> ---- > Anticipation that a Linux Desktop is a easy swap replacement > for Windows > Desktop is simply a matter of expectations. It is what it is and where > it is any given place in time. Railing here on this list is the > equivalent to pissing in the wind. > > The thread began with issues relating to proprietary software using > proprietary codecs and if more people were using Linux, there would be > more pressure to adopt codecs that Linux users could utilize without > doing technical tango. > As you said, "It is what it is" and that seems to apply to the proprietary codecs also. The mplayer developers have done a marvelous job integrating the windows codecs. Searching out this information is non-trivial (without some luck) and difficult for the uninitiated. This mailing list has a pretty good cross section of current Fedora users and has some extremely intelligent and knowledgeable people on it.

It may well be that since software installation does and should require some sort of administrative account (eg. root) and putting the root account in the hands of the uneducated can be a terrible thing, a different model is needed to further encroach upon Windows.

There is nothing wrong with that and a big advantage at a school. Windows boxes usually rot away within minutes, because everybody can install anything wherever they want, they do not need to be root/administrator to do that. And that's wrong.

assuming that a typical Linux box is much better in the "root must install" respect is wrong