Enabling DVD playback in Ubuntu 9.04

I have just finished installing Ubuntu 9.04 on a Gateway laptop, everything worked well from video to wireless until I popped in a DVD to watch. Did the updates and still nothing, until I ran across this command on the Internet, tried it and everything is golden now.

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras totem-xine libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdread4

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

The explanation when the commands are needed are printed below:

The movie players provided in Ubuntu can play back unencrypted DVDs. However, many commercial DVDs are encrypted with a weak algorithm called Content Scrambling System (CSS). You can enable playback of encrypted DVDs with MPlayer, xine and Totem-xine by installing libdvdread4.

The CSS key sets are licensed to manufacturers who incorporate them into products such as DVD drives, DVD players and DVD movie releases. Most DVD players are equipped with a CSS Decryption module.

Windows 7 is opportunity for Linux

“Windows 7 is opportunity for Linux” is an interesting article written by Nick Farrell at theinquirer.net. I was doing some research for the next version Ubuntu Linux 9.04, "Jaunty Jackalope" which comes out in April 20 and ran across it. Enjoy…

Source: The Inquirer - http://www. /inquirer/news/646/1051646/windows-opportunity-linux

Linux Desktop - My Ubuntu Experience

I have gone 45 days using solely my Ubuntu Linux laptop to conduct all facets of my daily computing functions. These include work related tasks as well as personal tasks. I will have to say, if there are any doubts of Ubuntu’s feasibility in the desktop environment, they should be put to rest.

First off, I was very impressed with the performance of the operating system on a modest running laptop that only had 512 MB of RAM. I have friends running Windows Vista system with 2 to 4 Gigs of RAM enduring terrible performance on their expensive systems. Also, I was pleased with the verity of open-sourced security and system administrative applications that were available and operated flawless on the system. For example, I was able to configure GnuPG communicate securely with encryption. I was also able to connect to remote systems using VPN access as well.

I was able to wireless access points from many different locations, view DVD movies and edit Microsoft office related documents with no problem.

As of today, I am upgrading from the current version of 8.04 to 8.10. I will have the details on that when I have reviewed it.

Ubuntu 8.10 Security Feature

While the release of another Ubuntu is only a few days away, there are some interesting security features in place. One being the encrypted directory.

Encrypted “Private” Directory - While many OSs now offer whole hard-drive encryption, most people probably only have a small set of their files that they want to encrypt. Instead of offering an encrypt everything or nothing option, there will be a folder in each user’s home folder called “Private” that will be encrypted. This would be useful to store confidential documents and that sort of thing without slowing down access to less-confidential stuff, like your music.

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition Announced

Canonical has announced the upcoming availability of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition that will be available for free download on Thursday, April 24, 2008. The company has also announced the upcoming release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Edition.

More on this article from TechTree

Latest Ubuntu Review...

Latest Ubuntu Review...

As many of you many know, I am a big Linux fan/user. Ubuntu being one of my favorite distributions, I often try to stay up with the latest information. My trial of Hardy Heron has been a good experience thus far. Even though it is still in Beta, I have seen some interesting improvements. I was compiling my review, but in an article by David Williams at ITWIRE, he covered my thoughts as well as added many more. So I will share his article with you all… Click Here to access his Ubuntu Review