Video player

[John]

On Tuesday 06 January 2009 23:54:53 Dotan Cohen wrote:
> 2009/1/7 Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. <bss at iguanasuicide.net>:
> > On Tuesday 2009 January 06 17:20:08 Dotan Cohen wrote:
> >> Thanks for that bit of info. I do know that the release schedules
> >> differ, but Amarok seems like a flagship KDE application.
> >
> > The problem is "KDE application" is a bit ambiguous.
> >
> > Amarok *is* a flagship "KDE application" if by that you mean "an
> > application built using the KDE libraries and frameworks".
> > Amarok is not a "KDE application" if by that you mean "an application
> > maintained and released by the KDE project".
> >
> > Also, "KDE applications" might move between those two, more specific
> > classifications during their lifetime.  Plus, I think the KDE project
> > sometimes provide resources to "KDE applications" of the first type, even
> > if they aren't "KDE applications" of the second type.
> >
> > There's even a third type of "KDE application": an application installed
> > automatically by the majority of distributions when you select "KDE"
> > during install.
>
> My definition was "a popular, respected application that is often
> associated with KDE".

Unless you install from scratch the video player/players that come with "KDE" 
really depend on what the distro has bundled in it. Kaffiene usually comes 
with most disto's but it won't usually be the very latest release. It may 
also be severely crippled or even omitted due to codec rights etc. If you go 
to their web site you will see it listed as a KDE media player.

The actual set up is usually more complex than that. The players are front 
ends. Kaffiene for instance uses xine. xine has a front end all of it's own 
available too. Another popular low level player is mplayer. That has a number 
of what might be called semi front ends available. The front ends just look 
after the applications behaviour when it's used from a window be it kde, 
gnome or what ever. There are a number of desktops about.

Most kde,gnome etc apps work in this fashion. The real work is done by a 
console level program. The app you see and use is just a front end. KDE looks 
after the associations etc and provides the basic desktop functionality. They 
do have some of their own apps too of course such as kpdf and one or two 
editors. Like most things some are good some are bad. Try reading a scanned 
250mbyte pdf with kdpf for instance. Not a good idea.

Hope this helps. It pays to remember that linux is not like windows - well it 
is really but the various levels of functionality are more clearly available 
and not hidden as they are in windoze. This make the system far more flexible 
and open. It can get rather confusing. There are several different low level 
sound standards about as a for instance so in many respects it can pay to 
stick with what ever software is available from your distributions 
repository. Or have some fun and try installing what ever you want from 
scratch. This usually involves installing from source in the console as root. 
Most source files will even contain instructions as to exactly what needs to 
be typed. Dependencies crop up. These are simpley bits of code that an app 
needs that isn't on your system. May be available from your depository but 
will be available on the web via google. You may find that you can't even 
install it. This is where distro's with huge repositories come in. It's a lot 
simpler.

John

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