What's News?: Ubuntu: Part 3 – Movies, Music and Blubuntu


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What's News?

Only a Sith deals in absolutes. I will do what I must.
- Obi Wan Kanobi
- StarWars III - Revenge of the Sith

Ubuntu: Part 3 – Movies, Music and Blubuntu

Part 1 – First Impression
Part 2 – Internet, E-mail and Internet Messenger

Now I am done with Internet, E-mail and Internet Messenger on Ubuntu and that I am very satisfied with doing more and more things on Ubuntu, I wanted to start watching movies and listening to music on Ubuntu. In fact, come to think of it, I should have done this much earlier. Anyway, Ubuntu has a commitment towards using free, open-source software only. As such the default installation of Ubuntu does not bundle any type of non-free software. This includes the MP3 codec also. Yes, by default, you cannot play MP3 on Ubuntu. But we are talking default here and we all know that that means.

Most of the videos you get on the internet are in DivX or Xvid formats. Most of the audio files you get on the internet are in MP3 format. There are some other popular video and audio formats too, like MPEG, MPEG2, 3GP, MP4, WMV, WMA etc. Even Windows does not support most of these popular video and audio formats. By default, on Windows, you will not get support for DivX, Xvid, MPEG2, 3GP and MP4. I remember the time when I had QuickTime Player, DivX player, Xvid player, MPEG2 player installed on my Windows PC. This was all before VideoLan's VLC Media Player made its debut. Since then I have not used anyting but VLC Media Player. If a file does not play in VLC Media Player then it is probably corrupt or is a RealMedia file. :)

Guess what, VLC Media Player is cross-platform and open source. And it is available on Ubuntu. So I went ahead and install VLC Media Player. To install, go to Applications > Add/Remove and search for videolan. Select the package VLC media player and click Apply Changes. Ubuntu will download and install the player. And that's about it to play all types of video and audio files on Ubuntu.

The default theme of Ubuntu (Human) is a little too vibrant for me. I keep getting distracted by the bright orange color. I wanted something more soothing. I tried Clearlooks, which was better but still not that good. Finally, I stumbled upon Blubuntu, that claimed to be a blue and soothing theme for Ubuntu. So I went to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager and searched for Blubuntu. I checked blubuntu-look and Synaptic Package Manager automatically selected other dependencies for me. After installing Blubuntu, I switched over to Blubuntu and I was satisfied - a perfect blend of good looks and decency. Over the course of time, I have tried many other themes but couldn't settle on anything other than Blubuntu.