Flexbeta reviews TurboLinux 10f which includes the first commercial Linux DVD player, PowerDVD, along with Microsoft licensed media codecs and the ability to connect with Apple’s iPods.
Turbo Linux 10f Review
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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The default packages are dated, few packages come on the CD, nobody builds turbolinux RPM’s, and the config tools are barely a better solution to just manually editing the files and running modprob yourself.
http://www.flexbeta.net/images/turbolinuxf/netconfig.jpg
The good side is, it comes with PowerDVD, and according to the first 5 pages of the review, it does install, and does come with KDE and Gnome.
“PowerDVD for Linux”
“Very impressive. This is something that neither Mplayer nor Xine will do, even the Windows version of PowerDVD…”
That’s a big milestone in getting Linux to the masses.
“Use or distribution of such technology outside of this product is prohibited…”
The MS fonts license allows use outside Windows if the user owns a Windows license – AFAIK. I wonder if the same applies to the codecs.
“it is nearly impossible to find any website with TurboLinux RPMs”
Why is it that every distro requires or at least appear to require dedicated RPMs? All distro’s use the same kernel and run-time libs. Take something neutral such as mplayer. Why is it that there cannot just be one mplayer rpm that will work on all distro’s?
I did a CTRL-F on every page of his article and found no mention of using the apple IPOD except on the opening paragraph. As far as I knew, there wasn’t a way to use the ipod in linux, yet.
The version of rhythmbox I last tried could talk to my iPod, but it didn’t do any fancy syncing or anything…
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gtkpod/
“Very impressive. This is something that neither Mplayer nor Xine will do, even the Windows version of PowerDVD…”
WTF? What does it do that is so impressing? Play encrypted DVDs? Oh, i can do that with Xine, VLC, MPlayer, Ogle and what else. With Menus. And sourround sound. No matter from what region the DVDs originate. Should i pay for this? Or respect soem stupid laws trying to forbid me to watch a DVD without paying license fees (I’m not sure about this, maybe this law only exists in the united states – would be typical, that’s what they call freedom)?
Assuming i would do so, is PowerDVD distributed alone or only with TurboLinux, what’s the price, and does it support ALSA and JACK audio output or is it already legacy?
He meant that under extreme load (compiling a kernel, transferring 4GB of files at the same time) that PowerDVD didn’t show any visible signs of lagging or stopping.
That’s why it’s impressive.
Lindows has had a comercial DVD player for quite some time.
Xine/decss based