Now playing: DVD movies, Windows audio files on Ubuntu Linux

Computerworld - Life just got easier for users of the downloadable or boxed retail versions of the Ubuntu Linux 8.04 operating system who want easy and cheap ways of adding DVD playback and improved audio capabilities to their machines.

Inexpensive add-on applications that will provide audio codecs and a DVD player to expand the multimedia capabilities of the four-year-old Linux operating system are now available for purchase in the Ubuntu online store.

Previously, users of the freely downloaded or boxed versions of the Ubuntu Linux 8.04 could run into compatibility troubles while trying to play DVD movies or some types of audio tracks on their computers.

That was because many DVD player applications and audio codec files are proprietary, fee-based and owned by the vendors that created them, making them impossible to include for free in Ubuntu products.

Canonical Ltd., the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu Linux, said today that it has reached deals with two software vendors, Cyberlink and Fluendo, to sell their DVD player and audio codec applications directly to consumers through the online store. The products are already installed under previous licensing agreements for many laptop and desktop computers that are sold preloaded with Ubuntu Linux from hardware vendors, according to Ubuntu.

"It is important to us that no matter how you choose to access Ubuntu, pre-installed or as a free download, that you can have a similarly rich experience," wrote Gerry Carr, Canonical's marketing manager, in a blog entry today. "The vast majority of our current users will have installed Ubuntu themselves. These users should also be allowed legal DVD and media playback and so we have built a way of letting them do this."

Carr said in an interview that some open-source projects have tried to tackle the missing codec and DVD player issues but that such reuse of the codecs is not necessarily legal.

"They've found a technical work-around, but it hasn't been legally verified," he said. "This is a way to use your Ubuntu Linux distro and legally play back your music and DVDs. At some point, somebody's got to pay these codec providers" for use of their products.

The complications of trying to find, install and maintain the proper audio codecs for Linux operating systems like Ubuntu has long been one of the main consumer complaints about the open-source OS. In many cases, it can be discouraging to deal with the not-so-easy-to-configure audio capabilities, especially when compared with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows and Apple Inc.'s Macintosh computer operating systems.

The Cyberlink PowerDVD software sells for $49.95 in the Ubuntu store and allows users to play commercial DVDs on the latest version of Ubuntu Linux, v8.04. OpenGL driver support for graphics hardware is also required.