Illegal Codecs Put Me Off Linux
Submitted by srlinuxx on Thu, 07/19/2007 - 08:50.
OK, I’ll be honest with you, the more I use Linux, the more I’m warming to it. In fact, the more exposure I have to the latest Ubuntu distro (7.04, Feisty Fawn) the more I want to integrate it into my existing ecosystem of PCs. I’m especially interested in rolling out Ubuntu onto older PCs and notebooks where installing Windows will put too much of a strain on the hardware. But there’s one aspect of Ubuntu, and Linux in general for that matter, that’s putting me off. This is the fact that to play a DVD or use WMA/WMV files I have to install codecs that are technically illegal to use.
Linux has a number of really strong points that go beyond the price (reliability, ease of use and low hardware requirements to name but a few), but the operating system falls short when it comes to legally supporting file formats such as MP3, WMA/WMV and DVDs. It’s not that you don’t have support for these formats available, it’s that adding support means entering into some really shady legal territory.
Here are some examples.
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what a wimp. boo hoo. I'm
what a wimp. boo hoo. I'm not bothered in the slightest. I bought a few DVD drives now which come budled with with a dvd player that plays DVD's on windows so Ive paid my licence for the dvd codec and i'm sure ive earned all the other codecs through buying windows utils & software over the years. So why should i pay twice or more for the ability to play the same video or movie format whether I use Windows or linux.
what about xine
What about xine-lib? It can play DVDs, wmv and mp3 without the win32codecs. Is that illegal as well?
VLC and klite in Windows
I'm not sure but are VLC (DVD playback) and k-lite codec packs (play anything) illegal in Windows? Rather than "paying" for anything in Windows, you can install them. I just don't know if they are illegal.