrentspy.com/torrent/913131/Linux_Mint_2_0</a>
collywollyNov 17, 2006
I seem to remeber having a simlar problem not being able to see the video on files, but hearing the sound. Then I figured out it was because of these "codecs" I needed to install. That was on Windows Xp.