Why cant this happen ?

[ashmew2]

Hello People , ive been wondering about some questions since ive been using ubuntu and i thought ill ask em here itself. Do answer with anything u can!!

1) Why doesnt Ubuntu get Advertised on the TV like M$ Vista or other computer-related products ?

2)Since Feisty Beta , the things needed to play mp3 and other types of files are being offered by the prgram that runs it by searching in the repos. It says " Please do not install this if it violates any conditions in your country" (something similar to that) , SO why arent these codecs put into an official cd in some sort of vault ? I mean when installing the base system , why cant it ask for something like " Will you like to Install the Codecs needed to play mp3 and other restricted formats ? BUt Beware they may be banned in your country , so pls dont install them if they violate laws" Followed with a simple Yes or No.

3) Why dont companies like nVidia and other companies do not exactly "support" ubuntu (or linux in general) in the true spirit of the word ?

Thanks

[bernied]

1. Advertising costs money. Ubuntu is given away. So where would the money come from?

3. This is also about money. But fairly, also about the number of linux users compared to Win$ users.

[ashmew2]

Ubuntu has sponsors as well as Canonical behind it. I dont think the folks at Canonical should have ne problem while spending cash on advertising for the BEST LINUX-BASED DISTRO.
Companies like HP , i think , support Ubuntu , so cant they help ?

[Zuuswa]

To the best of my knowledge:
1) Because commercial advertising costs lots of $$, and for an os that is free, what money it does recieve (from support payments, cononical, etc.) have far more useful purposes than advertising. What benefit does a company get by paying lots of money to advertise a product that is free?

2)These codecs are still at odds with the ubuntu way, and shipping them with the distro would be hypocritical. This also leads to bloatware. I would like my installation disc to stay at a single cd.

3) Many companies, although offering some support and features, still wish to make money off of their products and code, and they believe that releasing their code, etc., will harm their businness.

[aysiu]

1) Why doesnt Ubuntu get Advertised on the TV like M$ Vista or other computer-related products ? Two reasons.

A) Mark Shuttleworth thinks that right now the money could be better spent elsewhere or saved for later

B) Ubuntu comes preinstalled in so few places, it wouldn't make sense to advertise it, since anyone watching the ad would then have to download the ISO, learn how to burn it properly, make sure the BIOS is set to boot from CD, troubleshoot any video or sound or wireless issues, etc. Most users do not want to bother with that.


2)Since Feisty Beta , the things needed to play mp3 and other types of files are being offered by the prgram that runs it by searching in the repos. It says " Please do not install this if it violates any conditions in your country" (something similar to that) , SO why arent these codecs put into an official cd in some sort of vault ? I mean when installing the base system , why cant it ask for something like " Will you like to Install the Codecs needed to play mp3 and other restricted formats ? BUt Beware they may be banned in your country , so pls dont install them if they violate laws" Followed with a simple Yes or No. Because Ubuntu wants you to get that support only if you're trying to use those proprietary formats. What's the difference? Asking during the installation just makes it annoying--yet another question to answer--especially for those who don't need those codecs, it just becomes click "no," click "no," click "no."

In other words, what benefit is there to what you're proposing?



3) Why dont companies like nVidia and other companies do not exactly "support" ubuntu (or linux in general) in the true spirit of the word ? Because they don't believe in open sourcing their code. Nvidia supports Linux at least to provide binary drivers.

[hardyn]

1) $, tv time costs money... and as we don't pay for ubutnu, there isn't much extra money. would it be money well spent?

2) it takes space on the CD... and i suppose they are choosing to add plugins after the system is installed and not clutter the install process.

3) $, NDAs, CSS momentum, lack of users... you name it. The companies would do fine without supporting linux at all, so it could be praised that choose to acknolege the linux community. I think that things will change when intel launches their GPU... if it can compete with ATI or Nividia, with open source drivers, im sure it will scare up some activilty.

[ashmew2]

HEy Zuuswa , When you say bloatware , it means something useless rite..but the codecs which are not included within the ubuntu cd are also a reason why people think Ubuntu to be difficult , IM not talking about us all who are using Ubuntu but the masses. They think that installing those codecs is very difficlt etc. And in my hometown (im in india) most people dont have internet....so it can be very useful for them , plus how much space does it all take ?

[ashmew2]

@ aysiu
I do completely agree with your answers for 1 and 3...Thank You..But



In other words, what benefit is there to what you're proposing?


You say that itll be another question to answer for those who do not want to install the formats ?But you should consider that most of the people need those codecs as they like to listen to songs (in restricted formats) on their uber ubuntu computers. Dont you think its a big reason which "scares" away most users without an internet conenction ?

[aysiu]

Well, I hate to say it, but if you don't have an internet connection, Ubuntu sucks. I wouldn't recommend it (proprietary formats or not) to anyone without an internet connection.

For those without internet, I'd recommend Fedora, Debian, or Mandriva.

If you like Ubuntu, don't have an internet connection, but need proprietary codecs, I'd recommend Mepis or Linux Mint.

