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Nero Burning for Linux 599

Posted by timothy from the burning-a-hole-in-the-bin dept.
ceasol writes "The German company Nero, developers of the award-winning Nero Burning ROM suite for Windows, now release a free version for Linux called NeroLINUX a CD/DVD Burning Software, and include many features from the Windows version. This software is proprietary but free if you registered." The OEM versions of Nero that come with many CD burners aren't sufficient, though; NeroLINUX is free-as-in-beer only if you've registered "a full version of Nero software version 6 or higher," or a "retail version or downloaded version."
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Nero Burning for Linux More

Nero Burning for Linux

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  • Free as in... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ari_j ( 90255 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @07:56PM (#11923111)
    So it's not free as in speech or free as in beer. It's more like free as in carbonation.

    • Re:Free as in... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Crayon Kid ( 700279 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:45PM (#11923391)

      Regardless, I was actually curious to see what kind of burning solution they bring to Linux. So far most (if not all) graphical burners are just frontends for cdrdao, cdrtools or dvd+rw-tools.

      Rumour has it they used GnomeToaster [rulez.org] for the interface. If NeroLinux is just another frontend, then it will be quickly dismissed by serious Linux users, who already have several established alternatives to choose from.

      But the NeroLinux presentation mentions all kinds of goodies, including "NeroAPI 6.6" interfacing with 2.4 and 2.6 kernels. A new player in the Linux burning arena, coupled with an actual full port of Nero to Linux, would be a wonderful thing IMO. Serious competition is always good.

      Either way, this is good news for the Linux user base. One less application for the newbies to worry about when pondering switching to Linux. Nevermind if it comes with a native burning solution or not; just knowing that "Nero has a Linux version" will encourage people to switch. I personally heard many say Nero was the last app holding them back. This is one of the highest profile apps for Windows, and now it has established a Linux presence. This is great news.

      • Re:Free as in... (Score:4, Funny)

        by rs79 ( 71822 ) <hostmaster@open-rsc.org> on Saturday March 12, 2005 @09:02PM (#11923462) Homepage
        "Regardless, I was actually curious to see what kind of burning solution they bring to Linux./i"

        Burning solution? Dude, it's saturday. Take the necktie off.

      • I *am* the target market for this. (Score:4, Interesting)

        by likewowandstuff ( 859213 ) on Sunday March 13, 2005 @01:14AM (#11924533) Journal
        I am one of those Windows users who has spent a lot of time looking at Linux distros but has yet to commit. I am studying for those basic certifications I need to be taken semi-seriously and recognize the need to move to Linux for reasons both personal and professional. I have spent the money on Nero Ultra Edition for the sake of having a lot of stable tools beneath the fairly unattractive interface.

        Being able to keep (some of) these tools while I move on to greener pastures will make life just a little easier, and I will feel that my money was better spent.
        • ...you can have it. The whole point of open source software is to know what it's doing and how it does it.

          I have to say... I found your innocent comment almost insulting!

          Personally I don't think this article's subject is any reason whatsoever to use Linux.

          Sure, sure, go burn your stupid CD with the click of a mouse. Wee. Get hooked so nobody else's projects will ever make it. What are you going to do with your mouse when all the other projects are dead and you can't use Nero anymore because upgrade
          • "Ahh, that's it, you'll take your money elsewhere because you are used to paying out the nose for something you can't even own."

            The money will at least influence feature sets, while it seems more than a few OSS projects will implement features only when the developers feel like it.

            "If I wasn't so tired (and drunk) I'd take the time to write you a script that could handle alot of the most common things needed for burning several types of CD's."

            "Can" and "will" are two very different things. If nobody

        • Certifications... (Score:3, Informative)

          by Allen Zadr ( 767458 ) *
          There are very few places that look for Linux certs during the hire process. And the few that do, are doing so because they have nobody who knows Linux already, and they need it to support some big product their IT department was just told to install. In this type of shop.. you'd also be expected to have experience doing Linux (or at least UNIX) administration in a corporate environment.

          Otherwise, the Aplus cert has some Linux troubleshooting now, and can (at least) be applied to more aspects of what you

      • Re:Free as in... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by jemfinch ( 94833 ) on Sunday March 13, 2005 @03:24AM (#11924830) Homepage
        I personally heard many say Nero was the last app holding them back.

        No, what's holding them back is that they lack a sense of adventure, a yearning for the unknown, a thirst for knowledge. In short: they're not geeks.

