As my colleague Sam Varghese has written, after nearly two weeks of flawless operation, my first Ubuntu Linux installation unexpectedly became unstable, crashed and was unable to be booted. Puzzled ...

A typical Linux system is largely comprised of unrestricted, open-source software. But some of the most popular software around is either closed-source or open-source, but restricted by patents.

1. The easiest way is to choose to add these extras when you install Ubuntu 12.04. Watch for the screen that asks you if you want to add third party codecs and download updates while Ubuntu 12.04 is ...

A few weeks ago I took a look at how Ubuntu 7.04 handled proprietary file formats such as MP3, WMA and QuickTime movies. Overall the support was good (although I couldn't get QuickTime 7 movie support ...

Few video producers ever would have guessed that the term codec would become a household term, but with so many codecs on the market, average computer users have little choice but to be painfully ...