[ashmew2]

WHy not ? IN my hometown...people are literally afraid of linux and mostly like places anywhere in the world , m$ is dominant although there is only 1 out of 10,000 people in the city who has a valid m$ license....most of my frinds are tired of windows and its crashes....so they want something like ubuntu . Mandriva and FEDORA and RedHat are not as user friendly as Ubuntu (you'l have to agree on this one :P) plus whenever they have a problem , they tell me and first i try to do something and then if there is no solution i seek help on these forums..
So what bad is in there ?
But i just wish there was something more easier to use ...something like a dependency handler with packages as .debs so i could distribute ubuntu cds along with packages which are needed for a smooth run on a dvd or cd..
Im trying to learn programming and as soon as its done , i hope to start working on this "dependency handler"..
what say ?

As well as if the ubuntu cd came with an option to install the multimedia codecs...most of the problems wud be solved as people which i know , usually do not play games but listen to songs on their systems..only songs , nothing else...So if the codecs were asked to install during setup it would really cure a headache..

[Zuuswa]

Well, I'm not saying that they are useless. In fact, I dont think bloatware==useless, it just means that they arent necessary for basic operation. I install (x)ubuntu on alot of friends' odler PCs, like at the student co-operative living downtown in my city, and on alot of computers that would have no need for any of those codecs. And if your friends dont have the internet to download the codecs, just download the .debs and the dependancies for them and burn them to a cd. Thats what I had to do for years before I moved into the city and had a decent net connection.

[ashmew2]

Yes that is quite true , but again downloading dependencies and packages as debs and then burning as cds is a pain in the a##.....wouldnt you agree ?
Plus every1 without an internet connection doesnt necesarrily have a friend with ubuntu and a decent internet connection ...?

[Zuuswa]

Yeah, i agree. Isn't it also possible to customize an installation disc? Im sure there is a program for it and there must be documented help on the subject somewhere in the forums. i think that might be your best solution. And if I remember correctly, isnt this mostly the same way in windows? I remember having codec problems with .flac and .ogg and .m4a and many other formats that windows couldnt play. Basically, I am happy that the software now has a feature that will download the codecs for you and install them for you (amarok does this already to my knowledge) and it seems to me the best solution to the codec problems. And I agree with aysiu, if you dont have a good internet connection then Ubuntu is not the optimum OS for your computer.

[ashmew2]

Zuuswa YOU ARE A LIFE SAVER!!!
Man how could i forget ?? Its not illegal in my hometown to use/download those codecs.. SO i could just customize the installation for fitting my needs!! Exactly!!! Yay!! IM dancing with joy!! lol!!

A Gazillion THanks!!

[ashmew2]

PLus then i could even give copies of the customized CDs to anyone who wanted Ubuntu without an internet connection and maybe cost them for the cost of media (thats a blank cd) ..WOW!! Thanks!!

[Zuuswa]

Im glad I could help :guitar:

[aysiu]

Someone already customized it for you. It's called Linux Mint (which I mentioned earlier). Google it.

[Mateo]

yeah, i'd use a custom CD, as i'm guessing linux mint, etc. do not use the ubuntu repos, which are superior to most of the other distros.

[aysiu]

yeah, i'd use a custom CD, as i'm guessing linux mint, etc. do not use the ubuntu repos, which are superior to most of the other distros.
You're guessing wrong. Linux Mint is a custom CD based off Ubuntu and using Ubuntu repositories:
Linux Mint is a distribution of the GNU/Linux operating system based on the Ubuntu system by Canonical Ltd., though it is not a fully self-contained system—its relationship with Ubuntu is closer than the relationship between Ubuntu and Debian, who use different repositories from each other. The purpose of Linux Mint is “to produce an elegant, up to date and comfortable GNU/Linux desktop based on Ubuntu.”[1]

The Linux Mint distribution is essentially Ubuntu with some customizations and additional sofware to easily tweak the system. For example, the current release “Bianca” contains:

* mintMenu, a replacement for the Gnome menu which is inspired by SUSE’s Slab and based on USP.
* mintConfig, a Control Center application which is inspired by SUSE’s configuration tool and based on UCP.
* mintDisk, a program which automatically mounts FAT32 and NTFS (Read/Write) partitions (which are not defined in fstab) and places a shortcut on the desktop.
* mintDesktop, for selecting what icons appear on the desktop with a graphical configuration frontend and automatically “mounts” Windows network neighborhoods.
* mintWifi, which includes the ndiswrapper files and ndis-gtk that is used to “wrap” around drivers of Wireless cards that are actually meant for Microsoft Windows.[2]


Even Mepis (a completely different distro--not just a custom CD) is based off Ubuntu and uses Ubuntu repositories.

You may also be interested in the custom CD called Ubuntu Ultimate Edition (http://ubuntusoftware.info/Ubuntu_Ultimate_1.3/), which is also a custom CD based on Ubuntu and using Ubuntu repositories.

[Adamant1988]

Ubuntu has sponsors as well as Canonical behind it. I dont think the folks at Canonical should have ne problem while spending cash on advertising for the BEST LINUX-BASED DISTRO.
Companies like HP , i think , support Ubuntu , so cant they help ?

That's debatable. Anywho, Canonical plans on getting a return on their Linux investments (although the current speculation is that they're operating in the red) and so sinking money into T.V. advertising when they aren't even showing any signs of profitability is a bad idea.

Ubuntu (as I understand it) will not ship any closed/proprietary software by default. However, that does not mean that those things should be as difficult to get as other distributions (Fedora, SuSE) would like to make it.