        Don't get your hopes up. They'll find another "last app holding them back."

        Jeremy

  • Also now available (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 12, 2005 @07:56PM (#11923112)
    A Nero keygen for Linux.
    • You laugh, but I just browsed Torrentreactor.net and saw NeroLinux on there. I was thinking, "WTF?" I thought it may have been some crap Wine port, but then I saw this article.

  • What? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 12, 2005 @07:57PM (#11923114)
    NeroLINUX is free-as-in-beer only if you've registered "a full version of Nero software version 6 or higher," or a "retail version or downloaded version."
    So you have to buy, or already own a copy of Nero. So tell me again how this is "free-as-in-beer?"

  • Advantages of Nero? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by haluness ( 219661 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @07:59PM (#11923127)
    Never having used Nero on Windows, are there advantages to using Nero on Linux?

    It seems, that cdrecord and k3b (or xtoaster) does everything I need
    • For data DVD's and CD's, cdrecord and k3b are more than enough. For video, though, duplicating DVD's enters interesting legal territory. The libdvdcss libraries often used for Linux video DVD burning have been ruled illegal in several countries. Getting a clean copy of a legal, licensed, software package to do DVD burning and avoid the potential liability is understandable.

      Also, Nero is considerably better in its interfaces than even k3b.

    • Nero is to K3B arguably what OSX is to Linux (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ShatteredDream ( 636520 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:22PM (#11923282) Homepage
      It is one thing to just do most of the same things, but how you do them is the real issue. In that respect, Nero is still much farther ahead than K3B. That isn't to say that K3B is a bad product, in fact for most of my needs it is great. Nero for Windows is a very aggressively designed and updated product. It supports basically every burner out there, every type of media, burns any type of disk (VCD, SVCD, DVD movie, data, music, etc) and is just... solid and slick in how it does stuff.

      Again, it's not that K3B isn't competitive. It certainly is, but it's not there yet. Nero for Linux appears to be identical in its UI to the Windows version so it's another great way to bridge Linux and Windows. The bottom line is that it is very good, many people have it because it comes with many burners and having it on Linux will be another program that people who are wont to not learn how to use their computer will be able to say, "oh I know that program" that is part of their semi-daily use.

    • Re:Advantages of Nero? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by cgranade ( 702534 ) <cgranade.gmail@com> on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:24PM (#11923290) Homepage Journal
      Same here. I still welcome this heardily. Why? Choice. If someone wants to use the Nero OEM that came with their burner instead of K3b, let 'em. No harm to me. It knocks down one more barrier to Linux on the desktop. One of the primary reasons for me sticking with a Windows system before was because of Nero's DVD authoring systems (before I realized I had no talent in movies, anyway). Qdvdauthor is kinda sorry, or at least it was, and even if it wasn't, choice is a primarally good thing, right? It'd be hypocritical of us to slam Nero for doing something that helps us with our goals.
    • "Never having used Nero on Windows, are there advantages to using Nero on Linux?"

      Short answer: If you're the kind of person who already uses RealPlayer on Linux, Yahoo Messenger on Linux, Macromedia Flash on Linux, and all the rest of the proprietary Windows apps, then you'll probably be interested in Nero on Linux. For a while. Until Nero realise that everyone is ignoring them and quietly abandons the software.

      Shorter answer: No, it can't be distributed freely so there's a good chance you won't even h

  • It's pointless (Score:4, Interesting)

    by KiloByte ( 825081 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:00PM (#11923131)
    Now, tell me, what exactly would I want Nero for?

    It's only value is that it includes a comprehensive point&click interface, but even though it's stuffed with features, it can't beat the existing, free tools.

    Unless you're a Windows user who wants a program he's familiar with, there is no reason to even look at it. Plus, it's not even free-as-beer, as you need to pay for a full, registered version of Nero for Windows.

    • Re:It's pointless (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Jugalator ( 259273 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @09:12PM (#11923503) Journal
      Now, tell me, what exactly would I want Nero for?

      ???

      The same thing as any other burning application?

      Or are you thinking the software world for Linux should contain exactly one software for each purpose?

      It's only value is that it includes a comprehensive point&click interface, but even though it's stuffed with features, it can't beat the existing, free tools.

      OK, there you gave reason #1 (good GUI) and #2 (feature set) to use it on Linux, yourself. And being "Free" (libra) doesn't matter to all Linux users at all, believe it or not. And being "free" (gratis), well, see below...

