<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; CHARSET=UTF-8"> <META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="GtkHTML/3.12.0"> </HEAD> <BODY> I don't know what kind of agreement Mandriva/Mandrake has, but their distro will play MP3 files. You still have to download and install libdvdcss in order to play dvd's though. I run a number of different distros on my machines. 5 machines, five different distros, and each one has it's good points and bad points. I have yet to find a distro that is totally perfect. just my 2cents worth Jim On Tue, 2007-03-20 at 12:32 +0100, Ingemar Nilsson wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE> <PRE> Res <<A HREF="mailto:res@ausics.net">res@ausics.net</A>> writes: > Really? Thats why Ubuntu will let me do *anything* I want, and that > means even play mp3's anytime I damned well want without going to > third party repos, I think I know which distro has respect for my > freedom, my freedom to do what I want, play what I want, when I want, The reason why Fedora does not ship codecs for popular media formats such as mp3 and mpeg is not ideological, but legal. Those formats are patented in the United States, and shipping them anyway would expose Fedora and Fedora's parent company Red Hat to greatly increased legal risks. Microsoft just felt that risk, beging forced to hand over 1.2 billion dollars after a court judgement. Also remember that knowingly infringing carries triple damages. Do you actually expect Red Hat to knowingly carry out a gross violation of US law just to satisfy some whining users? Regards Ingemar </PRE> </BLOCKQUOTE> </BODY> </HTML>