Why is Fedora a multimedia disaster? - Here is why.

[Dotan Cohen]

On 19/04/07, Rahul Sundaram <sundaram at fedoraproject.org> wrote:
> Dotan Cohen wrote:
> > User friendliness is the least friendly of several measurements. As
> > Fedora now stands, the limiting agent in Fedora user friendliness is
> > the (lack of) multimedia support. It's not a coincidence that that is
> > the title of this thread.
>
> The original subject was not about proprietary codecs at all.
>
>   It's
> > the implementation that I disagree with, not the policy.
>
> Policy determines implementation. We won't include proprietary software
> and if that affects usability we can't solve the problem in all
> instances. This is the constraint that we work with and we have made it
> very explicit.
>
> > Not the need, but the purpose and implementation. If it's implemented
> > as FC7 test1 (the latest I have been priveleged to play with, please
> > excuse me if the point is not valid for test3) then it is a bad
> > implementation and should be addressed. It's more critical in a LiveCD
> > than the install distro as the LiveCD is more accessible to
> > (potential) new users.
>
> Test 1 is very much outdated and you should know better than using it as
> a starting point of discussion. Hopefully you have filed bugs for
> whatever problems you came across rather than just calling it bad.  Use
> a more recent revisions and if you want to discuss problems with it sign
> up in fedora-test list and continue there. This is the wrong forum for
> that.
>
> > We can not deter them by identifying the most popular usage
> > [work|play]-flows and making them possible with no
> > googling/asking/prior knowledge/searching. Only click-click-click.
> > It's possible, as [k]Ubuntu has proven. It's even possible given the
> > legal requirements imposed on Redhat. It just needs to be done
>
> It's not always possible. Ubuntu is already include proprietary kernel
> drivers by default and plans to do more in future versions. This is not
> something we are ever going to do in Fedora. If that leaves usability
> gaps end users will have to live with that in some instances.
>
> This discussion has turned no useful points at all and I am stopping at
> this stage. If you have anything useful to say further please contact me
> offlist and don't reply here. Thanks.
>
> Rahul
>

As per Rahul's request, the conversation is being continued in private.