      Unless you're a Windows user who wants a program he's familiar with, there is no reason to even look at it.

      Exactly! And there you gave reason #3 (familiarity).

      Plus, it's not even free-as-beer, as you need to pay for a full, registered version of Nero for Windows.

      Yeah, and Linux isn't free because you need to pay the hardware first. The point is that Nero is among the most commonly used burning apps on Windows there is, so existing licenses shouldn't be too uncommon. But yes, of course if you're building a Linux box from scratch, with no prior license for Nero, you should carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages for all apps. Fortunately, you have a choice here. ;-)

    • Re:It's pointless (Score:3, Informative)

      by dbIII ( 701233 )

      It's only value is that it includes a comprehensive point&click interface, but even though it's stuffed with features, it can't beat the existing, free tools

      That is the value. In order for clerical staff to burn a single data file bigger than 2GB on a DVD in linux where I work they have to use a script that makes a udf filesystem and burns that - which confuses them since Nero on windows can do it but GUI burning software on linux can't (or couldn't - someone please give me good news). I'm sure there's

  • So... dear Linux community what do YOU want? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by lonesometrainer ( 138112 ) <vanlil AT yahoo DOT com> on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:05PM (#11923157)
    Would you like to open your beloved OperatingSystem to the mainstream, would you want to see it become a real alternative to Windows, with commercial and proprietary applications?

    Then put your comments ("they rather release the source, k3b is a lot better, I want to compile this shit under gentoo") where the sun doesn't shine. Mainstream and real competetion equals to commercial stuff (and the author of this message thinks this is GOOD).

    Or do you prefer to stay geekie? Sugar-coke, kernel-hacks, geek-elitism, no sunlight, no showers, spots (and clearasil), jokes about years old bsd-girl-daemon-pics? Then let them know it (and greet the openbsd community in that case).

    Decide for yourself.
    • Hey,
      in our defense that girl was smoking hot ;)
    • Linus and probably half the kernel hackers would like nothing more than what you suggest. The people who put together Debian would consider your proposal the exact opposite of what they want. You being an insulting little prick doesn't help either.

  • This *is* important. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:06PM (#11923166)
    Cut the free software crap. This is a mainstream company willing to take pay-per-use apps on Linux seriously.

    Don't forget that the OS itself is pretty much commodity. Its the apps that count, and for a mature and *decent* app to make it to Linux is important news.

    • Re:This *is* important. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rashkae ( 59673 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:18PM (#11923243) Homepage

      I would almost agree, except, as others pointed out, they are a dollar short and several days late.

      5 years ago, hell, even 2 years ago, I would have seen value in a decent burning GUI. Since then, we have K3B and the new Gnome whatchamacallit, that both do the same thing, better, support more formats, and are not hindered by little things like CSS.... Sooo, how seriously can they be taking this product?

      This might even cause OSS harm. Now hardware companies can make proprietary changes to the hardware interface, say, for copy protection. When people complain that Linux can't use the hardware, they can reasonably point to Nero as a burning solution. So not only does this not bring anything new or desirable to the desktop, it can be used to further hinder development of truly open and free systems.

      • Re:This *is* important. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by malkavian ( 9512 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:56PM (#11923431)
        Hmm.. The fact a commercial company released a product says they're at least reasonably serious about it. They did, after all, pay developers to put it out there..

        As to how it can cause OSS harm.. Where on earth did you get that from? Nero producing a product has nothing to do with hardware companies making proprietary changes. They've always been able to do that, and always have. Can you say "Winmodem" or "Windows Printer"? Both designed with proprietary interfaces which Linux can't use.
        The former I stayed well away from, the latter, well, I run a Konica Minolta magicolour 2300W. Works just fine from my Linux boxes.

        Now, if someone produced hardware that linux just couldn't talk to, then Nero would be stuffed, as it wouldn't be able to use the api to talk to the hardware anyway, at least until a driver writer finds a way to talk to the hardware properly again.

        It may just have skipped past your attention, but the whole 'trusted computing' initiative is heading to put just those copy controls in every device.
        Now, if Nero has the bits built in there to cope with it from the moment it's released, and the rest of the open tools lag, at least there's some product out there that can handle the slack until Open works it out, and gets back in the game.
        If it doesn't, no big deal. People use what they feel like.

