On Sun, 2005-10-16 at 14:07 -0400, Andy Choens wrote:
It's not only a matter of money rather than licensing and restrictions on both sides. For example, for software to be GPL compliant it may not contain proprietary closed source and vice versa. Redistribution would then be either prohibited or the closed source must be opened. You see the problem? It's some kind of deadlock and it's not going to change soon; sadly, it's getting worse.
\Steve
Before I begin my reply I want to apologize to Steve for emailing him directly. Wrong button on gmail. Sorry!
This is one of the most important problems facing "Desktop Linux" today. When we (the people on this list) go out and buy/download SUSE/etc. and it doesn't play DVD's, we are capable of following the directions here and installing what is needed. People on these lists know you are supposed to read the archives, and probably have the archives on their hard drive/gmail account for easy searching. But, if my Dad were to download SUSE and then get told (as happened on this thread) to stop complaining, etc. about the lack to DVD capability, win32 codecs, etc. he would throw SUSE out the window and be back on Windows before you could blink. His feelings wouldn't be hurt...since he cares less about your opinions than you suppose, but he does want to be able to FULLY use his computer.
I believe it is time for groups like OSDL, Novell, Red Hat, etc. to start really working towards a solution for multimedia on Linux. Otherwise, yes, on the modern internet you are running crippleware. It's even more frustrating on 64-bit Linux, but tha's another story. Everyone who has said that the problem is a legal one and not a technical problem are of course 100% correct. Thus, someone needs to step forward and take responsibility for fixing that legal hurdle. This is not a minor hurdle. I don't know very many non-geeks who would put up with having to jerry-rig their computers to lay a DVD. True, Windows doesn't come with this capability, but when someone buys a computer, the computer DOES come with this capability, which is interpreted as Windows coming with the capability. Truth is often less important than perception in the minds of the decision maker.
I think it is VERY important that people on lists like this NOT attack someone who asks this type of question. They should in fact be helped. If they didn't know to read the archives or already know the answer to that question, they wouldn't have asked it. If these types of questions annoy you, I have a suggestion. Don't answer them, let someone else who is in a better mood.
Sincerely, --andy
You are absolutely correct. It would be a great help if everybody who writes an answer would read what they wrote from a newbie perspective before sending it. If it is offensive then don't send it. People who can't answer from a non-technical newbie perspective may not be the right people to help out. This says nothing about one's technical abilities. Not answering every question you can is not a bad thing. Sometimes others can articulate a solution better ... THAT is a good thing. THAT is the helpful thing. There is a famous "paper" providing guidelines as to how to ask a question (http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html). The fact that it is like 40+ printed pages says to me it is no longer oriented towards the non-technical people we wish to have in our community. I am collating thoughts on a counter paper on how to ANSWER questions. If you have constructive inputs, please, drop me a line off the list. I will post what I write when it is ready. Rich -- PGP/GPG Fingerprint: 8BF9 990D 8853 5CD8 AB44 8F48 7BC8 5D4B 1B25 7AEC found at pgp.mit.edu =========================================================================================== Inspite of the high cost of living, It is still very popular.