Multimedia on the Web

I told you in the beginning that not everything was going to be perfect in Linux. Getting streaming media to work in your Linux browser is one of the two top areas I think need the most work and help from developers (the other is gaming). Some multimedia types are actually pretty easy. You can get MP3s, WAV files, PDF documents, Macromedia Flash content, and Real Player files to run fairly easily. You get into trouble when you have other movie or audio files to play, such as Quicktime, AVI, and other media types that can play in Windows Media Player.

Your best bet is always to play media files in an outside player, if the Web page gives you that option. Web sites with embedded media players can be the bane of your existence. When there are embedded files that you cannot play, and if you are comfortable browsing through HTML source code, you can sometimes look at the source of the page and find the direct path to the media file you want to play. You can then poke that direct path URL into your address bar so that your browser can open the media file in an outside player.

There are a few web resources and one program to ease your online multimedia pain. Mozilla, Firefox, and Konqueror still use Netscape-type plug-ins and can often use the plug-ins from Netscape's Web page (see http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/plugins.jsp). Mozilla and Firefox users can go to the more specific and comprehensive page for Mozilla browser plug-ins at http://plugindoc.mozdev.org. One of the plug-ins on the MozDev page, mozplugger (which is an offshoot of Plugger), can be quite handy because it covers multiple types of files. If you install mozplugger, install it first and then install the specific plug-ins you want. Although all the information online is helpful, you will still run into issues. Crossover Office, a program used to run Windows applications in Linux (see Topic 13, "Running Windows Applications"), runs Microsoft Internet Explorer browser plug-ins quite well, including the two most difficult, Windows Media Player and Quicktime. Crossover Office is a commercial program, but you can download a demo version at http://www.codeweavers.com/site/products/download_trial.