Adventures in Codec Land

We've all been there.
The shiny new PC is loaded with the latest Linux distribution.
The desktop has been tweaked, system updates sorted, data imported and packages downloaded.
It's time to play some tunes, kick back a bit, watch a film or check out the latest movie trailers online.
But your beloved MP3 collection won't play.
Your collection of ripped DVDs – films you legally own – look like parts I, II and III of that classic non-existentialist French trilogy, L'Espace Noir.
And you're really beginning to understand the meaning of the word 'teaser' on Apple's movie trailers website.
Welcome to Codec Land.
The difficulty associated with multimedia playback in Linux has to be one of the greatest stumbling blocks for users looking to switch from Microsoft Windows.
They're used to a computing world where multimedia files just play, whatever the format.
With this in mind, I decided to look at the different Linux approaches to solving the problem – and there are quite considerable differences.
Let's start with a fresh install of Fedora 8.
Now, anyone familiar with Fedora and its strict adherence to non-free software rules will know what's coming.
Basically, if a proprietary or non-free (in the GNU/Linux sense) codec is required to play your file, it won't be in your default Fedora install.
This means Fedora user have to scrabble around installing browser plugins for Flash and Quicktime, MP3 and DVD codecs.
I'm assuming, by the way, that watching Apple movie trailers, YouTube videos, playing MP3s, watching DVDs and listening to – in the UK at least – live BBC radio streams, covers the most commonly used multimedia formats.
But to return to Fedora 8 and a distinct change of tack.
No, there are still no codecs included, but there's something called Codec Buddy, which is a codec installer.
Codec Buddy directs you to the website of Barcelona-based company Fluendo, where you can download all the multimedia codecs you need in one package costing 28 euros (that's £20 or about $38).As a teaser, the standalone MP3 plugin is free - though you must register your name, address and telephone number to get it.
I installed the yum version of the MP3 plugin with just two simple instructions and it worked perfectly with songs played in the default Rhythmbox music player.
This change in Fedora 8 is an interesting, welcome compromise.
There's surely something major going on when one of the most virulently anti-proprietary distributions finally recognises that users want to be able to play what they like on their PCs, not what a licence says they can.
Of course, Fedora aren't the only people troubled by such compromises.
Take Mandriva, for example, and their scattergun approach.
Mandriva 2008 One, a free, installable liveCD, contains all the non-free bits and pieces like the multimedia codecs, Flash player, Sun's Java, NVIDIA and ATI proprietary drivers and so on.
But they also produce Mandriva 2008 Free, pretty much the same OS, minus the proprietary codecs.
And then there's Mandriva 2008 Power Pack, which includes third-party proprietary software like LinDVD, Cedega, the Fluendo multimedia codecs and Flash Player.
This one you have to buy, of course.
It's a minefield for those with a strong sense of codec guilt, isn't it?
And PCLinuxOS doesn't help clarify things, either.
This most excellent distribution is able to play MP3s, WMAs, Ogg, MP4s, AVIs, WMVs, and MOV files from the get-go.
You're also able to view Java, Flash, YouTube and Mplayer-related content via Firefox.
It draws the line, however, at including the win32-codecs and libdvdcss2 library (for decoding protected DVDs) – yet these are easily available in the repositories!
The developers of Ubuntu worried the codecs problem to death for a while back there, before coming up with a different compromise.
You don't get any restricted multimedia drivers with your default Ubuntu 7.10 install, but they're all just a short apt-get away.
If you're interested, [apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras], will get you all you need to play MP3s, DVDs, Flash, Quicktime, WMA and WMV, and embedded browser content.
And then you come to dear old Vector Linux, who really throw the cat among the pidgins (sorry, geek humour!).
I'm a huge Vector fan and, if I'm being honest, it's the out-of-the-box experience that does it for me – that, and the lightning-quick speed.
I'm also uncomfortably aware that by lauding the Vector approach I'm doing nothing to help the cause of truly free, Open Source software.
Of course there are many more distributions who do – and don't – follow the Vector path, with varying degrees of angst and brow-beating.
This is only right and proper in a world where principles really matter – but where choice has always been just as important.