[LUAU] Ubuntu... Legalities

[Maddog]

Jim,

One point I think most of the FOSS community misses is that it's great if 
you have the technical knowhow to find, install and troubleshoot these free 
softwares. The majority of users in the world either don't have the time, or 
don't have the expertise to do that or simply would rather point and click. 
Probably why Linspire has half a chance to get a foothold in replacing 
Windows XP

If you had a choice to buy gas for $3.35/gallon right down the street on 
King Street or drive to Millilani (if you live in town) and pay 
$3.09/gallon, where would you most like fuel up? A large majority would go 
to the more expensive station out of convenience.

There are societal issues that prevent FOSS from becoming dominant. Maybe if 
Linux distributions concentrated on that they would be able to infiltrate 
the market to a higher degree. I think the new wireless models have taken 
notice, free with lots of ads or pay a bit for no ads. We'll see if it works 
but as I recall an ISP tried that without success. Maybe a combo FOSS and 
for pay model works? Mandriva seems to live by it and judging by the bottom 
line they have had some success.

MD

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Thompson" <jim at netgate.com>
To: "LUAU" <luau at lists.hosef.org>
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 7:33 PM
Subject: Re: [LUAU] Ubuntu... Legalities


>
> On Jun 5, 2006, at 7:20 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
>
>>
>> On Jun 5, 2006, at 6:25 PM, David Kiwerski wrote:
>>
>>> How would you explain Linspire's DVD player that plays commercial 
>>> DVD's?
>>
>> I think he already did.
>>
>>> "The Linspire DVD player is a software multimedia player that  includes 
>>> legal, licensed commercial-quality codecs and auto- detection of DVDs to 
>>> enhance the DVD playback experience under  Linspire 4.5 and higher." 
>>> This from their website.
>>
>> Its not 'free' in either sense of the word.  It will cost you $9.95 
>> *and* you have to be a CNR "member' ($19.95/year).
>>
>> http://www.linspire.com/lindows_products_details.php?product_id=11804
>> http://www.linspire.com/products_cnr_whatis.php?tab=whatis
>
> Not to put too fine a point on it, but, quoting the rest of the first  URL 
> above (which you appear to be unwilling to do):
>
> ---
> How is the Linspire DVD player different from Xine and other DVD  players 
> available for Linux?
> The Linspire DVD player is actually based on the Xine player, but  there 
> are three main differences: First, the Linspire DVD player  includes a 
> commercial license for the DVD playback decoding so you  don't have to 
> find, buy and install this on your own (this can be  expensive and a 
> tricky, complicated process).
>
> Second, Linspire DVD player has been optimized for ease-of-use,  making it 
> one-click easy to install and use.
>
> And third, Linspire DVD player has been integrated fully with  Linspire, 
> making things like auto-play possible so that when you put  a DVD into 
> your Linspire computer, it recognizes it and loads the DVD  software 
> automatically. Linspire users can also, if they choose,  install the 
> regular Xine player (without the items mentioned above)  at no charge via 
> CNR.
> ---
>
> So what you get by sending $10 to Linspire is Xine plus a license to  the 
> CODECs you need to play DVDs, plus the "CNR" functions (which you  only 
> care about if you're running Linspire).   Most linux distros can  be setup 
> to auto-play DVDs.
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