How does it "trick" you into installing a flash plugin? I'm pretty sure you can ...

technomancy · on Jan 9, 2012

> How does it "trick" you into installing a flash plugin? I'm pretty sure you can select not to install any proprietary software.

At install time it asked me if I wanted to include some other packages that are "restricted", such as the mp3 codecs. Using the mp3 codecs as an example tricked me into thinking they were restricted for patent issues, not because of a restrictive license.

jiggy2011 · on Jan 10, 2012

That's not really a 'trick' , the question is asking whether you want to stick with FOSS type licenses or whether you want audio & video to work.

It's easy enough to remove flash player later anyway but it seems a sensible assumption that if you want MP3 and video codecs you probably want flash.

technomancy · on Jan 10, 2012

> whether you want to stick with FOSS type licenses

You (and Ubuntu) are conflating software licensing with patent licensing; they are very different things. Patent licensing is only an issue in certain countries with insane laws; software licensing is a problem regardless of jurisdiction.