I remember 10 years ago I worked for a Linux company and everybody complained that it was a serious pain to get Linux to play DVDs because of some kind of copyrighted/software patented dealimabob where it was illegal for Linux to play DVDs.
Here it is 2010 and I am finally diving into the world of Linux, with Ubuntu–which I’ve heard nothing but great things about. And I have to say, I’m extremely impressed. All those years of saying Linux is “not ready for prime time?” I’m not sure I can even say this. Installing Ubuntu was easier than installing Windows, and this thing is fast and remarkably stable. And very easy to work with, so far.
Except, it appears that it’s 2010 and playing DVDs on Linux is still nightmarishly difficult to arrange. All, according to what I’m reading, because of legal issues and not hardware issues. I’m really surprised. It would appear that playing pirated media would be easier than just sticking a legally purchased DVD into the drive and hitting “play.”
*Update: It took a little research, because they tend to hide the information somewhat to avoid looking like they’re promoting it. The laws on this are rather silly. Once I found the right instructions it was pretty straightforward, although it did require a dip into the command line for a moment which might turn some people off. So far it’s the only thing I’ve run into where I had to do that though.
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I’ve been really pleased with the last few versions of Ubuntu. Even ran great off a bootable USB memory stick. Messing around has been a lot of fun, although haven’t tried DVDs yet, since the spare I have has a dead drive. Hasn’t made on it the primary PC though, since I am too tied into Windows stuff.
The DVD issue has to do with the concept of DRM in an open-source platform. Since there were no DRM-enabled Linux packages for DVD decoding it became necessary to hack past the DVD encryption, which is a clear violation of the DMCA and other really, really short-sighted and stupid laws commonly passed by our twisted excuse for a government over the past twenty years or so.
So yeah, playing a DVD on Ubuntu is pretty much a felony offense. Might as well download a ripped torrent instead.
Oh, and as a long time Windows user and somebody whose bread and butter depends on Microsoft products let me just say Ubuntu seriously rocks. It’s as close to “ready for the desktop” as Linux has ever been.
playing a DVD on Ubuntu is pretty much a felony offense?
To think that I was with someone earlier who was a felon! That might even make me an accomplice!
Scary world.
i tried ubuntu for a while but after finding that it didn’t play nice with my monitor, and having to dive into the command line about 5 minutes after install pushed me to shell out the cash for w7 instead. maybe in 5 years.
So far I haven’t had to dive into the command shell more than once, and that was to type a single command to get DVD movies to play. If I hadn’t wanted to do that I wouldn’t have even had to do that.
Was there some damned good reason they didn’t name it “Linix”, rather than “Linux”? After all, its really an offshoot of Unix, notwithstanding that Linus Whomever was the gent who godfathered it.
(Do I ask picaresque questions, or don’t I?)
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
The guy’s name is Linus.
Document the fix, or add a link…nothing makes me crazy like reading “I finally got it to work.”
FWIW, I set up a new home media center using Ubuntu this weekend. So far I’ve tested XBMC, which is pretty nice, and that might be all I ever test.
Didn’t know anyone else would be interested.
Go into Ubuntu Software Center and install the Restricted Formats package. Then, open a terminal and type this:
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
That’s all it should take if you’re using the latest distro.
That’s the only time I ever had to hit a command line.
You never know what The Goggle will pick up on.
I don’t know how far into it you are, but you might want to take a look at the Netbook Remix. I prefer it over the Desktop…it’s a nice clean interface that’s very obviously not Windows.
I know is name is Linus, Dean. But “L-I-N” + the expected “I-X” would have been perfectly sufficient to honor an otherwise obscure finnish programmer named Linus Torvalds. Who, in any case, owns a patent on the name “Linux” despite that he has contributed only about 2% of the code.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
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