New Releases for Debian and SUSE 223
linuxbeta writes "With the recent SUSE LINUX 9.3 Live DVD ISO released, we get a sneak peek. (screenshots) of this much anticipated OS update. Cool updates in 9.3 includes Firefox 1.0, OpenOffice.org 2.0, Gimp 2.2, Beagle. Xen, VoIP client, and more." And while Debian's Sarge isn't here yet (give Branden Robinson a chance to find his plush new office!), wrochal points out that the fifth update to Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 ("Woody" ) has arrived. 3.0 (r5) "mainly adds security updates to the stable release, along with a few corrections to serious problems." Also, four packages were removed, three for license violations.
Re:Way to stay on the edge.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Multimedia (Score:4, Interesting)
These all work great on Debian and have for years, if you use the w32codecs package from a non-Debian package repository.
I'm sure SuSE can't ship it because it requires packaging some potentially copyright-violating codecs that are the byproduct of reverse-engineered streams and other "unscrupulous" things.
I can use mplayer, xine, xmms to play dvd, cd, mp3, mpeg, wav, ogg, ogm, avi, RealMedia, Windows Media, QuickTime, and probably a dozen of others that don't come to mind right now...
Just because SuSE doesn't have it, doesn't mean it can't be done with Linux.
Re:Multimedia (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Multimedia (Score:1, Interesting)
I've just moved from Mandrake 10.1 to Ubuntu (Sarge in disguise) and it's beautiful. Almost everything I'm installing is saying "No, I don't want anything more thanks, I've got all my dependancies right here." The same goes for multimedia - most of it was ready for me, and the rest was remedied by a quick download and uncompressing of the essential codecs package at mplayerhq.
If we can just hold off the European patent laws a little longer then I think we've almost arrived at user-friendly linux.
Re:Multimedia (Score:4, Interesting)
> polished distros out there, but it still has a
> way to go with multimedia, to get it to appeal
> to joe-computer user and Grandma who are scared
> of "breaking" things on the computer.
They removed some multimedia support (DVD, MP3? I think it is about it) from some *reasons* not just because they cannot make it right. These reasons are legal difficulties - namely MP3 codec distribution issues (it is not free, when you distribute more than 100000 copies you need to pay Philips AFAIK) and DVD-CSS issues (I think it is illegal in US). SuSE is now US based (Novell) and they need to be legal. I belive only free (as in beer) version is crippled without multimedia. If you actually *buy* boxed set it should play MP3 and so on (I don't know how with DVD-CSS but they just could attach some propertiary program to play DVDs). So if you wish to pay you will get paid multimedia features, if you wish not to pay you don't and need to get it running on your own (which is perfectly legal - it just cannot be distributed this way).
So it is not like Linux distributors don't want to distribute this stuff - they cannot.
> Linux is on the cusp from going from "hacker" OS
> to main-stream, but still has some catching up
> to Windows in certain things - mainly multimedia.
I use Linux on daily basis as my workstation and never had any problems (well actually there were some like 5 years ago - now it is close to perfect) with multimedia. Mplayer plays just about any file format you can imagine - I often find Windows Media Player to not play some files, mplayer does it all out-of-the-box - no problems with searching for codecs etc. with proper setup you just click on file and it plays - I don't have any problems with multimedia and Linux. There are some areas that Linux is lacking, but IMHO it is not multimedia...
My distro of choice is Fedora - it also comes without some multimedia support - but adding it is as simple as adding one line to config file and issuing one command. For grandpa or smth. it is a matter of opening terminal and copying and pasting
one command. And then it works so please don't dramatize. Or go get boxed paid distribution and you will get it all out-of-the-box.
> Yes I know there are plenty of programs that
> work great - but the average user, I think,
> would not have the expertise to get it to work
> easily right off the DVD.
Look it is like installing one program and running it and you got DVD running. It is exactly the same as on Windows (does Windows Media Player play DVDs?). Actually I usually recommend anyone using Windows to install VLC Media Player - from my experience it works best. It is like somebody IMs or calls me and asks "look I've got this AVI file from my mail and I click it and it does not play - what should I do?" and I just point them to website or give them setup.exe URL and it works for them, where Windows Media Player does not. And VLC is aviable on Linux too.
Re:The fourth package's removal reason? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah it looks ok but... (Score:1, Interesting)
Because to me it's really strange. A hell of a lot of Linux users seem to spend their time hating on Windows. Fine Windoze sucks. But why does every Linux desktop look like Windows ? That same bluey default feel. Shitty Windoze 3.0 aliased font with the dashed selection outline. The 'My Computer' thing.
Seriously, Move on. Stop trying to recreate Windows in Linux. Stop being inspired by Windows. Let KDE and GNOME people find their own style instead of trying to copy ancient horrible OSs.
I know it's hard but you people really have to think a little bit bigger.
Re:Novell vs. SUSE = GNOME vs. KDE (Score:4, Interesting)
Why screenshots? (Score:4, Interesting)
What do screenshots mean in such a scenario ? I know I'm being overly critical but any default X configuration tends to look like 1994 nostalgia. Why can't we style KDE to look like Panther or something ? Always that "blah" blocky gray bar nagging at my subconscious. No shadows/depth, no perception of interactivity. Yes I know I'm being overly artsy but if I'm looking at a GUI that's slowing me down vs the command line, that GUI had better make up for its inefficacies by being intoxicatingly sexy and curvy.
Re:Multimedia (Score:4, Interesting)
These are the packages that I would merge, in order:
Calculating dependencies
[ebuild R ] media-libs/xine-lib-1.0-r1 +X -aac +aalib +alsa (-altivec) +arts +cle266 -debug +directfb +dvd +dxr3 +esd +fbcon -ffmpeg +flac -gnome -i8x0 -ipv6 -libcaca +mng +nls +nvidia +opengl +oss +png +samba +sdl -speex -theora +v4l +vidix +vorbis +win32codecs -xinerama +xv -xvmc 0 kB
That's a pretty impressive list, if you ask me.
Re:Multimedia (Score:1, Interesting)
First, you need to know about Mandrake's 'urpmi', which is like apt-get or yast or yum, but for Mandrake. Give it somewhere that has Mandrake rpms, and it will install from the web with all dependencies done for you.
Second, you need to add a place that has the right codec rpms and multimedia rpms. I think plf.zarb.org is the best choice here.
Check out easy-urpmi here:
http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/
Once you add those sources, you can install many multimedia things instantly with no dependency fuss through the GUI or command-line.
Ubuntu is nice, but some problems it solves aren't really problems once you figure out where to look.
CAUTION: DO NOT UPGRADE SUSE (Score:2, Interesting)
As usual, Debian (with external install sources) upgraded just fine to the latest.
With "commercial" distros, WHY do I have to format my computer every single time?
I know these community distros Gentoo, Debian, Slack, etc. are a bit more complex to install (except for maybe Ubuntu), but at least I don't have to go through these damn version upgrade nightmares.
-Joe