[MPlayer-users] Comments on Joe Barrs MPlayer critizism

[Peder Hedlund]

 Hi folks!

 I'm a happy MPlayer users since way back but to some degree I have to
 agree with Mr Barr. 

 The two main things wrong with installation as I see it are
 the neglectance of 'make install' to put codecs.conf and config
 in 'etc' and not including (and installing) the default skin in
 the tarball.

 It has been a standard since ages in installing unix software to
 put default config files (with sane defaults) in 'etc'. Why 
 doesn't MPlayer ?
 
 Since there is GUI support, why not include (and install) a default 
 skin?  (Since there acctually IS a "default", shouldn't it be included
 by default?) And perhaps loose the gmplayer link so the GUI version
 starts by default and you run pmplayer (or whatnot) for plain mplayer.
 I respect Arpis dislike for GUI:s but let's face it; it's a GUI-centric
 world (I bet even Arpi's using X. Isn't that a GUI?)

 Perhaps there should be a default OSD-font included and installed
 as well for the ease of the not-so-skilled user.

 I'd really like to hear the developers reasons for not doing the
 above. I mean, it's nothing a little RTFM-ing can't cure but on the other
 hand the less RTFM the not-so-skilled user has to do, the less the
 "Linux is so hard to use, you have to be a guru to even view an .avi"
 advocates have behind their claims.

 Again, I personally have no problems with the above, I'm just playing
 the devils lawyer for a while.

 Oh, and as per the language in the FAQ and so on, I _really_ think
 you should review and rewrite some of the answers. It isn't that
 funny to having struggled with a problem and finally looking it up
 in the FAQ to be told you're stupid and should go away. That really
 does not help the open source community a bit.

 Regards,
 
 Peder Hedlund (a very happy MPlayer user, all in all)