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Nero Burning for Linux
ceasol writes "The German company Nero, developers of the award-winning Nero Burning ROM suite for Windows, now release a free version for Linux called NeroLINUX a CD/DVD Burning Software, and include many features from the Windows version. This software is proprietary but free if you registered." The OEM versions of Nero that come with many CD burners aren't sufficient, though; NeroLINUX is free-as-in-beer only if you've registered "a full version of Nero software version 6 or higher," or a "retail version or downloaded version."
So it's not free as in speech or free as in beer. It's more like free as in carbonation.
A Nero keygen for Linux.
Other than the fact that you don't have to type cryptic commands?
You have to remember - there are three kinds of Linux users. Those who want to keep usability down to try to impress themselves by using it, those who want to increase usability so that their grandmothers can use it, and your grandmother. The majority of users are not members of the first group. Incidentally, the majority of users also do not assume a moniker derived from women's clothing.
Never having used Nero on Windows, are there advantages to using Nero on Linux?
It seems, that cdrecord and k3b (or xtoaster) does everything I need
It adds a choice. And Linux is all about choices, is not it? I hope it is part of a trend. You do not have to use it. K3B is fine for me for example. But you could, if you want to.
Now, tell me, what exactly would I want Nero for?
It's only value is that it includes a comprehensive point&click interface, but even though it's stuffed with features, it can't beat the existing, free tools.
Unless you're a Windows user who wants a program he's familiar with, there is no reason to even look at it. Plus, it's not even free-as-beer, as you need to pay for a full, registered version of Nero for Windows.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Would you like to open your beloved OperatingSystem to the mainstream, would you want to see it become a real alternative to Windows, with commercial and proprietary applications?
Then put your comments ("they rather release the source, k3b is a lot better, I want to compile this shit under gentoo") where the sun doesn't shine. Mainstream and real competetion equals to commercial stuff (and the author of this message thinks this is GOOD).
Or do you prefer to stay geekie? Sugar-coke, kernel-hacks, geek-elitism, no sunlight, no showers, spots (and clearasil), jokes about years old bsd-girl-daemon-pics? Then let them know it (and greet the openbsd community in that case).
Decide for yourself.
Cut the free software crap. This is a mainstream company willing to take pay-per-use apps on Linux seriously.
Don't forget that the OS itself is pretty much commodity. Its the apps that count, and for a mature and *decent* app to make it to Linux is important news.
I misread this the first time through and thought it was saying a free version was available for Linux -- and didn't see the part about you had to have a registered Windows version. Even without the extra gotcha, this made me realize how important free (as in speech) software is to me.
I started using Linux somewhere around 1998, and moved everything (except compatibility testing) around 2000/2001. Since then I learned how to add almost any program or game I wanted with rpm -ivh {package_name}, then urpmi {package_name}, and now apt-get install {package_name}. It's not just the ease of use, but knowing that it is available, to me and anyone who wants it, that I can modify it or pay to have it modified, that I can help debug it, and even suggest new features.
I (mis)read this story and my first thoughts were, 1) Why bother, I've got programs that do almost all, to 2) But it's hard to do some of the DVD authoring that Nero will help with, to 3) But Nero controls it.
That's when I realized how important FOSS is to me and my company. I hadn't realized that I actually avoid commercial software now, and prefer FOSS, since I can make bug reports, make suggestions, and even modify if I need to. I also realized I do NOT want software (any more) that another company controls and can decide to remove from the market, or bastardize so it's no longer the program I liked. If it's FOSS, I know I'll almost always be able to find an older version if I need it, and that I can always locate it and re-install it easily if it gets horked.
So let Nero do what they want. I know in a year or two we'll see better DVD authoring under Linux (and eventually even see professional video editing in FOSS). This story helped me realize I can no longer deal with paying for software with fewer freedoms than that which apt-get installs for me. I don't want software someone else has total control over. (Okay, well maybe Myst and it's sequals, but we all know games are another story...)
Despite there being open source burning programs, I think it is positive to see commercial desktop software being developed for Linux.
I am not trying to say Nero is better/worse than the alternatives, but now there is an additional alternative -- and software companies focusing on desktop apps are starting to take a Linux desktop more seriously.
Well, the very first time I burned a CD, it took me way less time to get mkisofs to do what I want and then burn it than it takes me every time I see a new version of Nero.
