Originally posted by: drag
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: drag
Originally posted by: CTho9305
Linux is ready for the desktop!!11!!!11!!!
:roll:
If Linux isn't ready for the desktop then Windows isn't either.
Try to install Mplayer on Windows and see how far you get, Troll.
But there are plenty of alternatives for Windows, along with a "sane" installer.
Sane installer?
Apt-get install mplayer
Yum install mplayer
The only problem is that you have to know to use them and have repotories that support mplayer, most official ones don't support it completely because of the legal implications of some of the things that mplayer can do.
windows is easy because you everybody already understands that you have to go to different websites, find the places that produce them, give them your e-mail address, name, number, DNA sample, and credit card number. All depending of course on what program you want. Some want more some want less.
Then you have to download and install it. Usually in the form of exe installsheild type of thing, sometimes they come in zip files and you have to have a newer version of Windows or some nagware like Winzip to open them up and then deposite a folder on your desktop.
Then you have to go into your desktop folder and find a install.exe or a setup.exe or some such file to use.
then you install it.
8 times out of ten that works fine, but then you have to do and download and install the codecs for the files you want to view. Usually requires some more signing up and downloading and unzipping and all that.
Whatever. It's not rocket science either way, but a guy that has never before used Windows in his life may have some trouble with it.
Codecs can be a pain sometimes with Mplayer, too.
For instance I had to temporarially install Realplayer on my computer once to get the correct .so file for Mplayer so that I can play realplayer streams and files using it. Of course after I was done I just deleted Realplayer and it's configuration stuff, and I don't have any polution left on my computer like you would with windows. Of course its a possible, just a bit harder.
And their are easier to deal with stuff With Linux. For instance KDE and GNome have default media players aviable that play most media files. Totem for Gnome is pretty nice, I don't know what KDE uses, but it's probably nicer.
Both of those are aviable by default usually. Xine is nice, I use that for a lot of stuff, and it does AC3 passthrough easily so is use that.
But MPlayer is special. It's for media junkies and is a bit higher quality then your going to find (probably) anywere else.
The GUI for it sucks monkey-balls, but the command line is actually more powerfull and once you learn the keybindings it's nicer to use. If I want a GUI I just use Xine.
for instance it does support around 120-130 different video codecs and and probably over 40 audio codecs.
And it can do more then just play files, it has a veriaty of post-production deinterlacers and image filters that I haven't seen in any other program.
With it also comes the mencoder utility, which you can use to encode DVD's and such into AVI files for instance. Or it can take one format and encode it into others. I don't know the full capabilities of it, though. I don't do much media encoder.
It also has very good documentation.
Also for image proccessing it does nicely. I can use different video outputs to get the best quality and best performance depending on the limitations of the video card I am using. For instance I can output using OpenGL acceleration ala OS X, or I can output it into SDL media layer if I want. Personally I use XV acceleration so that I don't get any framedrops when running bunch of other applications it seems to use the least amount of CPU time for my setup.
Of course the command line I like alot. It has a GUI aviable, but I don't like it. To me that's a worlds better then the train wreck that I get when I try to use windows media player on a Windows OS. That's discusting.
Then I can do cool things like:
nc -l -p 7000 | mplayer -vo xv - & ssh spock "nc 192.168.1.50 7000 < /dev/video1"
When I want to stream my mpeg2 TV capture card over my network so that I can watch TV on my laptop.
So you see why that is a bit difficult to install and setup sometimes. There is just a lot going on that you don't normally see.
For the vast majority of people that is tremendous overkill and all they care about is watching movies or whatnot, so thats why we have things like Totem or Xine. And they are usually either aviable by default or otherwise a bit easier to deal with.
Another problem is that with this guy he is using Mandrake, which is a nice enough OS with a nice setup, but lacks some of the advanced package support that is aviable in distros like Fedora, Gentoo, and Debian.
For example for Fedora I have my machine update against the offical Fedora repositories, but I also use Yum with ATrpms, Dag, and FreshRPMs.
Mandrake will probably soon have some better program installer setup, though. Urpmi is OK, they just have to get some better Docs and support for it.
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