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You're right about flash, I had to install it myself, forgot that one. There's no DVD player on the eeepc so that wasn't a problem, and she has no use for java so I didn't install it.

Anyway, I'm sure she could have installed Flash by herself, thanks to the appropriate page on ubuntu-fr : it gives you a quick overview of the different players, tells you that the adobe one is probably the best choice for now, and gives the command line to install it. This wiki really is great, and that's a major advantage compared to windows : a central documentation repository, explaining in a simple manner how to install, configure and use not only the OS itself, but also the applications. And with linux you can mindlessly copy/paste command lines :) (dangerous, I know, but still useful ; how many times have I struggled to remember how the windows configuration panels look like to give instructions by phone...)

Using Beryl on a fresh Edgy install is as easy as adding repos and installing beryl package:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=26385 1&highlight=beryl (en)
http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/applications/beryl (fr)

With an Ati Radeon 9200, I didn't even have to modify xorg.conf or install any driver, while Mandriva 2007 just told me : "Your graphic card is unsupported, you'll never be able to use 3D desktop"

> I believe the Ubuntu equivalent to PLF is the Multiverse.

Actually, the Ubuntu equivalent to PLF is the PLF:-)
http://wiki.ubuntu-fr.org/doc/plf

I believe the PLF folks are working on a PLF for Ubuntu.

http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/doc/plf
http://placelibre.ath.cx/keyes/index.php/2005/10/1 4/56-plf-ubuntu-meeting-summary

If you don't live in a country where it is legal to use patented/whatever codecs without paying royalties, you can of course still do it at your own risk, which is exactly what you did by doing it in Gentoo, so I fail to see the problem.

FWIW, Debian does include mp3 decoder software (i.e., software that can decode mp3 files to listen to) by default. It takes ca. 5 seconds to know this by googling for debian AND mp3 AND patent AND policy, which brings up this thread as the first link.
This might be too much for a newbie, but you don't qualify because you installed Gentoo. OTOH, a newbie wouldn't even have to google for it, because it works out of the box.

If you mean mp3 encoders (software to produce mp3 files), you are right that they aren't included. It takes 0.29 secs (according to Google) to look for debian AND mp3 AND encoder, which will give you lots of info and debs to download.

I still don't see how you can add MP3 support to KDE when the support has to be compiled into the KDE apps that use it

The wonders of modern software engineering! Did you ever recompile Windows Media Player because you added codecs for ogg, DivX and the 1,000,000 other file formats it can't play out of the box? Thought so.
See, while support might have to be compiled in, to my knowledge all Debian packages do and will gracefully ignore it if the mp3 library is not present. This is true for all proprietary codecs that I am aware of.

If you google for Debian AND codecs or Debian AND "unofficial repository" or Debian AND decss, or whatever, you will see many hits to repositories that you can simply add to /etc/apt/sources list (you can also use, e.g., the newbie-friendly Synaptic). Usually the google hits will include the repository of Christian Marillat or, for Ubuntu, of the Penguin Liberation Front, who provide packages for users who do not live in legally challenged countries. Then just install what you need with Synaptic or apt-get.

If you live in such a country, you can still run a Debian-based distro, Linspire, which will give you mp3 and video codecs as well as a DVD player, all completely legal even in the US, for a small fee. (There is talk about providing Linspire's Click 'n' Run Warehouse for Ubuntu users too). (Don't believe the myth that Linspire runs everything as root, it is not true). Anyway, Xandros gives you nearly the same (sans CSS'ed DVD IIRC)

I hear Automatix is pretty good for settings things up on Ubuntu Just Right (tm): http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=66563

Since I'm running mostly KDE-applications and didn't hear of it before too late, I didn't use this. So I've followed the various HOWTOs for installing proprietary codecs and compiled kmplayer (which is The best player for Linux right now, do yourself a big favour and forget all others), installed Real Player for Linux (found a utility that converted the install-binary into a deb IIRC). My Linux box now plays more formats than my Windows-boxes (mainly because I don't really care about all those formats, it was just so that people would not complain about it).

To compile kmplayer was just an 'apt-get install libkde-dev' (or whatever the KDE-dev package was called) and then 'make && make install'. There are some breezy deb's around, and I made some myself (I like to have everything a deb), but the links didn't work unfortunately.

For the future, the Penguin Liberation Front for Ubuntu is aiming to provide packages not provided in the free / universe / multiverse repositories: http://wiki.ubuntu-fr.org/doc/plf

They didn't have too many packages last time, but enough to put them in sources.list. I will submit my kmplayer deb's to the proper maintainers now that my box is properly set up.

For the simplest installation, I would recommend Automatix though. I've heard alot of good about it, and messing around with all of that yourself takes alot of time and frustration. I mainly see computers as a tool to relieve me of work, but I also like that tool as good as it can be, so I put up with it.