Man, I swear. Before I get a chance to review a distro indepth, more and more keep getting released. I’ve been hearing interesting things about Ubuntu and how easy it is to install extra multimedia codecs. It shouldn’t be surprising, considering that Canonical has a partnership with Linspire. Also, in a move that doesn’t surprise me at all, Windows XP is getting the ax in 2008. That means that people used to Windows can’t run from Vista forever, and that is truly unfortunate.
Speaking of foolishness, Jack Schofield has written a hit piece on the OGG format. He incorrectly states that it is unkown as to whether it violates patents or not. Here’s a hint: It doesn’t! Not at all. In fact, it is patent free, and the GPL license essentially prevents anybody from patenting to the codec, so it will never become proprietary software. The only problem with OGG is marketing, or the lack thereof, which will be addressed in the near future. Mr. Schofield needs to keep in mind however, that not everybody uses portable audio players.
Now considering that Enterbrain’s RPG MakerXP uses OGG Vorbis audio files as well as lego Star Wars, I’d say that this guy doesn’t completely understand how OGG is superior to MP3 and closed codecs. You say let it die, I say screw you!
Also, screw you too, Novell! It’s easy to slam another distributor, Red Hat, when you have a billion dollar corporation behind you (with a knife, unbeknownst to you), isn’t it? I’m not running SuSE ever again thanks to what you have done to the FOSS community: stab it in the back. Microsoft doesn’t want interoperability in the end. Don’t you get it? They’re going to screw you too, just like you screwed the rest of us!
Finally, only one person has appeared to have taken me up on my Vista Challenge. Building a custom system probably takes some time as does shipping, so we’ll see what happens in a couple of weeks. For everyone else, c’mon! What are you waiting for? This is your big chance to convert me to a Windows Vista user. If you want me to try it out so badly, then all you have to do is simple: buy me a new machine with Vista Ultimate (legally licensed!) and send it to me. I wait with baited breath. 😉