        I think about twelve years back, you'd have been one of those voices saying "Linux. That gives us nothing new. It's just another UNIX alike. What do we need that for? It'll only hamper the BSDs and not provide us with anything worthwhile in return!".

        A product is a product. I'm glad Nero are in the market. They're offering something to compliment their windows product, for those people that may be wanting to move from Windows to Linux, and just want something they already know and are familiar with.

        Anything that makes the transition easier is a great thing.

        The great thing about OSS is it's a really open market. You can charge what you want for your product (including free). Nero want money for you to be able to have their product (you have to have the retail version, or buy one to get it). That's fine! If you don't want it, don't get it. Nobody uses it, and it'll go away (just like MusicMatch Jukebox for Linux did way back when).
        But, it's there. And there are some more developers who've been exposed to Linux.
        And as Ballmer is always chanting, it's all about "Developers, developers, developers".

        • How serious are they really? (Score:5, Interesting)

          by jejones ( 115979 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @11:04PM (#11924037) Journal
          I took a look at the web site, and clicked on the "buy" link. There's no way that I can just buy Nero for Linux. Either they haven't updated their web site completely, or they want to make me buy Nero for Windows in order to get Nero for Linux.

          That, as Milton Friedman would say, distorts the commmunication that one's purchases constitute in a free market. I don't want Nero for Windows--I don't use Windows (save at work, under duress). I have no use for Nero for Windows...but there's no way I can communicate that to Nero with my money, the way they have it set up.
      • Yes, but when someone asks "How do I burn CD's on Linux?" you can say "just like windows, use Nero." Ignoring the fact that Windows XP has an excellent built-in CD burning tool that is inline with the file system, people recognize Nero as CD burning. Telling them to use the "Gnome whatchamacallit" is not just not going to ring with people, not matter how much better the software really is.

        Saying that you see value in a decent burning GUI is entirely besides the point. What you need are big names as assu
    • ...This is a mainstream company willing to take pay-per-use apps on Linux seriously....

      Yes, and that's nice and all, but they're scratching an itch that's already been scratched - for ages now - and with superb tools that have zero cost to the end user.
      Sheesh... you can only use the "free" version of NeroLINUX if you've paid for a Microsoft Windows version. So, if you don't even use Microsoft Windows, you have to buy an app for it anyway. No thanks.

    • Re:This *is* important. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by natrius ( 642724 ) * <niran@ni r a n.org> on Saturday March 12, 2005 @09:16PM (#11923547) Homepage
      What most people don't seem to realize is that this is a bad thing for commercial software on Linux. Nero's venture will fail, and other companies will be discouraged by it.

      Utility applications like CD burning programs aren't hard to replicate, as there are a certain set of features that need to be implemented to satisfy almost all users. Most people need to burn audio and data CDs, and an emerging need is burning home movies onto DVDs. The first two have already been done by open source programs, and the third will be done eventually. From what I hear, Nero has more features that make it useful, but I don't think it provides enough marginal utility to be worth $100 [nero.com]. Nero has succeeded in the Windows world largely due to their distributon deals with OEMs. However, their Linux product will not be profitable. The Linux version doesn't even have the extra features that make the Windows version attractive, but assuming that it eventually does, they won't be worth $100 to most people. The Linux version won't get them any extra distribution, and Linux users who buy CD burners already pay Nero money anyway. The extra effort spent on a Linux port won't be worth it, and they'll soon figure that out.

      There is room for commercial software on Linux, but it has to be innovative software to succeed. There has to be something that the company continues to provide that hasn't been replicated by the eventual open source implementation of their product. Competing with free is possible, but not in Nero's case. Competing with Free is even harder.

  • This Makes Me See How Important FOSS Is To Me (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheWanderingHermit ( 513872 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:06PM (#11923169)
    I misread this the first time through and thought it was saying a free version was available for Linux -- and didn't see the part about you had to have a registered Windows version. Even without the extra gotcha, this made me realize how important free (as in speech) software is to me.

    I started using Linux somewhere around 1998, and moved everything (except compatibility testing) around 2000/2001. Since then I learned how to add almost any program or game I wanted with rpm -ivh {package_name}, then urpmi {package_name}, and now apt-get install {package_name}. It's not just the ease of use, but knowing that it is available, to me and anyone who wants it, that I can modify it or pay to have it modified, that I can help debug it, and even suggest new features.

    I (mis)read this story and my first thoughts were, 1) Why bother, I've got programs that do almost all, to 2) But it's hard to do some of the DVD authoring that Nero will help with, to 3) But Nero controls it.

