Linux® for Dummies®, 9th Edition

Chapter 14. Messing with Video and Graphics

In This Chapter

• Watching online and downloaded videos

• Watching DVDs

• Creating and modifying high-powered graphics with The GIMP

• Playing 3-D games

	Video killed the radio star.
	--The Buggles

There's no question that video is one area in which Linux has been playing catch-up. The original Linux systems didn't even support a Windows-style desktop! In the early days of Linux, it was close to impossible to dislay any type of video, let alone play movies or high-end computer-graphics games.

Fortunately, things are much different nowadays. There aren't many things your Linux computer can't do in the video world (unless of course it's illegal, but more on that later). This chapter walks you through your Linux computer's video and graphics capabilities.

Watchin' Those Silly Web Clips

The Internet has become a clearinghouse for just about any type of video content you can imagine (and even some you couldn't imagine if you tried). From Google Videos to YouTube, lots of sites exist to keep you entertained.

Through the Firefox Web browser (see Chapter 9), your Linux system can display many different types of Web clips (although, unfortunately, not all of them by default).

Checking your plugins

Plugins are the key to displaying Web video content in Firefox. As discussed in Chapter 9, plugins provide additional functionality to the Firefox browser.

You can check to see what plugins are already installed in your Firefox setup by following these steps:

1. Open Firefox ...