Illegal Codecs Put Me Off Linux

“OK, I’ll be honest with you, the more I use Linux, the more I’m
warming to it. In fact, the more exposure I have to the latest
Ubuntu distro (7.04, Feisty Fawn) the more I want to integrate it
into my existing ecosystem of PCs. I’m especially interested in
rolling out Ubuntu onto older PCs and notebooks where installing
Windows will put too much of a strain on the hardware. But there’s
one aspect of Ubuntu, and Linux in general for that matter, that’s
putting me off. This is the fact that to play a DVD or use WMA/WMV
files I have to install codecs that are technically illegal to
use.

“Linux has a number of really strong points that go beyond the
price (reliability, ease of use and low hardware requirements to
name but a few), but the operating system falls short when it comes
to legally supporting file formats such as MP3, WMA/WMV and DVDs.
It’s not that you don’t have support for these formats available,
it’s that adding support means entering into some really shady
legal territory…”

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