    That's when I realized how important FOSS is to me and my company. I hadn't realized that I actually avoid commercial software now, and prefer FOSS, since I can make bug reports, make suggestions, and even modify if I need to. I also realized I do NOT want software (any more) that another company controls and can decide to remove from the market, or bastardize so it's no longer the program I liked. If it's FOSS, I know I'll almost always be able to find an older version if I need it, and that I can always locate it and re-install it easily if it gets horked.

    So let Nero do what they want. I know in a year or two we'll see better DVD authoring under Linux (and eventually even see professional video editing in FOSS). This story helped me realize I can no longer deal with paying for software with fewer freedoms than that which apt-get installs for me. I don't want software someone else has total control over. (Okay, well maybe Myst and it's sequals, but we all know games are another story...)

  • Commercial Desktop App (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:08PM (#11923177)
    Despite there being open source burning programs, I think it is positive to see commercial desktop software being developed for Linux.

    I am not trying to say Nero is better/worse than the alternatives, but now there is an additional alternative -- and software companies focusing on desktop apps are starting to take a Linux desktop more seriously.

  • Good thing (Score:5, Informative)

    by teslatug ( 543527 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:10PM (#11923190)
    Before discovering K3B, a CD/DVD burning software was the main thing I was missing under Linux. K3B is nice, but Nero (at least under Windows) had a lot more options.

  • Title wrong? (Score:5, Funny)

    by commodoresloat ( 172735 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:10PM (#11923195)
    I thought Nero fiddled while Linux burned.

  • Slashdot 2 days late? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by BestNicksRTaken ( 582194 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:12PM (#11923209)
    This has already been discussed to death on osnews.com and fedoraforum.org

    Essentially it is using the GnomeToaster GUI under license (not GPL) with a Nero API/drivers backend.

    It's closed source and doesn't include Nero Recode (aka DVD Shrink) or anything other than Nero Burning ROM.
  • I feel most of the opinions here so far are pretty on target. This is nothing more than a ploy by Nero to expose more linux using eyeballs to the Nero brand name, which as has already been pointed out, is not really useful to anyone. Nero's new offering doesn't really distinguish itself in any way among the existing burning tools for the Linux platform. Their distribution policy doesn't really extend the user base beyond those already using Nero under Windows, so what is the point from their perspective?

  • must mean that MS is doing a CD burner (Score:3, Insightful)

    by WindBourne ( 631190 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:13PM (#11923215) Journal
    It seems like companies that port to Linux only do so on the downturn, never while they are hot. I am guessing that MS must be taking away space from Nero.

  • meh (Score:2, Insightful)

    by wurd ( 767411 )
    good for them for acknowledging linux, but i like K3B a lot more than anything i've used under windows, including nero. but hey, competition is a good thing so keep em coming.

  • Catch-22 as usual... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by supabeast! ( 84658 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:17PM (#11923237)
    If a commercial software vendor doesn't support linux people bitch. If a commercial software vendor does support it people bitch that the software isn't GPL. If the software gets GPL'd, people bitch that it hasn't been ported to their distros of choice.

    And then the linux community wonders why so few companies bother to code for linux.
    • How does flamebait like that get modded as informative? Sure, you can always find extremists if you look, but most Linux users are like me: quite pragmatic, and ready to pull out the wallet to pay for good quality linux products.

      The reaction I'm seeing here has been fairly positive, gievn that nero really isn't providing anything I can get very excited about (buy a microsoft windows version I'll never use, in order to get a "free" linux version?) but in general we welcome more vendors to the linux marketpl

    • Re:Catch-22 as usual... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by soliptic ( 665417 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @09:25PM (#11923609) Journal
      Have you actually read Catch-22?

      The body of your post is not an example of Catch-22, never mind a good example.


  • I like the way the screenshot tree shows the cdrecord /etc entry.

    Here are some mirrored screenshots, if anyone cares: one [0daymeme.com] two [0daymeme.com] three [0daymeme.com] four [0daymeme.com] five [0daymeme.com]

  • OK folks, make up your minds... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:23PM (#11923285)
    You want companies to support linux, yet when they do you bash their stuff! (you know who you are)

    Kudo's to Ahead for making a software product particularly targeted for Linux! Looking at their site, I see that it SUPPORTS a number of kernel versions and distributions.

