What really is at stake, was: Fedora Core 2 - review.

[Marco Fioretti]

(starting a new thread since this is no more FC specific).

> > I know Red Hat can't support this stuff in Fedora from a legal 
> > point of view, but it is hurting linux adoption IMHO.

To begin with, what matters is the adoption of open formats
and protocols. Linux is just one of the means to achieve that.

> > No matter
> > how much better our alternatives are (like Ogg Vorbis for
> > instance), if we can't support what other people are using,
> > a lot of people simply won't care about how much better our
> > alternatives are.
[snip]
> Case in point:  Betamax VCR's versus VHS.  Beta was better, but
> people didn't switch because they already had VHS...

For the reason above, this example, be it true or not, is irrelevant.
What you could do with Betamax you could with VHS. One or the other
didn't really make any difference with respect to freedom of
expression, equal opportunities, better education, create your own
book/video/blog and talk with it directly to millions of people
without paying or asking permission to a corporation...

Yes, the average Joe on the street still doesn't give a damn, but
at least here we should have clear what the issue is. Which doesn't
limit at all everyone's freedom to disagree or simply ignore it.

So, in case this weren't clear yet, kudos from me to Fedora, Red Hat,
or whoever else who makes a distribution *without* support for MP3
or similar

Ciao,
Marco Fioretti