…about Ubuntu 8.04.
Ripping media. Need to archive a DVD? Right-click, Rip. Need to archive a CD/convert wav to mp3 for portability, etc.? Right-click>open (I select one of two apps, usually Rhythmbox)>Add to Library. I’ve set my preference to mp3 with a decent bit level–128, only because with the tiny earbuds of an mp3 player, it’s difficult to tell the difference, especially given where I use my player: mowing the lawn, driving, etc.–so it automagically just does its thing,
Windows? Notsomuch. With all the DRM crap Microsoft insists on shackling folks with, and the fact that most folks just use “what came on the computer” I don’t know how many folks I’ve had come to me with complaints about Windows Media Player ripping their CDs into DRM-“protected” formats they can’t use anywhere else (at least not easily). WMAs? Hate ’em. WVMs? Ditto. Oh, there are ways to make WMP play more nicely, and there are even some nice lil freebie apps to convert those nasty WMA files to mp3s, but in a native Ubuntu session, I don’t have to mess with any of that.
One thing that’s easier, more friendly, just plain nicer about Ubuntu.
I purchased a cheap (i.e. nearly free) MP3 encoder years ago that I use with Windows Media Player. It works pretty well, and lets me choose bit rate and sampling rate. All I’ve got to do to rip a CD is insert it in the drive and Windows Media Player launches with the “Rip Music” pane open and CDDB info downloaded. I click a single button and the CD begins getting ripped. No WMAs, no muss, no fuss, no DRM.
I NEVER used WMP to rip CDs. Well, I tried it and found it not to my taste. I used to use MusicMatch Jukebox for all kinds of things–even some live recording that didn’t require high fidelity (for that, I went through an old AMR mixer, etc., straight to external media) until it was sold, DRMed, etc., and I had a devil of a time stripping the “update” off a couple of computers and going back to the perfectly workable version I’d paid for.
But now? Hey! This stuff is FREE, and it works easy-peasy. Heck, If I wanted to turn autoplay on and specify RhythmBox s the player, it’d just be, Insert CD>Click Add to Library and Bob’s your uncle.
So very many folks out there buy computers and just use what’s on ’em (meaning Internet Exploder, Outlook Express-train-to-hell, and Windows Media Prison) and thereby get caught by M$’s DRM trap.
Almost always there’s the best way, the good way and the M$ way to do things on a computer–even Windows computers–and sadly, the M$ way is rarely either (very) good or better, just more expensive and frustrating.
And note: I still use some Microsoft software. I have a (fully licensed) copy of Office 2003 installed on one (licensed copy of) WinXP VM, for example–and even have Internet Exploder working on four machines I use (in WINE on Ubuntu, and three Windows VMs). I don’t use it much, but it’s there for when I need to visit a Microsoft AciveX or Silverlight (dis)enabled page on Microsoft’s website. Other than that, I don’t need or use the thing at all. Oh, and the one remaining copy of M$Office I do use is only for running down/duplicating issues folks have with it. Office 2007? Not a big user base around here. Biggest user pop is the public school system and leven there ess than half the users with M$Office there are using 2007. IT there is finally coming up to speed on Open Office and realizing the kds don’t NEED to use an expensive M$Office to “be able to fit into a business environment” because a spreadsheet’s a spreadsheet and a word processor’s a word processor, and whatever they learn today in M$Office that’s specific to it is likely to be dead and gone when M$ does another upgrade anyway.
Pretty far offtopic, but it kinda shows where I’m likely to go on my next “fav things about Ubuntu”–free, “good enough and then some” software.