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

[Dotan Cohen]

On 18/04/07, Jesse Keating <jkeating at redhat.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 18 April 2007 05:31:30 Arthur Pemberton wrote:
> > +1 this seems deserving of answer. I like Fedora, use it all the time,
> > and so rarely need a liveCD. And I am finding it harder to suggest
> > Fedora to newbies. The LiveCD doesn't seem like that's going to
> > change. I''m simply not suggesting any Linux since I'm only familiar
> > with Fedora. The LiveCD certainly has a cool factor. But in the
> > hypothetical scenario of a perfect LiveCD, what are the benefits? What
> > are the hypothetical use cases of said perfect Live Fedora?
>
> No software is perfect, and surprise you can use yum from the LiveCD to add
> more software.
>
> There are plenty of usage cases outside the "I want to listen to mp3s" crowd.
>

Very common workflows (or playflows) include the following:

1) Web browsing: the viewing of HTML pages
2) Email: the downloading, display, and sending of electronic mail
3) Chatting: communicating with other humans via one (or more) or the
following chat protocols: yahoo, msn, icq
4) Listening to audio: the playback of mp3 files
5) Watching video: the playback of mpg, avi, and wmv files
6) Viewing pictures: the display of jpeg files
7) Word Processing: creating, editing, and display of text documents
in txt, rtf, and doc formats
8) Spreadsheet: creating, editing, and display of spreadsheets in excel format

I'm sure there's more that I missed. But these are examples of the
most basic functions that any computer (and operating system) are
expected to perform. If an OS cannot do any of these, then it is not
adequate for general use. Fedora is thus bound by law to be inadequate
for general use out of the box. That is easily fixed by those in the
know, but not by a passer-by who downloads the distro (or LiveCD) and
plays around with it.

Again I ask: to whom is the official LiveCD aimed at? I do not think
that Redhat can (legally) produce a LiveCD suitable for the general
public. Rather, this is better left to the community, who are not
bound by such restrictive laws, and can legally create and distribute
such a disk. The only question for Redhat is should Redhat allow the
community to use the Fedora name on the disk.

Dotan Cohen

http://technology-sleuth.com/short_answer/why_are_internet_greeting_cards_dangerous.html
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