A well-thought CLI program is often more convenient the first time you use it. In the case of mkisofs, the "synopsis" at the very start of the manpage is enough for the typical use. On the other hand, it's pretty non-obvious to guess what do I need to choose to burn the damn files in a badly-designed thing like Nero.
And this applies to the first-time use. For the subsequent, you can't really beat the CLI.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Before discovering K3B, a CD/DVD burning software was the main thing I was missing under Linux. K3B is nice, but Nero (at least under Windows) had a lot more options.
I thought Nero fiddled while Linux burned.
This has already been discussed to death on osnews.com and fedoraforum.org
Essentially it is using the GnomeToaster GUI under license (not GPL) with a Nero API/drivers backend.
It's closed source and doesn't include Nero Recode (aka DVD Shrink) or anything other than Nero Burning ROM.
#include <sig.h>
If a commercial software vendor doesn't support linux people bitch. If a commercial software vendor does support it people bitch that the software isn't GPL. If the software gets GPL'd, people bitch that it hasn't been ported to their distros of choice.
And then the linux community wonders why so few companies bother to code for linux.
It only supports .nra, though.
I didn't realize Charlton Heston owned Nero stock...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
NeroLINUX uses NeroAPI for low-level operations (burn process) (FTA)
It is one thing to just do most of the same things, but how you do them is the real issue. In that respect, Nero is still much farther ahead than K3B. That isn't to say that K3B is a bad product, in fact for most of my needs it is great. Nero for Windows is a very aggressively designed and updated product. It supports basically every burner out there, every type of media, burns any type of disk (VCD, SVCD, DVD movie, data, music, etc) and is just... solid and slick in how it does stuff.
Again, it's not that K3B isn't competitive. It certainly is, but it's not there yet. Nero for Linux appears to be identical in its UI to the Windows version so it's another great way to bridge Linux and Windows. The bottom line is that it is very good, many people have it because it comes with many burners and having it on Linux will be another program that people who are wont to not learn how to use their computer will be able to say, "oh I know that program" that is part of their semi-daily use.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
You want companies to support linux, yet when they do you bash their stuff! (you know who you are)
Kudo's to Ahead for making a software product particularly targeted for Linux! Looking at their site, I see that it SUPPORTS a number of kernel versions and distributions.
Hmm, I bet corporate customers are really fond of software that has some form of customer support besides newsgroups!
Just because flavor-of-the-week-open-source-burner-software works great for you doesnt mean that it will work great for companies! It also doesnt mean we should bash the existence of that choice. Companies *will* pay money to improve consistancy and to reduce variability. A known cost is better than an unknown cost. Unsupported (or community) software is an unknown cost. Most companies would rather pay the known cost (maintenance) than deal with the unknown.
(Yes that was a blanket statement. In some cases, the cost can be quantified a bit better for some of these unsupported/community supported softwares and with such knowledge you can significantly reduce the variability. Generally this fits tools that are almost defacto standards like Apache and what not.)
I like to think of it this way... its one more option available on Linux that you can also find in the Windows world, making it one more item which can be checked off in the "why [some company] scared to transition to linux" list.
The audience for Nero is a Windows convert who was familiar with Nero's interface on that other OS and doesn't care that there are existing GPL tools and GUI frontends to burn discs.
I understand the necessity of promoting non-restricted open source software, but things like this are a plus for Linux, particularly if we are holding out any chance that it will start to make serious waves on the desktop.
Parent post is not flamebait. It was a general comment on how uncustomizable the Gnome GUI is. When you can't do so much as change your mouse cursor from the preferencess window and have to re-point your /etc/alternatives/x-mouse-cursor to a new theme file instead, things are very wrong.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
Software Products: Object of this agreement is the Nero software suite, comprising a selection of components, that varies with different suite types, from the following list: Nero Burning ROM, NeroMIX, WMA-Plug-in, InCD, Nero StartSmart, Nero Toolkit, Nero Cover Designer, Nero Wave Editor, Nero SoundTrax, Nero BackItUp, Nero ImageDrive, Nero Media Player, Nero ShowTime, InCD Reader, Nero PhotoShow Express, Nero Recode, Nero Fast CD-Burning Plug-In, NeroVision Express and/or Nero Express ("Software")"
If you look at the very first paragraph you will notice a list of software products that it covers, NeroLinux is *NOT* one of pieces of software covered by that license, making your whole point irrelevant to the discussion on NeroLinux (this does not mean I support the DRM in the windows version).
