Feedback: FC8 Crashes, UI problems, etc.

[Greg Woods]

On Wed, 2008-04-23 at 20:52 -0400, ziklag wrote:

> 
> 1. Amarok crashes frequently. 

I run Amarok on three Fedora 8 machines, an Ubuntu laptop, and an ASUS
EEE-PC under Xandros (a Debian derivative). I rarely see crashes. When
it does crash, it does restart to the point where it was when it crashed
(or at least, to the beginning of the song it was playing). The same if
I quit out of it gracefully (Engage -> Quit).

Sounds like there must be something wrong with your install.


>   The Xine
> engine is simply not able to play these at any level
> of acceptability 

I don't think anyone can respond adequately to this unless you can be a
little more specific as to what the problem is.


> (DLL H*LL/RPM madness ensues when one tries to update an FC
> system (first you must delete all existing A/V libraries to 
> update because missing dependancies prevent updates of certain
> RPMS.)

You're going to have to be specific here too, as I have not experienced
this either.


> 4. Get RedHat to get a clue to the fact that MP3 is the
> de facto standard

It is also patented. Red Hat wishes not to include support for formats
that are patent-encumbered. If you don't like that philosophy, consider
using a different distribution. Ubuntu works well. However, all I had to
do to get Amarok to work with mp3 files on Fedora 8 was to install the
"amarok-nonfree" package from the Livna repository, and voila! Mp3
works! Finding this wasn't all that mysterious either; a Google search
on "amarok fedora mp3" quickly turned this up.

> There's nothing illegal about me playing
> my purchased MP3, my BeOS (BladeEnc) ripped music, etc.
> on my Linux box.

Tell that to the US Congress (Red Hat is located in the US even if you
are not). I don't think it is illegal (yet) to rip MP3's (although I
prefer to use OGG, which is well supported on Fedora, and avoid the
patent issue), but you can't even play a Hollywood DVD on a Linux system
without technically violating US law (the DMCA).

--Greg