Re: [gNewSense-users] proprietary formats handled by free software and a GNOME & KDE question

[Karl Goetz]

Guy Johnston wrote:
> andrei raevsky wrote:
>   
>> Greetings friends,
>>
>> I noticed something strange.  While VLC can play wmv files and XMMS
>> can play mp3, the gNewSense version of k3b cannot burn mp3 files into
>> an audio CD, it just says "insupported file format".
>>
>> Does anyone have an idea why this is?  Is thee no free encoder which
>> allows one not to generate mp3, but to convert mp3s back into wav
>> format and burn them to an audio CD?
>>
>> Also, while I have recently switched to Gnome, there are two KDE
>> programs which I really like: Konqueror and k3b.  However, what I do
>> not like about them is their silly system alarm bells (the "crashing
>> glass" sound is particularly offensive).  In KDE I could just disable
>> the system sound (or whatever that was called).  But how do I tell
>> these KDE apps to shut up in Gnome?!
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Andrei
>>     
>
> As far as I know, you can do all the MP3 encoding and decoding you need
> with free software programmes. Unfortunately, there's legal issues with
> distributing and possibly using these programmes, because of the
> patent(s) on the MP3 format, so they're not included in gNewSense.
>   
the gstreamer does play mp3s, but only apps that support gstreamer will
be able to play it. as guy notes though, mp3, wmv and most media has
patent issues, that havent (afaik) been dealt with.
kk
> I'd expect to change the sounds of KDE applications in GNOME, you need
> to install KControl or the Kubuntu 'System Settings' version of it.
> Maybe you can install just the required part of it, depending on what
> the different packages contain.
>
>
>   
Surely it can be changed from a menu in the application?
kk


-- 
Karl Goetz
User of gNewSense: Free as in Freedom - http://www.gnewsense.org
Australian Ubuntu users team - http://wiki.ubuntu.com/AustralianTeam
User of Debian, The Universal Operating System - http://www.debian.org