'Commercial Partners'

[Naheem Zaffar]

Fedora has its goals, and sould stick to them.

However there is (IMO) a usability case that ESR has identified. If someone
tries to play a MP3 file or some other format that is not supported, there
is a generic error.

What IMO should be done is that the error should be in more detail, eg
mentioning there is no MP3 support atm.

Next there should be a link to Fedoraproject wiki page, where there is some
information about propriety plugins, and their 'evil' in regards to FLOSS,
and about legal floss alternatives (mention ogg etc). But underneath, there
should be solutions for legally viable 'additions'.

There should be the info about the mplug macromedia flash repository, as its
legal, and has redistribution rights. There should also be a link to fluendo
and its free commercial MP3 plugin for Gstreamer. There would be no need to
add information about legally dubious (for the US anyway) repositories.
There could be info for other legal software too.

This way, fedora is always free, does not promote the proprietory software,
but also gives the user a solution when needed.

win/win? (should there be a BZ on this? or is it not feasible due to
something I have missed out?)

ftr, I use fedora because its not encumbered. I add a few bells and
whistles, but not as much as I need to with a fresh Windows install. (even
here it needs top be updated to get the latest wma multimedia support!, and
then add quicktime, real, an anti-virus, anti-sam software, word processor,
flash, java, 7zip or other file compressor/exrtractor, a proper email
client, a bittorrent client, messenger software for each major IM network I
use (I have moved to gaim on windows now. far easierthan having multiple
softwares slowing everything down) and many many others. Its far quicker on
Fedora.)

I am sure if there was a fedora PC reseller, plugins would be added before
it reaches the end user.

Maybe we need some case studies here? give someone a fresh windows install,
and a fresh fedora install. See which requires more effort to get to a
certain point? could be good material for marketing purpoeses?

All in all Fedora is far closer than people think. It has the first 99%, it
just needs the last 99% ;)

I think i have put enough jumbled thoughts into this email :)
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