Ubuntu Fiesty does make them *very* easy to obtain, even easier than it ever has been on the Mac or Windows. Basically, if you try to open an audio or video file that you don’t have the codecs for, it will tell you and offer to download and install it automatically for you.

In doing that, you do have to go through a confirmation step which I’m sure releases them from liability and makes you acknowledge that you take responsibility to make sure you have obtained the proper licenses yourself, etc. etc.

I’d agree that it’s certainly “questionable”, but it will definitely help new users get up to speed quickly, that’s for sure. It’s a gray area even in the US, because most of the people who have bought a computer at some point probably also bought a bundled license of Windows which allowed them to use certain codecs on their machines. I’m sure there are legal technicalities that probably would try and prevent you from “porting” those licenses over to a different operating system, but I’m not too worried about them.

In the early releases of Ubuntu the theme had a bunch of artwork with naked people.

I guess I kind of get the custom spin more now.

Nathan, no need to say sorry to me. Use what sounds the best for you. The things that make each distribution distinctive are pretty minor.

sorry, nate, i just don’t have enough time to figure out linux, so all in one packages are the thing that will win me over.

It’s not so much the convenience factor of the smaller package in terms of download size or burn media, although that helps too. The main advantage of the smaller distro that I see (at least the way Ubuntu does it) is that it doesn’t make the new user decide between several different similar pieces of software. Actually it doesn’t make them pick software at all, it just gives them a fully functional system without having to know what they even need.

Diversity and choice is a vital aspect of the Linux culture, and that wide spectrum is still available in Ubuntu via package management, but I think it’s important for new people to not have to worry about those choices.

As far as I know, none of the major distros technically distribute illegal codecs, although the latest versions of both Ubuntu and Fedora do make them easy to obtain. As for non-free drivers, I think that given the state of the industry right now it’s important to have them available and optional, which Ubuntu does well. I’m not sure about the soft porn; I must have missed that part.

I like the custom packaged distro trend for the same reason that I list as an Ubuntu benefit above: ease of adoption.

One other cool project as far as custom distros is SLAX, which is a Slackware based system for putting together your own live CDs.

There is a tool called pungi coming out of Fedora that will make putting together custom spins of Fedora a fairly simple task. I guess this is the new cool thing to do. I don’t really get it.