linuxaudio.org

On Sun, 2006-01-15 at 17:14 -0500, Dave Phillips wrote:

quoted text
> Lee Revell wrote:

>

> >Personally I think it's a losing battle to ask Windows users to use

> >anything but WMP.  Like it or not MP3 is the standard.  We need to make

> >MP3 "Just Work" on Linux.

> >

> >

> What's the problem ? Is there a lack of MP3 players for Linux ?

> 

Install a random Linux distro, simple MP3 *playback* is usually not

enabled OOTB (Mandriva seems to be the exception).  They make you deal

with external package repositories to get the packages needed for MP3

support which means editing /etc/apt/sources.list or whatever.
Every time there's a Linux story on /. this is one of the complaints

that comes up.  And rightly so, MP3 playback is up there with email and

Web browsing, they can't believe that any system where this does not

Just Work could be worth a damn.  Many of them give up at that point,

and we've lost a potential Linux user for good...
If there were a "New Linux User FAQ" I suspect "I just installed Linux,

why can't I play MP3s?" would be in the top 2 or 3.
Lee