Comments on: Do You Despise Adware?

By: adware

adware — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 08:11:27 +0000

great topic i will keep reading mpre well writtenhttp://adware—removal.blogspot.com/

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:06:46 +0000

You may be right about the MP3 files. I honestly can’t remember for two reasons:1) When I installed my current installation of Linux, I then installed (with virtually no effort) another piece of software (for free) that then installed everything I needed for multimedia operations; and2) Since I use linux, and now windows, I don’t have to constantly wipe my hard drive and reinstall the system. It just works. Also, the equivilant to automatic update in linux is safe, flawless, and seamless, so you are not entering codes and rebooting and having thing break when upgrades happen, so one tends to lose track.With Windows, on the other hand, it does not work that way. For instance: Go buy windows (it is not free) and install it. Then go and buy a copy of Zoo Tycoon, the game. It is not free. Then try to run Zoo Tycoon (this is with XP). It will not run. You get a message saying that you must install a third party codex to run this on windows. SO you go to get that from the web site, and it’s like 20 bucks. So you pay them the money and install it, then it runs.Zoo Tycoon and Windows are both made by Microsoft.Then your windows installation totally crashes, and you have to reinstall the codex and buy it again because that’s how it works…And so on and so forth.Sam, let me tell you. Windows is perfect. For you. It never goes wrong, alwasy does what you want, anything that happens that other people might find annoying, expensive, time consuming, or simply broken is either a feature or is a problem caused by something other than windows. So go and use your windows and have fun.Oh, and by the way, thanks for looking up that MP3 thing. I won’t need the information, though, because I use a much easier method for installing and maintaining that software and it all seems to be working just fine.

By: samk

samk — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:38:54 +0000

“As I said. MP3 support out of the box”Wrong again.From https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/MP3“Playing MP3 FilesSince MP3 is one of the most widely-used audio formats, you probably will come across a few MP3 files in your computer usage – if you don’t already have a large collection of them. You have two options for dealing with your MP3’s under Ubuntu:Install some extra, restricted pluginsConverting to open unrestricted formats, like Ogg-Vorbis”

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:25:49 +0000

As I said. MP3 support out of the box, DVD with one click as an option during your installation process.The instructions you provide are incorrect and misleading.I am the blogger, you are the troll. You are wasting my time and everyone else’s. You are full of shit, full of lies, full of love for Microsoft and despise Linux. You are trolling around in the wrong place.Good bye.

By: samk

samk — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:17:10 +0000

From https://help.ubuntu.com/7.10/musicvideophotos/C/video.html#video-dvdWARNING. DO NOT FOLLOW THIS INDIVIDUAL’S INSTRUCTIONS. THIS IS THE HARD WAY. DO IT THE EASY WAY.”Playing DVDsIn order to play DVDs, you must install some additional software. Unfortunately, DVD support cannot be provided by default in Ubuntu due to legal and technical restrictions.Many commercial DVDs are encrypted and so require the use of decryption software in order to play them. In some countries, the use of such decryption software is not permitted by law. Verify that you are within your rights in using it.Install the following packages (see Add Applications):gxinelibdvdnav4libdvdplay0libdvdread3If you would like to play encrypted DVDs (see the legal note above), press Applications ? Accessories ? Terminal and type the following into the screen which appears, followed by the Return key:sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.shPress System ? Preferences ? Removable Drives and Media and click on the Multimedia tab.In the Command box under Video DVD Discs, type ï¿½gxine -S dvd:/ï¿½ (without quotes) and then press Close.Insert a DVD disc into the DVD drive of your computer. It should play automatically in gxine. You can press the f key to watch the DVD full-screen.”Now who’s a Kool-Aid drinking troll?

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:07:54 +0000

Wow, I’m going to have to switch to this “Windows” thing .. sounds like a great piece of software.Readers: Please ignore this troll. He is providing a lot of bad information. Windows, like any operating system, but more so than most, fails to operate hardware quite often, when the hardware is working fine and specifications say it should work.The current version of Ubuntu plays mp3 out of the box. Ubuntu has played DVD’s out of the box for a long time, as far a I know.There are a few multimedia bits and pieces that have in the past required the user to install one item to make everything work, but I believe the current version this one-click solution entirely or almost entirely.Enough of the Kool Ade.

