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Commercial DVD Software Comes to Linux
timekillerj writes "Turbolinux launched a new version of it's Linux distribution today. The key feature is the first commercial DVD player, provided by Cyberlink. PowerDVD for Linux supports menu navigation, Dolby Digital sound, subtitles, and more."
I think I'd prefer non-commercial software, please...
69.00 dollars? No source code?
Plonk!
So are Slashdotters going to thank the MPAA for addressing one of the Linux community's concerns? Nope, they're going to piss and moan about what's wrong with this particular piece of software.
I'd submit that this is a big reason why software companies don't want to embrace the Linux market. No matter how good the software they produce is, Linux users aren't going to be happy unless it's free (speech) and free (beer).
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
BTW you probably will be able to get linux from major distros that comes without commercial software. Mandrake has a normal version, and also a Powerpack version (and others as well), and the main difference is that the powerpack comes with commercial software, and the normal version doesn't. If you don't want the commercial software, then buy the normal one (or download the free download edition).
I'm not sure how other distros handle this, because I've never used another distro. Yeah, I know, I'm not an official geek unless I've tried at least 5 distros... But I got mandrake working, ok? I don't have much free time. If it's not broken, don't fix it, right?
At any rate, I don't think that we will lose the possibility of having a geek OS; we'll just have choices for what type of linux we want.
That's what's so great about linux, IMO. You can pay more to get an easy to use linux, or pay less if you don't have much money and can figure it out, or like to have the challenge.
Once upon a time, a gallant InterVideo boasted a proposition to release LinDVD. LinDVD, being a port of their WinDVD software for Linux, during a time when the legalities were clouded and MPAA stomped through the land.
If there was a time, to justify a commerical DVD player for the OpenSource community, InterVideo dropped the ball years ago. Why buy PowerDVD? Some might take this and use it as an example, right or wrong, to prove a point of how inefficient, slow, backwards and ignorant todays management techniques are. I firmly believe Xine is just as good as any of the highest priced DVD players for Windows/Mac. Why isn't it? It navigates DVD menus, it plays the movies well. For such a software package, that's it everything else will just sit infront of the movie and be annoying, like some child in the back seat asking "are we there yet?" over and over again.
All the money companies spend. It's a waste, they spend billions trying to keep up with social trends, billions trying to predict market progress, all down the toilet.
The wide availability of free open source software has spoiled a lot of us. I mean...when it comes down to it, I don't LIKE to pay for software, because I don't have a lot of money. However, if I see a product that I like, and also works well, I don't mind paying for it.
Case in point: I use FreeBSD, and I have a SBLive 5.1 sound card, with a SPDIF output. If I were in Windows, Creative's drivers allow me to use the SPDIF output without any trouble. However, FreeBSD's stock pcm driver, while adequate, doesn't support SPDIF output on the 4-STABLE kernel tree. I routinely had to switch between analog and digital output for sound.
I'd used oss in Linux a while back, so I downloaded the FreeBSD build and gave it a whirl. The trial copy worked great, so I bought a license.
Granted, I didn't want to spend any money, but it did exactly what I wanted it to do, and some. So I consider that a worthwhile investment.
I think it's understandable to have reservations about paying money for software owned by Big Evil Corporations(tm), because you don't want to feed the beast. However, when it comes to development on open source and free open source platforms, if the developers aren't getting paid, new features aren't going to be appearing magically. Having software that's free (in terms of beer and speech) may mean that you don't have to pay MONEY for it, but you still should be contributing something.
For my part, I can't write code for crap. I've made several attempts to learn C, but they generally result in disaster. Since I can't contribute patches back to developers, I don't mind buying boxed copies of the software, or books, to help pay for development.
I think its a good thing that more commercial software is starting to become availible on Linux. Who cares if it doesn't have source code. I think one of the reasons companies are reluctant to release applications on Linux is that perception that all Linux apps have to be free and have source code included. Linux may be open source, but that doesn't mean all Linux apps have to be. If Linux users actually start paying for software, and stop bitching about source code, you might actually see some major titles being ported.