Linked by Massimo Sandal on Thu 7th Jul 2005 20:14 UTC
Recently in a post on my blog I argued that, despite many claims to the contrary, GNU/Linux is almost ready for the desktop. In particular, I argued that GNU/Linux is already a very good and easy desktop if people just take the time to learn its very basic differences with Windows before actually using it. Note: Don't forget to rate this article!
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Windows will not play DVD's out of the box, for the same reason that nearly no Linux distribution does, patent licensing costs. It seems some people don't realize that Windows does not have the codec for DVDs either. However, when you install a DVD player app (or if it comes preinstalled on your system) they normally come with a directshow plugin that allows other apps to play DVDs such as Windows Media Player. The equivalent on Linux is to just install the libdvdcss library which will make most Linux multimedia applications automatically play DVDs as well since they dlopen() the library if it exists to avoid having to be recompiled against it.
I don't have enough experience to comment on MacOS but Windows doesn't have a uniform look and feel either. Some of the most commonly used apps on Windows for example Winamp, iTunes, Norton Systemworks, Office 2003, etc don't follow the standard windows look and feel. You can also run a Windows 16bit app (ie win 3.1) in Windows XP and it looks different too.