Install the closed-source driver, media codecs, and other prohibited software on Linux.

Install the closed-source driver, media codecs, and other prohibited software on Linux.

A typical Linux system consists of unrestricted open source software. However, some of the most popular software on the market is either closed-source software or open-source software, but it is subject to patent restrictions. This restricted software may be easy to install and may take a long time, depending on your Linux release.

This content is restricted for several reasons. Many Linux distributions do not want to release closed-source software, so the AMD and NVIDIA graphics drivers you need to play the highest-performance 3D games are not easy to get, software such as Flash plug-ins is not easy to obtain. Other Linux distributions do not want to violate the software patents of the home country, so they do not offer open-source multimedia codecs that allow you to listen to MP3 videos or watch MP3 audio.

For whatever reason, the following describes how to install restricted proprietary programs on your Linux computer.

Ubuntu

Install restricted software on Ubuntu

Ubuntu makes this work easy. When installing Ubuntu, you will see the check box "install this third-party software. Activate this check box and Ubuntu will automatically install the support for various multimedia codecs. Even better, if you do not install this function during installation and try to play a multimedia file that requires the corresponding decoder in the future, you will be prompted to automatically install it.

After Ubuntu is installed, it notifies you whether your system requires a proprietary, closed-source hardware driver to run properly. Ubuntu will use the Additional Drivers tool to guide you through the installation of Additional Drivers.

Linux Mint

Linux Mint driver Manager

Linux Mint supports various multimedia codecs and Adobe Flash by default. This is one of the first reasons for the existence of Linux Mint, especially useful before Ubuntu makes it easy to install everything.

Mint also includes a Driver Manager tool, which works in a way similar to Ubuntu and is used to install these additional drivers. This is one of the reasons that Ubuntu and Linux Mint are the most suitable for beginners to release Linux.

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