    Hmm, I bet corporate customers are really fond of software that has some form of customer support besides newsgroups!

    Just because flavor-of-the-week-open-source-burner-software works great for you doesnt mean that it will work great for companies! It also doesnt mean we should bash the existence of that choice. Companies *will* pay money to improve consistancy and to reduce variability. A known cost is better than an unknown cost. Unsupported (or community) software is an unknown cost. Most companies would rather pay the known cost (maintenance) than deal with the unknown.

    (Yes that was a blanket statement. In some cases, the cost can be quantified a bit better for some of these unsupported/community supported softwares and with such knowledge you can significantly reduce the variability. Generally this fits tools that are almost defacto standards like Apache and what not.)

    I like to think of it this way... its one more option available on Linux that you can also find in the Windows world, making it one more item which can be checked off in the "why [some company] scared to transition to linux" list.

  • Missing the point... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by carbona ( 119666 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:24PM (#11923291)
    The audience for Nero is a Windows convert who was familiar with Nero's interface on that other OS and doesn't care that there are existing GPL tools and GUI frontends to burn discs.

    I understand the necessity of promoting non-restricted open source software, but things like this are a plus for Linux, particularly if we are holding out any chance that it will start to make serious waves on the desktop.

  • NeroLinux - Good for weaning windows Nero users (Score:3, Informative)

    by proctor ( 230646 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:28PM (#11923316)
    Given that our household owns a WinNero license, I figured why not give it a whirl. Not bad...very easy to install and it does a good job of translating the look and feel from the windows side.

    Definitely a good tool for those who have vid burning windows addicts in their household. I may finally have a shot at converting my wife over to the 'dark side' of burning vids on her windows station...time to switch the myth server inittab to default:5.

    Ah...but this is slashdot...nitpicking(TM) is mandatory. Well, it'd be nice if the Nero folks provided at least a basic level of support for the linux side. I'd bet there's people in their support arm who'd be happy to work with an OS they can really troubleshoot for a change.

  • Not a bad idea overall (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Mad Merlin ( 837387 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:34PM (#11923355) Homepage
    I like this idea, I don't have any use for NeroLINUX, but I can think of a lot of people that would. The people that I can see using something like this, are those that have actually bought Nero for Windows but are considering switching over to Linux, and instead of throwing away money that they've spend on Nero, would like to continue using it, at least initially.

    I imagine that this would also help those with a phobia of new software, as this would be one more application that would be the same for them under both Linux and Windows (similar to Firefox, or OpenOffice, etc).

    Now, I'll admit I haven't used Nero (or Windows) in several years on any of my computers, but from using K3b these days, I can't see anything that it is lacking that Nero might provide. Has anybody used both apps recently (NeroLINUX would be an even better comparison) and can comment on how they compare?

    Overall, I'd say this is good for those on Windows now who are considering switching to Linux, and of lesser consequence to those already using Linux.

  • May not be needed, but a nice gesture (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dn15 ( 735502 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:36PM (#11923362)
    Through all the posts saying this was silly and unnecessary, let's not forget that even if the software is non-Free and irrelevant (to many of us), it can also be seen as a step in the right direction.

    Yes, *NIX fans already have k3b, X-CD-Roast, ECLiPt, and others. But on the flip side, this software is in the vein of what many people have been asking for -- mainstream recognition and support of Linux.

  • What if I don't want to purchase Nero for windows? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Harker ( 96598 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:43PM (#11923384)
    Seems like the only way to get the linux version is to purchase the windows version.

    What if someone doesn't have any windows boxes? Is it that tough to make it available to purchase directly??

    I'm glad they've done this. The more products that are ported natively to Linux, the better in my opinion. They just need to stop tying it to their windows products.

    H.

  • not a bad idea (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Gyorg_Lavode ( 520114 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:43PM (#11923385)
    I have nero OEM but don't really like it. I have all the linux burners too. (I especially like eroaster's ability to pick files out to fill up a CD for when your backing stuff up).

    But if the OEM upgrade fee is reasonable, I would like to have the full windows version of Nero and a consistant GUI on my linux box too.

    On the other hand, the price I saw was 50. I am reluctant to pay $50 for a game that has no sale of progressive builds let alone a utility program who's basic functionality is built into most OSs,

  • Ahh the wonderousness (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sparkie ( 60749 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:49PM (#11923400) Homepage
    You all tout desktop linux like it's in the near future, then when a company brings a trusted name over to the linux desktop, all you see are complaints about how it's not free.

