# The Next Leap for Linux - New York Times

The New York Times published a halfway-decent [look at Linux from a
consumer standpoint][1] several days ago. First, the article is
noteworthy in that it mentions software freedom, something very rare
in mainstream media considerations of Linux:

> But why would anyone want to use Linux, an open-source operating
> system, to run a PC? “For a lot of people,” said Jim Zemlin,
> executive director of the Linux Foundation, “Linux is a political
> idea — an idea of freedom. They don’t want to be tied to Microsoft
> or Apple. They want choice. To them it’s a greater cause.”

They go on to mention Dell's entry into the consumer PC and laptop
market with Ubuntu, then this:

> One challenge for Linux users is finding media players that work
> with encrypted music and DVDs. Ubuntu comes with a movie player,
> but it is not automatically configured to play copy-protected
> commercial DVDs. To watch a movie, the Linux user must install
> necessary codecs, or decoders.

This is wrong on two counts - one, that finding codecs is hard. Yes,
it used to be, but isn't any longer. Feisty Fawn, the version of
Ubuntu shipping on Dell systems, will automatically download needed
codecs for most multimedia formats after some click-through
warnings. Second, Windows itself doesn't come with all needed
codecs, either - they are downloaded for you in a similar
fashion.

As for encrypted DVD's, last I checked, Windows will not play
encrypted DVD's out-of-the-box either, you need to by commercial DVD
viewing software for this (I'm not including the usual spate of
cripple-ware on most new Windows PC's, since they are time- and/or
feature-limited). At least on Ubuntu, there are [clear instructions
for dealing with restricted multimedia formats][2], none of which
involve the consumer spending money (similar pages exist for
[Debian][3] and [Fedora][4], too).

Decent iTunes support is perhaps the only thing lacking from Linux
these days. [Banshee][5], mentioned in the article, apparently
[comes close][6].

[1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/technology/circuits/04basics.html?ex=1192161600&en=47d6bc2f2d559a0f&ei=5070&emc=eta1
[2]: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats
[3]: http://debian-multimedia.org
[4]: https://web.archive.org/web/20080414230851/http://www.firewing1.com/content/view/37/33/
[5]: https://web.archive.org/web/20080202041737/http://www.banshee-project.org/Main_Page
[6]: https://web.archive.org/web/20080110011447/http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT7150747782.html
.