Getting Linux into Windows
p2pnet.net News:- How do you bring Windows users to Linux ?
By embedding more Microsoft into Linux distribution.
This is the solution adopted by Japanese Linux distributor Turbolinux Inc. Its new Turbolinux 10 F reads Windows Media files and even supports Apple’s iPod player.
Among Linux distributors as Linspire (ex-Lindows) or Xandros Inc, Turbolinux emerges as the first to ship a media player that accepts proprietary formats.
To exhibit such functionality, the Tokyo-based editor first tied to the WM Format Component Source Development Agreement and the WMF Component Distribution License from Microsoft, which give access to WM Player source codes and WMF codecs. And then bundled a binary plug-in to Xine, a powerful GPL-licensed multimedia reader.
Turbolinux media player could have included MS Digital Rights Management (DRM), Michael Jennings, Turbolinux’s director of business development for North America, told eWeek. But Microsoft refused, at least not before the release of its new version of Digital Rights Management (DRM), code-named Janus, slated for release next fall.
In addition, Turbolinux 10 F includes CyberLink’s PowerDVD, a commercial DVD player which supports Content Scramble System (CSS), an encryption system praised by movie majors.
Turbolinux 10 F will first be released in Japan at the end of May at $149 per. The rest of the world will get it a month later.
When Asia scrambles to get out of MS world, Turbolinux prides itself as being a zealot in what could be called a true – and dangerous – MS monoculture.
Thuan Huynh : Paris, France