    How about stop whining and give them a little support. Nero has been around on windows desktops for quite a while. Not that it's going to be the app that makes 2 million users stand up and switch, at least it's a start. People can now use their 'favorite burning application on linux' if in fact that is their favorite.

    The point is joe schmoe doesn't even know what cdrdao is, nor does he want to learn another application. Yet, you say linux is destined for the desktop? I say bullshit. It's not destined for anything.

    The biggest hurdle to Desktop Linux, is the current users of linux themselves.

  • I know this is Slashdot ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cdrguru ( 88047 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:50PM (#11923404) Homepage
    But could we please call Ahead Software by their name instead of calling the company Nero? The product by Ahead Software is Nero. Yes, Nero was their original and sole product for a long time. I believe it was originally written by one guy. The company now has revenues exceeding $30 million a year.

  • And the Trolls come out to play... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Maxim Kovalenko ( 764126 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:51PM (#11923408) Homepage
    Listen people, whenever a commercial application is ported over to Linux it is good for the effort to get Linux on the desktop. It doesn't matter if there are already command line tools out there that will do the same thing. So what? Yeah there are graphical front ends available for these command line tools available...but once again, so what? If they support linux, I have to support them. If you prefer FOSS applications, that's cool. But we need the commercial applications as well and this is one of the best commercial applications out there. (Plus you get legal codes as well. Something that ought to wipe out afew potential legal problems in the future.) Personally, I don't see why all of you people are crying and moaning. It seems like whenever a commercial company brings stuff over to Linux people do nothing but badmouth it and go on about an open-source solution that isn't as "full-featured" or "intuitive" as the commercial application. From what I have seen of the behavioof most of the people who have commented about this here and in other places. There are a whole lot of fan-boys who talk a fine game about "Desktop Linux for the Masses" Most of them simply want Linux to stay a fringe operating system so they can all argue about KDE/Gnome, play with your command lines, and spit on normal computer users with a disrespectful, elitist attitude. Mod me a troll for this post if you want to...but in the end it is about "choice" Nero has just given me an additonal "choice" That is a good thing.

  • stuff you can't do with Linux burning software (Score:3, Informative)

    by dahlek ( 861921 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @10:23PM (#11923866) Homepage
    This is a good thing. I love competition. I'm glad that there are several mpeg encoders, for example, and at least two major general transcoding packages for linux (mencoder and transcode)...

    I also think it's pretty damn cool that despite all of the cool front-ends out there, basically just a handful of the same utilities are used.

    I can think of a few things that the current linux combos of those utils can't accomplish, however, at least the last time I looked into each one:

    • Writing clone-cd image files. Many off-site archival backups of Playstation games come in this format. There is no native linux utility of which I'm aware that can handle these. In any case, it's a bullshit format - the very good Windows utility CDMage can convert them to bin/cue format, which cdrdao-using programs can then burn. The conversion works 100% of the time, and CDMage runs in linux via WINE very well - still, this is an extra and time-consuming step...
    • Writing cd+g (or is it +eg?) formats - Karoke cd's, that is. I wonder if Nero can do this?
    • Writing an mp3 file on the fly in DOA mode. I haven't tested the DAO mode in cdrecord - but in my experience, most front-ends use cdrdao to burn DAO, and cdrdao can't be fed an input-stream (last I checked, anyway), because it needs a cue file as well as the bin-data. So, you must convert the mp3 files into waves first and then burn them in DAO mode. If you use cdrecord with a pipe (or a front end) to do this in real time, the result will be TAO.
    So I for one welcome some new blood/competition (sorry, no 'overlords' joke), assuming Nero will write code from mostly-scratch (which I don't know because I didn't RTFA). BTW, I thought the Windows version of Nero ran under WINE, so this might be a way to handle some of the above anyway.

  • What kind of Linux software is this? (Score:3, Funny)

    by HAKdragon ( 193605 ) <hakdragon AT gmail DOT com> on Sunday March 13, 2005 @12:18AM (#11924295)
    None of the screenshots are in .png format! It's and outrage!

  • Nero ALREADY runs on linux (Score:3, Informative)

    by Jah-Wren Ryel ( 80510 ) on Sunday March 13, 2005 @12:26AM (#11924332)
    It was reported a while ago that recent versions of Nero run on Linux using recent versions of WINE.
    HERE [linuxcompatible.org]

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