Definitely a good tool for those who have vid burning windows addicts in their household. I may finally have a shot at converting my wife over to the 'dark side' of burning vids on her windows station...time to switch the myth server inittab to default:5.
Ah...but this is slashdot...nitpicking(TM) is mandatory. Well, it'd be nice if the Nero folks provided at least a basic level of support for the linux side. I'd bet there's people in their support arm who'd be happy to work with an OS they can really troubleshoot for a change.
I imagine that this would also help those with a phobia of new software, as this would be one more application that would be the same for them under both Linux and Windows (similar to Firefox, or OpenOffice, etc).
Now, I'll admit I haven't used Nero (or Windows) in several years on any of my computers, but from using K3b these days, I can't see anything that it is lacking that Nero might provide. Has anybody used both apps recently (NeroLINUX would be an even better comparison) and can comment on how they compare?
Overall, I'd say this is good for those on Windows now who are considering switching to Linux, and of lesser consequence to those already using Linux.
Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!
Seems like the only way to get the linux version is to purchase the windows version.
What if someone doesn't have any windows boxes? Is it that tough to make it available to purchase directly??
I'm glad they've done this. The more products that are ported natively to Linux, the better in my opinion. They just need to stop tying it to their windows products.
H.
When VCR's are outlawed, only outlaws will have VCR's.
You all tout desktop linux like it's in the near future, then when a company brings a trusted name over to the linux desktop, all you see are complaints about how it's not free.
How about stop whining and give them a little support. Nero has been around on windows desktops for quite a while. Not that it's going to be the app that makes 2 million users stand up and switch, at least it's a start. People can now use their 'favorite burning application on linux' if in fact that is their favorite.
The point is joe schmoe doesn't even know what cdrdao is, nor does he want to learn another application. Yet, you say linux is destined for the desktop? I say bullshit. It's not destined for anything.
The biggest hurdle to Desktop Linux, is the current users of linux themselves.
But could we please call Ahead Software by their name instead of calling the company Nero? The product by Ahead Software is Nero. Yes, Nero was their original and sole product for a long time. I believe it was originally written by one guy. The company now has revenues exceeding $30 million a year.
Listen people, whenever a commercial application is ported over to Linux it is good for the effort to get Linux on the desktop. It doesn't matter if there are already command line tools out there that will do the same thing. So what? Yeah there are graphical front ends available for these command line tools available...but once again, so what? If they support linux, I have to support them. If you prefer FOSS applications, that's cool. But we need the commercial applications as well and this is one of the best commercial applications out there. (Plus you get legal codes as well. Something that ought to wipe out afew potential legal problems in the future.) Personally, I don't see why all of you people are crying and moaning. It seems like whenever a commercial company brings stuff over to Linux people do nothing but badmouth it and go on about an open-source solution that isn't as "full-featured" or "intuitive" as the commercial application. From what I have seen of the behavioof most of the people who have commented about this here and in other places. There are a whole lot of fan-boys who talk a fine game about "Desktop Linux for the Masses" Most of them simply want Linux to stay a fringe operating system so they can all argue about KDE/Gnome, play with your command lines, and spit on normal computer users with a disrespectful, elitist attitude. Mod me a troll for this post if you want to...but in the end it is about "choice" Nero has just given me an additonal "choice" That is a good thing.
Requiem
This is the kind of attitude that is keeping commercial software companies off Linux.
Yes, most of the needs of the FOSS/Linux/BSD community are taken care of by the FOSS community and a whole variety of free software, so much so that most opportunities/markets are saturated.
However, when a well-recognized company tries to enter the Linux market, it faces comments such as the parent's. Why would any commercial software company take the Linux community seriously, as a potential market, when the Linux community does not take them seriously, unless it is free?
So NeroLinux is not free. Perhaps it is worse than GnomeBaker and K3B. But at least they recognize the Linux community. Encouraging Nero to try harder, rather than posting trollish comments about how it's not free and not as good as other software, would do more to help Linux's image in the corporate world.
After all, the FOSS community is not the be-all and end-all of software development.
It is actually using a GTK1 interface. There doesn't seem to be anything that would be incentive enough to buy it. If only it were GTK2 however... but anyways, I use K3B.
Are you used to using the command line? If so, probably that made the difference.