By: samk

samk — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:44:10 +0000

“Huh? Having a major common printer not run on a major release of an OS and that’s OK? It’s a 2400 series printer and it’s an XP box. The documentation says it should work. In fact, it should be plug and play!”This hardly points to an OS issue.”The fact that you have never run into a hardware problem in Windows smells a lot like … well, Kool Ade, actually.”Reading Is Fundamental. I never said that I hadn’t run into hardware problems with Windows. I said that the hardware issues I have come across using Windows were either PEBKAC or defective hardware.”My linux installation plays MP3’s without tweaking and does an excellent job out of the box with DVD’s, no problem. Better than Windows.”Which Linux distro are you using? I can tell you that Ubuntu 7.1 does not include DVD or MP3 support out of the box. Also, which metric are you using to determine which OS plays a media file “better”?”In fact, check this out: Because of the way that *nix systems work, the DVD does not even have to be a physical DVD in a DVD reader. It can be an image of a DVD. Since everything in Linux is a file (essentially) there is no difference. In Windows, if you want to do that, you have to install crappy software that will not work. “Wow! I mount ISO images all the time! The software I use works every single time, too! Microsoft even offers a free tool to do this. Microsoft’s tool has been available since at least January of 2004. You were saying something about someone being unbelievably out of date? Granted, it’s not as nice as the tool I personally use…but it’s there.”Your information is either willfully flawed or just play unbelievably out of date.”Now I’m a liar. You’re the one who posted about IE’s phantom “obnoxious behavior” and then, when called on it, you admitted that it was most likely caused by a user error and that it could not be reproduced. Willfully flawed indeed.

By: William

William — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:18:05 +0000

Or did you not notice the word “unusual”???

Actually, I did. And I’m sure that adware on Ubuntu is very unusual. I mean how many people actually use Ubuntu in the first place? And then what percentage of those users are “geeky” enough to know how to avoid installing adware and spyware and viruses? So I would be very surprised if adware was a significant problem on Ubuntu in the wild. But did you not notice the “me too” responses on that thread? Or forget that you used the phrase “sure fire” in your original post? Or are you just not smart enough to realize that ONE counterexample is a “sure fire” way to disprove a “sure fire” solution?

I suspect that this is YOU pretending to have a broken Ubuntu machine.

Oh sure, I joined the Ubuntu Forums back in April 07 and started that thread in August 07. Since then I spend all of my time looking for people touting Ubuntu as the “sure fire” solution to adware so I can use my thread as a counterexample. Talk about drinking the kool ade, you must have ordered in bulk!

Tear off the mask, ol’ “william” ol’ boy … you’re really Bill, aren’t you!?!??

Forget the kool ade Greg…you need to put down your crack pipe! 😉

By: ColoRambler

ColoRambler — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:18:39 +0000

Like listen to an mp3 or watch a DVD? ROFL! Have fun installing that support on a Ubuntu box. Sure, you and I can do it…we’ve been using PCs for decades.

It’s true that out-of-the-box support for popular files and activities is a sticking point for some versions of Linux.That said, I was up and playing MP3s and DVDs immediately after installing the latest version of my current Linux distribution (Linux Mint), which I chose in part for that reason. It’s not Ubuntu per se, but it is based on Ubuntu, and pretty much every Ubuntu tip out there applies to it. I know there are a couple other distributions out there that are like this, but I’m not sure of their names off the top of my head. Even if I’d installed vanilla Ubuntu, installing MP3 and DVD support on it (or really, most any modern distribution) isn’t a power-user activity anymore. It could have been one 4 or 5 years ago, but today, the normal procedure for installing free (as in beer) software is to go to the software package manager, select something, and say “yes, please install this”.I think the biggest sticking point for Linux in general isn’t software, but hardware. In any given distribution and installation I’ve usually had one piece of hardware (4 years ago, an HP printer; more recently, wireless cards) that needed a little tweaking to work right. If I were a Windows user who didn’t want to do any tweaking, I could easily consider that a significant turnoff.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:59:31 +0000

If that is truly the case I am willing to bet that HP does not indicate that they support your printer on the version of Windows you are using. Huh? Having a major common printer not run on a major release of an OS and that’s OK? It’s a 2400 series printer and it’s an XP box. The documentation says it should work. In fact, it should be plug and play!The fact that you have never run into a hardware problem in Windows smells a lot like … well, Kool Ade, actually.My linux installation plays MP3’s without tweaking and does an excellent job out of the box with DVD’s, no problem. Better than Windows.In fact, check this out: Because of the way that *nix systems work, the DVD does not even have to be a physical DVD in a DVD reader. It can be an image of a DVD. Since everything in Linux is a file (essentially) there is no difference. In Windows, if you want to do that, you have to install crappy software that will not work.Your information is either willfully flawed or just play unbelievably out of date.(Glug glug glug)Hey, william, stop drinking that Kool ade… yes, that thread mention is a bit odd. It is about the very unusual problem of someone having an “adware” issue on a Ubuntu installation. (Or did you not notice the word “unusual”??? )Given that there is no explanation for what is happening, I suspect that this is YOU pretending to have a broken Ubuntu machine. Tear off the mask, ol’ “william” ol’ boy … you’re really Bill, aren’t you!?!?? You really need to find something more productive to do in your retirement.