Playing movies and music, ripping DVDs, and making Skype calls is all possible with Ubuntu. Although the Ubuntu installer already provides basic "third-party" multimedia codecs, these options might not fulfill everyone's wishes. At the least, the distribution loads the legitimate MP3 codecs from Fluendo onto the computer through the ubuntu-restricted-addons package, along with components for the GStreamer framework (plugins-ugly, plugins-bad, ffmpeg) and a Flash plugin installer from Adobe.

As a result, you can play MP3 files, burn audio CDs, and view more than 90 movie formats immediately after installation. However, the installed package is not compliant with the ubuntu-restricted-extras package that you should install after the installation. It provides additional codecs for GStreamer, some typical Microsoft fonts (that require an end-user license agreement first), and the UnRAR unpacker. You'll also need to install the LAME library so you can create and play MP3 files from audio CDs.

GStreamer

Generally, a number of programs in Ubuntu play music and movies, but some of the applications are standard. Rhythmbox (Figure 1) is the preinstalled solution for playing music. You can use the software to convert CDs to MP3 format, although RipperX [1] is much better suited for it. Totem, on the other hand, is the default video player. This very simple player uses the GStreamer format. The drop-down menu used to access the videos and podcasts from YouTube and the BBC in the past is missing in the current version (Figure 2). Many users, however, still also install VLC: This multimedia player plays everything, provides more features than Totem, and can be extended easily through modules. You can find these modules in Software Center if you enter "vlc-plugin-" in the search box.

Figure 1: Rhythmbox plays MP3s as well as radio stations, and it provides integrated music shops. Better software exists for converting from audio CDs.

Figure 2: The Gnome developers removed some functions from the current Totem. On the right, the drop-down menu that previously allowed access to YouTube is missing.

Brasero is still used as a CD burner, and it provides an integrated cover editor. Burning Blu-ray discs works only with the commercial Nero Linux 4 product that has a demo version [2].

Running in the background for the previously mentioned programs is GStreamer, which is a modular multimedia framework available to many audio and video apps. Thus, many programs don't need to support special codecs because GStreamer provides the playback capability. For example, to play an MP3 file, Rhythmbox just hands the task over to GStreamer, which rummages through its resources for a plugin that takes care of the MP3 format. Using the contained codecs, GStreamer converts the files into audible material (Figure 3). To teach Totem and Rhythmbox new data formats, often you can just install the matching GStreamer plugin.

Figure 3: Rhythmbox and Totem rely on the GStreamer framework that provides the necessary plugins with new codecs.

Dangerous Liaisons

Although you can use these "limited extras" for multimedia formats, you can't watch encrypted DVDs – which covers just about all commercial DVDs. Bypassing the Content Scrambling System (CSS) requires libdvdcss2, provided by the Medibuntu repository (see the "Medibuntu" box), but this is considered a legal gray area in many countries. Use of this software might be banned because it cancels the CSS playback protection and is therefore considered to violate the "effective copy protection mechanism."

In some countries, you can resort to two commercial Linux programs for legal playback: LinDVD from Corel [3] and the Fluendo DVD player [4], whose developers have also participated in GStreamer. You can find the latter in the For Purchase repository. Even if you're not using libdvdcss2, you can still turn to the Medibuntu repository. It houses – apart from MPlayer and Mencoder – another important codec package that you will need to play and edit movies in all formats – its name is non-free-codecs.

Partners and Shopping Sources

Some proprietary applications like Skype and VMware View Client aren't offered in Ubuntu's standard repositories. Although these programs might be free, they're often under proprietary licenses and don't provide open sources.

These frequently requested third-party apps can be found in the Canonical Partners repository, which you must first activate. In Software Center, select Edit | Software Sources, click the Other Software tab, then activate the Canonical Partners entry. Again, it might take a while before the sources appear in Software Center.

The For Purchase repository contains mainly software that you can purchase through Software Center – among which is this magazine in various language editions. Developers usually release the content of these sources on their release date. When you select the software and click Purchase, Software Center links to the Launchpad login page. You can log in to (or register at) the Ubuntu One service and pay via credit card. Apart from official DVD players, you'll also find nifty games such as Family Farm (Figure 4), Oil Rush, and World of Goo. The same payment plan applies to the repository named Independent. There, you'll find mainly apps from external developers that put some minimal time into Ubuntu. Some of them are quite useful, however, because they're meant to handle smaller tasks.

Figure 4: Running under Ubuntu, you'll find not only 1990s style graphics but also visually appealing games, such as Family Farm.

Adobe Products

Loading the flashplugin-installer package on your computer brings in the latest Flash versions direct from the Adobe website. You might have installed Adobe's PDF Reader from the partner repository in the past, but you will only need it if Ubuntu's Evince built-in PDF viewer breaks down – which does happen in rare cases with PDF files with 3D content or very complicated graphics with many levels. For reasons of security alone, you should avoid using Adobe Reader.

Skype and Google Video

Even the new version 4 of Skype is in the Canonical Partners repository. Apart from videotelephony, it also provides desktop sharing: To make collaboration easier, your conversational partner can peek at your desktop. Thanks to the new version, the image quality of Skype for Linux is gradually matching that of the Windows client.

As an alternative to Skype, check out Google's Hangout video platform, which also allows calls among multiple participants (Figure 5). You'll need a Google account, so register at the Google website and go to the left at the top of the Google+ profile. In the right-hand column, select Start Hangout and install a video plugin for your system. You can simply download the corresponding DEB package and double-click in the file manager.

Figure 5: Like Skype, Google Hangout provides video chat capability.

Google Earth

Even friends of Google Earth [6] can partake in Ubuntu 13.04. Just download the corresponding Debian package for your architecture, then go to Software Center and install the lsb-core package. Double-clicking the Google Earth package loads it on the computer, which can take a while, mainly because the package grabs additional files from an online server. Be sure you have enough free space reserved. Then, you can start Google Earth by entering goog in the Dash. Be forewarned, however, Google Earth is no fun without proper 3D acceleration.

The New Java

To use Java applications, you need a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Ubuntu does not provide Oracle's proprietary Java version anymore  – only the free OpenJDK. Because some Java programs had problems in the past with OpenJDK, many users often resorted to the proprietary Java (sun-java). However, that's missing now because Oracle put it under a nonfree license. Because the proprietary Java is compatible with OpenJDK 7 – the official Java reference – most Java programs should make do with the free Java. You can install the software from the openjdk-7-jdk and icedtea-7-plugin packages, and the older version from openjdk-6-jdk and icedtea-6-plugin via the following command:

$ sudo update-alternatives --config java

This step activates one of the parallel installed Java versions. If an app refuses to run, it's best to submit a bug report at the Ubuntu wiki [7].

Seek and Ye Shall Find

You can install many proprietary apps and multimedia codecs from the existing repositories. Numerous Windows programs run in the Wine Windows-compatible environment [8]. Also, take a look in the Ubuntu package manager for a free alternative.