/dev/acd0, but the warning in the intro paragraphs make me wonder about this. I am confused about the filenames that will appear on the CD; it looks like mkisofs will truncate them to 8.3 format unless you use -I, but is this using Joliet extensions or just using ISO9660 to its fullest? I still have absolutely no clue how to make and audio CD (and don't even know what tool I would use to do so). I'm thinking that unless I spend a long time crafting that include file for the -i option, which "doesn't work very well", I'll need to make a copy (or at least symbolic links) of all my files in another directory because I essentially never make a CD based off just a single directory structure.
Because I *never* had any problems at all getting Nero (v. 5) to work, even the first time. Click the "new CD" button (in the same location that the new document is in every other GUI ever made), pick the type of CD you want, drag the files you want from the hard drive window to the new window that represents the CD, click the "write CD" button or choose "write CD" from the file menu, click burn.
I never had to look in any documentation to figure out how to do anything that wasn't pretty complicated.
After reading the ENTIRE mkisofs man page, I still don't know if I know how to actually write the ISO to the CD, I just have a pointer to look at cdwrite and this -o option that sounds like I can add
I'm not trying to judge you our your opitions, I'm just trying to show that there are very legitimate reasons why someone will prefer a GUI. They are almost universally easier to use than text tools, as you have to go to documentation to figure out how to do things with text tools whereas you can poke around for a minute or two with a GUI. (I'm talking Unix style text tools here, not like NCurses stuff, or even programs that present you with a series of text menus.)
Of course, there are legitimate reasons for liking a command line too. It's scriptable. You can set it up to do repetitive tasks automatically. (Not very useful for CD burning since you still need to put in new CDs, but this is an exception to the rule.) If you know what you're doing, it's often faster than a GUI. (Though again, I can essentially gurantee I can find files in a graphical tree much faster than with a command line, especially for something like CD backups where I'm looking in many of the directories to see if there's anything I need to archive. This is again an exception to the general case.)
But to say that a CLI program is more convenient or that you're better off with a CLI is nothing more than your personal opinion.
If they are offering inferior software at a greater price than the competition, they cannot really complain if their product is not greeted with rapturous approval. When you consider that freedom is more important than free for many GNU/Linux users, the arrival of a non-free, inferior product will not make much impact.
It is good that companies are taking notice of GNU/Linux, but if they want to make an impact their software should be superior to that which currently exists or free. Or both.
flossie
Write now. Defend liberty
Nero would have better spent their time and $$$ distributing k3b, cdrecord, cdrdao and all. Those are free as in beer and speech, already work just fine with almost any burner, and they're already there (as opposed to Nero having to roll their own).
Isn't Linux about everyone using what suits them, and everyone having a choice? Did Nero have a choice? Yeps. They made Nero for Linux.
I've been using Linux for ages, and I mostly use console + WindowMaker. Guess what - k3b won't work on WM. GnomeWhatever? Same story. And so on, and so on.
Anyway, kudos to Nero.
I used to pay $20 (or was it $25?) for OSS Yamaha sound-card driver, years ago. I didn't mind doing it. If NeroLINUX works well, I won't mind paying for it either. If Total Commander shows up for Linux tomorrow, they'll be getting my money.
I don't use Linux because I want everything for free (although it would be nice). If you use Linux because of that, then skip commenting on this article, since it's obviuosly not intented for you.
the ultimate step to Linux on the desktop would be some nice and warm adware - something that would pop up dozens of Windows at random times, all from nasty apps compiled against the commercial version of QT. :D Oh, and of course, it would break through your Linux firewall and recompile a modified Linux kernel behind your back. Does that sound nice already?
I also think it's pretty damn cool that despite all of the cool front-ends out there, basically just a handful of the same utilities are used.
I can think of a few things that the current linux combos of those utils can't accomplish, however, at least the last time I looked into each one:
- Writing clone-cd image files. Many off-site archival backups of Playstation games come in this format. There is no native linux utility of which I'm aware that can handle these. In any case, it's a bullshit format - the very good Windows utility CDMage can convert them to bin/cue format, which cdrdao-using programs can then burn. The conversion works 100% of the time, and CDMage runs in linux via WINE very well - still, this is an extra and time-consuming step...
- Writing cd+g (or is it +eg?) formats - Karoke cd's, that is. I wonder if Nero can do this?
- Writing an mp3 file on the fly in DOA mode. I haven't tested the DAO mode in cdrecord - but in my experience, most front-ends use cdrdao to burn DAO, and cdrdao can't be fed an input-stream (last I checked, anyway), because it needs a cue file as well as the bin-data. So, you must convert the mp3 files into waves first and then burn them in DAO mode. If you use cdrecord with a pipe (or a front end) to do this in real time, the result will be TAO.
