Freespire's Google ads: "What is Ubuntu Missing?"

[jarrodhenry at comcast.net]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Scott <geekboy at angrykeyboarder.com>

> In his exmaple he just cited MP3s and Windows Media Player plays them
> out of the box with a fresh install of Windows (from the Windows CD).
> 
> You mention OEM installs and and imply it's not a fair compariosn. 
> Technically it's not, but the fact is "Mom and Dads"
> (Dell/Gateway/HP/Compaq/eMachines/Acer...) Computer arrived at their
> doorstep with an OEM installed and configured Windows XP OS. (with "out
> of the box" support for playing mp3, wmv & wma files (and possibly even
> QuickTime and Real formats if those players were installed).  OEMs
> generally include a "stripped" down version of DVD players as well
> (generally suitable for most anything "Mom & Dad" would need).
> 

That's not exactly true for all cases of Windows.  In some areas, no codecs are allowed to be shipped with Windows.  In others, DVD codecs are allowed.  In the US, you can get the Mp3 with WMP , but you cannot get Real or Quicktime due to having to download third party products.  The same thing occurs with Ubuntu.  With Ubuntu, you can have a perfectly good (and arguably better) audio codec out of the box, but the more restricted ones require a special download.

That said, if you ran out to a garage sale right now, bought a DVD player from someone , and reinstalled windows using that DVD player, you could not play encrypted movies from it.  That's the whole point I'm making, that Linux has about the same setup time when you actually set it up.

The problem we run into is that most people never ever set up Windows, much less Linux.  They either have the OEM do it for them, or they have their IT department do it.