You are correct - they are 'basically' the same... but not.

I do not know the little bits and pieces of 'why' the following is true, but it is: Certain laws in the United States and elsewhere prevent copyrighted (trade secret, proprietary) codecs (which, in this case, are created by the Windows developers) to be distributed legally. These laws or regulations are apparently not enforced in China.

Therefore, by downloading from a Chinese server, we are able to get the 'real' codecs.

The similar codecs available on the United States servers are open source codecs that try to do the same job as the actual 'real' Windows codecs. They do a good job, but sometimes they don't work for everything.

That is all the information that I have on the subject... after getting the "Chinese" codecs to work, I stopped researching the topic because it worked, so I didn't need any more information.

------------

Regarding Fedora Core 6...

I myself have actually just upgraded my workstation to FC6 -- my server, home theatre PC, and other machines still use FC5. I have, however, not worked with Mandrake, Suse, or any other distributions. I have only dealt with Red Had 7, Red Hat 9, Fedora Core 5 and 6.

My reasons for choosing Red Hat / FC is (in my opinion) ease of use and familiarity of gnome --- gnome under FC looks a lot like Windows.

I am sorry, but that is all that I can really tell you on the topic... Red Hat / FC worked for me, so I pretty much stopped looking for distrutions after that... its the whole "If it's not broke, don't fix it" mentality.

Originally posted by poweredbydodge
Since I live in the People's Republic of China, may I reply?

In China, copyright means 'the right to copy'. There is little respect
for the rights or properties of others. In the city where we live, you
can purchase *any* software (copy CD) for 3 RMB.

Sorry but I only like Kde as I have tried both but my liking went on to KDE and What I read at wikipedia and as per ur reply is Fedora Core is Gnome and none of the Linux Distro works for me fully (presently Installed Open Suse 10.1 but no GUI or Display, I think my monitor is not supporting 1024*768 or something and it is trying for the same sd no display, can u tell me how to convert it to 800*600) so Im trying various distros But liked Mandriva 2007 as it is KDE and I have ubuntu (But unable to enable KDE) where as Kubuntu has KDE by default(What I have heard) but I don't have kubuntu. So it is still in trial and error. What I felt is Linux still needs some time (2yrs) to penetrate in a desktop os market (PC OS)for a common user. U all may not agree with my Thinking.

Thanking U all
Param

Param,

Fedora can use either Gnome or KDE (or even both, with a tool that allows you to switch between the two). This choice can be made during installation.

As far as how to change resolution... I only know how to do that from within the gui... which I don't suppose you'd be able to do if you can't get the gui to load.

Thank U as I was not knowing that u can select the option while installation itself. if it so then I'll definately give it a try. Another thing with FC is it does not detect my all other OSes, although it gives the option to add them. Anyhow I'll definately give a try to FC.

Thanking u for all ur support & kind advice

WOW !!!!

What a great resource. Many thanks.

You're welcome. If I spent as much time reading them as LQ threads ...

Maybe you would like to try SimplyMEPIS.

http://www.mepis.org/

Additional support is here:-

http://www.mepislovers.com/forums/index.php

Hope this helps you.

Dear Sir,
This is not free and the free version may not provide all the softwares but I'd surely give a try to it.

Thank U
Param

Dear Friend,
Thank U I've tried(Installed) SimplyMepis 6 and I must say that It is going on smooth presently but lot of dependency problem.

I'll inform u later as I proceed in Mepis