So I for one welcome some new blood/competition (sorry, no 'overlords' joke), assuming Nero will write code from mostly-scratch (which I don't know because I didn't RTFA). BTW, I thought the Windows version of Nero ran under WINE, so this might be a way to handle some of the above anyway.dahlek (will you squirm when you are pecked
I'm using Fedora Core 3, after installing the RPM it gave a series of warnings about an unsupported OS, which I fully ignored and it ran fine.
It's about as easy and logical to use as older versions of nero (5 and below) though this is just my own opinion having installed it 15 minutes ago.
K3B I think is better from a useability point. Again, my own opinion. YMMV.
I took a look at the web site, and clicked on the "buy" link. There's no way that I can just buy Nero for Linux. Either they haven't updated their web site completely, or they want to make me buy Nero for Windows in order to get Nero for Linux.
That, as Milton Friedman would say, distorts the commmunication that one's purchases constitute in a free market. I don't want Nero for Windows--I don't use Windows (save at work, under duress). I have no use for Nero for Windows...but there's no way I can communicate that to Nero with my money, the way they have it set up.
Well, this is my history with CD burning. When I first did it I was a Windows user and naturally used GUI programs to burn my CDs. It was OK I couldn't complain.
Then I made teh switch to Linux and tried a couple GUI CD burning applications and hated them. I was so relieved when I found how easy the two step process of mkisofs and cdrecord was on the CLI that that's all I used for a long time.
Then I discovered k3b. I don't use KDE, but I really like the ease of use that k3b provides, so I've switched back from CLI to GUI.
Nero may be fine, I don't use it.
...
However
Nero Express, the OEM version (which is probably
the same as the Linux free version) is a piece of crap!
I've been working on burning some CDs at work using Nero's OEM version. I've begged them to let me use Linux to burn them. Each CD has 8-14,000 files. This just buries the CD burning software and loads the system to 100% usage. I've literally spent HOURS babysitting this process just to burn one CD, then I have to reboot the machine to burn another one.
I've suggested zipping them into a single file, but no go.
I wouldn't take Nero Software to burn CDs under Linux if they paid me!
I routinely burn backups to my Linux CDRW containing 10s of thousands of files and I don't spend hours doing it.
The problem here is that the marketing sucks. Maybe it is a better program than GnomeBaker and K3B, but who would know? There is no demo available, no screenshots, and you can't even buy it directly.
Eventually, Nero will probably blame their bad product/marketing on the attitude (or lack of) Linux users, and will leave the Linux market. It has happened before, it will happen again.
I hope that Nero and other companies wake up and realize that Linux users do not need them, they need Linux users. For this reason, they must cater to the user's needs. This is a product which caters to no one's need, thus it will fail. Come out with new and great products which Linux users actually want and would pay for, market it well, and get a return on your investment.
Linux users want screenshots, trial versions (if not open source), and most importantly -- a unique and interesting product! Don't give us a list of features and assume that we will be brand conscious -- especially if we don't know your brand! Don't forget that your brand means nothing if you're in a completely new market. This is your first impression and you've blown it. Sorry, insert quarters and try again.
Not all Linux users, I'm afraid, are geeks, and know what K3B is. Aunt Tilly isn't going to run and learn K3B because it's there. She's going to go with something she knows, and that's the target market.
I can't blame Nero for leaving because of the attitude of Linux users. It was the point I was trying to make. However, as many *nix developers realized, Linux needs corporate support too, and the more support it gets from software developers, the more appealing it will be as a platform.
Linux needs software houses like Nero as much as Nero needs the Linux market, if not more. Ever wonder why more software companies cater to Mac than to Linux?
I am one of those Windows users who has spent a lot of time looking at Linux distros but has yet to commit. I am studying for those basic certifications I need to be taken semi-seriously and recognize the need to move to Linux for reasons both personal and professional. I have spent the money on Nero Ultra Edition for the sake of having a lot of stable tools beneath the fairly unattractive interface.
Being able to keep (some of) these tools while I move on to greener pastures will make life just a little easier, and I will feel that my money was better spent.
There is no demo available, no screenshots, and you can't even buy it directly.
Here's one out of three... NeroLinux Screenshots
Bob
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