Linux and Mac users who bought the Nit are Nokia customers too!

See? See?

But Linux and Mac users are beyond savvy. It's dumb Windoze users like me who like things simple to use.

Seriously, I'd bet Handbrake does a damn good job of converting, once you have the right settings. I haven't used it since my iBook G3 died on my a year and half ago...

My point is that:
A) There are many more Windows users than Linux
B) Linux users have good solutions anyway in this area. Rather than reinvent wheels, I'd like to help customers where we can be the most effective in doing so.

Anyway, to make this whole thread more productive rather than a bunch of rants , I'd love to hear ideas about how to distribute an app that'll seamlessly work on ever major flavor of Linux. Ideas anyone?

The same way all the other apps do it. Create hooks, but don't distribute any actual codecs. You then leave it up to the user to purchase or "purchase" codecs. You are legally in the clear, it makes your job a lot easier, and it means that your app is less bloated.

To take one example, it is technically illegal to encode mp3 files using LAME(hence the name, LAME Aint an MP3 Encoder). Apps like Foobar2000 on windows get around this issue by simply not distributing LAME.exe(or any other codec) and then asking you to point to it before you do a conversion. This also has the added bonus of allowing users to use the most current codecs immediately upon release instead of having to wait for another revision of their application to incorporate them.

Also check this out:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Interviews/CodecBuddy

off_topic:

- not really bashing, just really don't care... (i stepped off the monopoly's treadmill nearly 20 years ago)...

on_topic:

- one of the nice things about the N8x0 ITs is that for once it seems that a computer manufacturer has produced a viable, working product that does not depend on a single software platform... IOW, setup, configuration, installation, maintenance, updates, etc. are cross-platform for this device...

- this is great, and for me (a sample of one), has been fortuitous... e.g., the N8x0 flash utility worked flawlessly under Linux on my notebook, but failed under my Mac OS X (10.3.9) notebook...

- anyhow, even if there's a Linux version of the video converter i probably won't use it, as MPlayer performs well enough and handles non-converted videos just fine... from my viewpoint, why bother to convert video at all?

- it *is* great that Nokia is paying attention to this platform... i hope to see this platform succeed... i've purchased several of the n800s, and look forward to seeing Nokia produce a long line of Linux-based ITs...

Why trying to find a solution, where no solution is needed.

I know the various mencoder based solutions for Linux (tablet-encode...) and they are quite good except that they are lacking a decent GUI (yeah I know there are some minimalistic GUIs available).

I think it would be more than sufficient to keep us Linux users happy, if Nokia would provide some nice GUI which uses mencoder to produce videos in decent quality that are guaranteed to work on the default media player.

No need to distribute mencoder or any codes along with the GUI. I guess every Linux user is able to install mencoder from the repositories of his preferred distribution.

Time for me to weigh in on this one:
First of all: Victor addressed the difficulties in releasing desktop applications for the Internet Tablet in the interview I just posted. It's about evaluating the market and doing the right application to fit right need at the right time.

My personal take on this: If I were sitting at a desk at Nokia, I'd say a Windows application is right for two reasons: 1: Reggie pointed out - most desktop users are still on Windows. 2: Linux and Mac users are generally smarter when it comes to handling video. There are lots of tools available to them and either they're very intuitive (Mac stuff) or they're aimed at smarter users (Linux stuff) so, naturally, Mac and Linux desktop software for video is a lower priority.

Yes - I just said Mac and Linux users are smarter than Windows users when it comes to video conversion. I expect some backlash for this. I wonder if it'd be more or less than the backlash being given to Nokia about having a Windows only app.

Thanks for your response. I tried another avi file and it worked properly with excellent picture and sound.

Can anybody suggest a Windows or N800 tool I can use to cut a couple of megs off the front of the avi file that doesn't work so I can send it to Nokia for evaluation?

This avi file plays without sound in Windows media player even before conversion, so maybe it's not considered a bug. The original does, however have sound when using kmplayer.

Windows movie maker won't edit this file because of a missing codec, but thanks for the suggestion.

Windows XP comes with Windows Movie Maker already installed. I think it will do what you want.

The problem with that is Windows Movie Maker will export into a .WMV file using Microsoft's CODECs. In fact, anything that re-codes it will likely destroy the original (and crashing) code. On a positive note - now you know what to use to re-code the file