Not a bash, just the facts

[Chanchao]

On Wed, 2006-03-22 at 20:50 -0600, Michael V. De Palatis wrote:

> I think this is another excellent idea. One huge turnoff to new
> "recruits" is that they need to do all kinds of "hard" things just
> to play their MP3s. Yeah, compared to other tasks, this really isn't
> that hard, but it's hard enough that it's annoying for people who
> don't know anything about the system yet and perhaps want to listen
> to music while they learn it.

It's more than that though... Knowing that sound and video is tricky,
it's the first think I check to see if I like a new operating system. So
I play a video and an mp3 song. If that works then I feel happy &
confident enough to explore further.  If not then most of the time I
don't even bother. (In all previous Linuxes I tried sound didn't work,
period, not even the system sounds)

I don't know why I did bother with Ubuntu even when mp3's didn't work
but I'm happy I did.  I guess because the system sounds worked and
because it looked so refined overall, it just seemed like it had to be
possible. 

Took a while to figure out the issue was called 'restricted formats'
though. It's just not something a new user thinks of, you're inclined to
think it's a driver or codec issue or that the standard mediaplayers are
just unbelievably brain-dead.  (Note that they don't give anywhere near
a useful error message too when playing an mp3...  It would be really
nice if they explained the issue, too, and provided some useful links.
(or better still, display the legal blurb, have a checkbox where you can
say you don't live in Gestapoland and/or don't fear the Pantentgestapo
and then proceed to download the needed codecs.)

> I also don't see anything wrong ubuntuphilosophically (you create a
> new word everyday) with your suggestion.

Pretty one too. :) 

Cheers,
Chanchao