Video Playback

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Linux has excellent support for playback of multimedia of all kinds, and video is no exception. From viewing Flash video on Youtube to high definition QuickTime and Windows Media, you can watch it all on Linux.


[edit] Legalese (or: Why Is This So Difficult?)

Unfortunately, viewing the latest and greatest video clip can be a bit of work the first time you try it. Once everything is set up properly, it is a breeze and most distributions will even keep everything up to date for you. There are few distributions that have all this set up for you, such as Linux Mint and PCLinuxOS. The reason is simple: in some countries, they legally cannot do so. Since Linux has no national affiliation, and the community wishes everyone in every country to be able to use it without legal risk, even the slightest question about the legality of some software means it simply cannot be included.

You might be thinking, "QuickTime and Windows Media Player are free, how can they be illegal?" They may be free in terms of monetary cost, but when parts of them cannot be redistributed without threat of lawsuit, they are most certainly not free. The reason some distributions ignore the legal issues is because of fair use.


[edit] List of Video Players

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