Restricted Multimedia Formats - The Post-Install Assistant

This is the basic specification for the "Post-Install Multimedia Assistant", one of the solutions proposed in RestrictedFormatsSolutions, for the problem described in RestrictedFormatsProblem.

The idea is to enable legally-entitled users to add support for many popular multimedia formats (MP3, DVDs, DivX, etc) in a semi-automated way.

The Assistant should basically work this way:

1) After Ubuntu's installation, and if there is an active Internet connection, present a standard dialog to the user. It could pop automatically, or on request (via Desktop shortcut?). The text of that dialog could be something like this:

Free Software offers excellent support for the most popular multimedia formats (like MP3, MPEG-4 "DivX", or DVDs).

But unluckily, certain restrictions (such as software patents) make it illegal to distribute Ubuntu with such support, in certain countries like the United States of America, or Japan.

If you live in a country with such restrictions, please click "Cancel". You'll be able to play some restricted formats by installing non-Free Software (like RealPlayer), or keep enjoying content in Free formats (like Ogg Vorbis audio or Theora video).

If you live in a country without those restrictions, feel free to install the necessary packages to unlock restricted formats, by clicking on "OK".

2) If the user clicks on "Cancel", the dialog could just close, or offer him the option of installing RealPlayer automatically.

3) If the user clicks on "OK", the Assistant would then add the necessary repositories to the sources list (Universe, Multiverse, and Penguin Liberation Front), and download / install the necessary packages (GStreamer plugins including FFmpeg, and libdvdcss2).

• (NOTE: This Assistant is supposed to add support for the most common formats in one step, not on a per-case basis like EasyCodecInstallation)

{ The [http://www.gstreamer.net/ gstreamer multimedia framework] is a single point that manages multimedia support for GNOME and other applications. GStreamer can be adapted so that when a codec is not found, it will be able to run a post-install assistant provided by the distribution. See relevant bug GStreamer report [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=161922 161922].

It is important that the end-user experience is not disrupted by a post-install assistant that will run anyway. There are several situations that end-users may not need from the beginning to use multimedia files with unsupported codecs. In addition, Linux comes with free (as in Freedom) codecs for audio and video, which for some users they may be sufficient.

Any "multimedia installation assistant" should show up only when the user needs to play an unsupported file. Therefore, this requires some effort with [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=161922 bug 161922]. I do not think a proposal to start a post-install assistant on the first boot of Ubuntu will ever get digested from the developers team. }

Alternate Proposal

Here is an alternate proposal that trys to not ask questions right after installation and to be less preachy while offering a space to link to more information in the dialog.

The goal of this assistant is to enable legally-entitled end-users to install plugins enabeling MP3, DVDs, DivX and other popular multimedia formats.

The assistant should function as follows:

1) If the plugins in question are installed, the assistant should not appear.

2) A dialog should be presented on the first run of any gstreamer application that would benefit from the plugins in question.

3) The dialog should be presented again on the first-internet connected run of a gstreamer application.

4) The dialog should appear as follows when connected to the internet

This application supports MP3, DVD, DivX and other popular multimedia formats through the use of plugins.

Certain countries have copyright laws making the installation of these plugins illegal. _link_ may help in determining what steps, if any, must be taken by you to legally install these plugins in your jurisdiction.

[radio] Install these multimedia plugins

[radio] Do not install these plugins

• [checkbox] Disable this assistant for all non-administrative users of this computer

[radio, default] Ask me again later

5) The dialog appears as follows when not connected to the internet

This application supports MP3, DVD, DivX and other popular multimedia formats through the use of plugins.

If you wish to install these plugins, run this application again while connected to the internet.

6) If the user clicks on "Cancel", the dialog should close and the application should not ran.

7) If the user clicks on "OK" and the install option is selected, the assistant should add a dapper-updates-patent repository, run update manager to install the appropriate plugins, and then run the application initially launched.

8) This is not an application-specific dialog, it will appear to any user at most twice, only once if the internet is accessible on the first run unless they leave the Ask me again later option, at which case they will be asked again the next time they run the program.

9) If password authentication is failed for a user, the dialog will default back to 'Ask me again later'

10) The disable this assistant checkbox will be disabled unless the Do not install radio option is selected.

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