Desktop Linux: When and how to add proprietary software
Linked by David Adams on Tue 27th Jul 2010 07:35 UTC, submitted by sjvn
Linux Some people hate the idea of adding proprietary software to their desktop Linux. For these people, there are Linux distributions such as gNewSense that use only free software. For the rest of us, who use distributions such as Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu, there are times we either want to, or feel forced to, add proprietary programs such as Adobe Flash or Skype or the ability to play proprietary audio and video formats such as MP3 or commercial DVDs to your Linux desktop. Here's how to do it.
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Zifre
Member since:
2009-10-04

to which Linux is an incredible failure

Not sure where you get this. Product success does not mean that everyone and their dog uses it. Even if it is only 1% (my estimate is about 1.5%), 1% * 1,000,000,000 people = 10,000,000 people. That is hardly insignificant.

and will remain so for years and years to come until some finally realize what a complete waste of their lives they spent.

Hardly. Different people use computers for different things. For me, Windows is a "tinker toy OS" because it doesn't do the things I want it to do, and it's much easier and more efficient for me to use Linux. I certainly wouldn't consider any of my time wasted. I haven't ever had to spend time configuring devices, settings, etc. to get anything to work. On the other hand, I spent days trying to find drivers for all my hardware when I installed Windows 7 (which I've only used to update the firmware on my iPod Touch).

In fact, you are wasting your time trying to convince people not to use software that they already use and like. I'm certainly not going to try to convince you not to use your software. If it works for you, fine.

Many people can and do get real work done on Linux. Many people can and do get work done on Windows or Mac OS X. Wake up, please.

FYI, just because an alternative exists, does not mean it is comparable.

Agreed. I don't think lemur2 has ever even used most of the programs he constantly mentions...

The day most of us decide to recommend some of these idiotic toy apps you always seem to think are equitable is the day we lose our jobs. Fools like you actually believe that something such as that wretched piece of shit called Open Office is actually anywhere comparable to Office. Hell, I would not even compare today's OpenOffice with Office 2003, and we are several iterations beyond that now. And this here is why the delusion will always cause failure. Thinking something is equatable is a hell of a lot different than actually knowing, and more importantly UNDERSTANDING why they are not equatable. Don't even get me started on those CAD programs, what a joke.

It's true that most of those professional apps have more features than the OSS ones. But most people don't ever come close to using all those features (and most people don't even use CAD apps, etc. to begin with).

Sure, MS Office might be nicer than OpenOffice, but you honestly can't tell me that the average person using MS Office could not use OO. (For businesses, that's another matter though. Many businesses do use those advanced features.)

Edited 2010-07-29 16:28 UTC

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