I have mainly .mp3 encoded audio files that i'd love to listen to. I have FC4.

anyone know a good player i should or some audio codecs i need to download for FC4's default player which seems to be named: Music Player.

oh and a quick question: what music encoding would linux intend people to play? not having .mp3 compatibility is really really dumb.

You can try xmms.

Especially since there are about 47 different programs for Linux which will play them, including FC4's 'Music Player', xmms.

You need LAME, and the most cursory search of these forums will explain all you need to get it.

It's a legal thing. OGG is the preferred format as it is open and lossless.

Not having Search or FAQ capability is really really dumb.

Well, ogg is not lossless, but it's open...

i love linux so don't attack me. The legal thing is sort of the answer i wanted... If mp3 was left out of the FC4 installation cd due to legal restrictions it makes more sense... but if unix programmers actually forgot to add it in that would just be sad. Especially if they expect more common users to side with linux.

for all of you who attacked me: let it be known that i am choosing linux because of what it can offer me and at the same time i have to be the cynic, because when i'm ready to help program linux distro's i want to know what users want from their OS. Linux has failed in many, many, many, many, areas to be a desirable OS for the average user. It is not because of microsoft that windows is so popular, its because linux is such a failure.

I am not attacking you but have a few issues with your posts. When you post on a Linux forum and say something is really dumb without doing prior background research, you are bound to get people who will attack you. There are better ways of putting across your views or asking questions without seeming like you have an attitude.

If Linux is such a failure, then why are you using it. You are contradicting yourself by saying you like Linux, but then saying its a failure.

Contradicting myself? Failure is put into an instance of: "Winning over average users". In that Linux is an utter failure.

I never said Linux rox at winning over average users and then said its a failure at it. If i had said that then you could claim self-contravention. Right?

Ok, I get what you mean, but would you classify Linux as an OS for your average Joe. Even Windows is not easy for your average Joe. Whilst Linux strives to be an all round OS, its still very young when compared to Windows or MacOS. There also seems to be a lot more effort now to make linux viable on the desktop, whereas before that, many developers concentrated on the server side of things. Personally I think every OS fulfills certain needs and its a matter of picking the right tool to fulfill those needs.

i agree entirely. And my mission is to make linux master ergonomics to win casual users over. Because i HATE microsoft.

Seems interesting thread! But I think that its moving apart from the topic itself (.mp3 on fedora) to Microsoft vs. Linux.

OK, back to the thread itself and away from Win Vs. Lin.

Checkout http://freshrpms.net/.

I can't give a direct link because it is blocked from where I work, but down towards the bottom of the page is a link to FC4. Click that, and then at the top there is a link for: "apt, yum, others".

I think that takes you the where you want to be.

If you add the freshrpm's repositories to your yum.conf, you gain access to a whole host of other software such as mplayer, and also a package called xmms-mp3 as far as I can remember. Fedora will not include mp3 support and others out of the box because that means they would have to pay some kind of license fee per download, or per CD. Fresh RPM's list the package to help, and to take any legal burden off FC4.

Ubuntu is the same, it does not ship directly with mp3 support, but even on the official Ubuntu website, they point you to to repo's you need to add to allow apt to install mp3 support.

Sorry I couldn't give a direct yum.conf example, but I'm sure someone out there has done it!

thanks morrolan truly, i already managed to get xmms working. also i prefer the command line

XMMS uses the older GTK1, which... isn't easy on the eyes. One might consider Beep Media Player(BMP) - it looks better. It should be in the FC repos.
As for codecs, the real open source/free software approach would be to use OGG and FLAC. FLAC makes bigger files, but is Free Lossless Audio Codec. Lossless quality is brilliant.