On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 21:40, Paul M Foster <paulf@quillandmouse.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 07:45:38PM -0500, Chuck Hast wrote:
>
>> I found it partially, my lighttpd web server did not have mp4 listed in the
>> mime.type file. All I did was find out what I needed to do and make a entry
>> to it.
>>
>> Now my SuSE machine automagicly starts up the vlc plugin and shows my
>> videos, BUT Firefox on my Ubuntu machines insist on doing a file dowload
>> and THEN starting up vlc. I think I can see where the problem is, Firefox on
>> Ubuntu will not allow me to set the vlc multimedia plugin as the default
>> player. But it downloads the file to vlc then starts up VLC. I am trying to
>> figure out where the vlc multimedia plug in is so I can try to figure out how
>> to get mp4 aimed at it. The funny thing is every other bit of video
>> files that
>> Firefox list has VLC Multimedia plug in listed as the default plug in.
>>
>> Why do they work so hard to make this so hard to fix?? I am just about to
>> rip Ubuntu off of my machines and go all to SuSE, it appears that they are
>> trying to dumb things down too much.
>
> This is why I avoid distros like Ubuntu. Ubuntu was supposed to be
> Debian with a thick skin to make it suitable for n00bs. Kinda like
> Mandrake (a thick skin over Red Hat) in an earlier era. But the
> trade-off is that you lose the flexibility to easily hack the distro.
> The same thing has been said about Gnome versus KDE-- Gnome hides a lot
> of configuration details and makes it nearly impossible to change them,
> in the name of making it more "user-friendly".
>
> Of course, in your case, this is something they could/should have gotten
> right in the first place. Then you wouldn't need to hack it.
>
Paul,
You appear to be right on, here at home my main machine is a SuSE 11.1
machine, yes I have had to go in and putz with things in order to get some
stuff to work, with the Ubuntu machines all the usual stuff "just works" no
need to download any new stuff in most cases. I think that the average user
probably would not run into this, and for the average Windows user who is
starting the cross over, it is probably a good way to go, but you get to a
point where you say, "this is better than that other OS, but still is
too rigid".
At that point you realize that if you want total control you have to go on
down the road.
Once I corrected the mime.type file in my file server, I guess since mp4
was not in there it was not telling the browser enough info on how to handle
it, under Ubuntu and Firefox it was ONLY allowing for a download, no other
options. Under SuSE and firefox it was recommending Realplayer, but gave
the option to try something else. As soon as I made the correction on the
server side SuSE then just started vlc up and I started watching the video
I had clicked on. Under Ubuntu/Firefox those machines now start a file
download which terminates in VLC starting up AFTER the file has finished
downloading. I still can not go in and fix it because I can not go in and change
something in Firefox because under Ubuntu they have poured it in concrete,
or they have put it in a iron box and hid the keys.
I can see that many of the video apps that Firefox can handle have been
assigned to vlc multimedia plug in, but mp4 has not, I am not sure where
the bugger is, I have been poking around for it, but I may just wipe the machine
in question clean and put SuSE on it since I have much better control over
how it works.
I like Ubuntu for simplicity for transitioning people over to Linux but I am
not so happy with it for some of my use, I do find that on the little netbook
I use it works very well, indeed I am even using Compiz and have a triangle
(no need for the cube on that machine I never have that many things open)
which I use, it is surprising how responsive that little machine is even with
it running Compiz, I have shown people that trick and all have agreed that
it would never have been able to do anything near that with the original OS.
Indeed I pulled the orginal HD with XP on it out and put in a 500G HD and
installed Ubuntu on it.
On the desktop I am doing for a friend, I am giving very serious consideration
to putting something else on it and checking it all out before giving it to him
as I am sure he is going to want to do some of the things I do and will run into
issues with Ubuntu and it's narrowness.
As to Gnome, the two Ubuntu machines use it, I tried Kubuntu, but I did not
like it, seemed like they made KDE too brain dead, and it was such a klutz
to operate what with no root available, just seems under KDE that not having
a root login is un-natural. For some reason under Gnome/Ubuntu it is not so
impacting, perhaps because they have done more work to make it more ma-
nageable, not sure. I just generally like KDE more as it has a lot more knobs
to twist, and things to tweak.
Now if I can just figure out how to fix this pesky problem I will just be done
with it.
Setting up lighttpd web server was quite easy, indeed I had already done it
I just had not used it to try to pull a mp4 file, so I did not know that the mp4
designation was missing from the mime.type file. Now I do, just one more
thing to file for future usage. Now I have to figure out how to make those pages
look "prettier".
-- Chuck Hast -- KP4DJT -- To paraphrase my flight instructor; "the only dumb question is the one you DID NOT ask resulting in my going out and having to identify your bits and pieces in the midst of torn and twisted metal." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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