Pedagogical Posturing

Ubuntu comes with a movie player and a music player. A problem arises when I want to watch a movie or listen to some music. The problem is that I can’t do either of these two fairly basic things. The software reports that required plugins are missing. I went to the Synaptic Package Manager (under System > Administration) and downloaded everything associated with Totem (the movie player) and Rhythmbox (the music player), all to no effect. In desperation I downloaded a music player called Exaile using Terminal (under Applications > Accessories) but installation was unsuccessful because it was missing some Python plugin.

It’s rather frustrating and anyone who is not as dogged and determined as me would long ago have abandoned the attempt. Hours later I’m still trying to solve the problem. It seems obvious that Ubuntu in its raw form is unsuitable for use by the average computer user who just wants to watch a movie or listen to some music using the available software, without having to worry about downloading missing components. However, I do remember when I first used Vista Business Edition that I couldn’t play a DVD, so I shouldn’t be too harsh on Ubuntu. I’m sure that by reading through the Ubuntu forums I’ll discover a solution but very few computer users will want to do this.

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