Stop the press: Watch the news with Linux!

For the past three versions of Ubuntu, I have tested seven news websites to find out if I could watch their video feeds using Ubuntu. You can read the results for 6.10 and 7.04, and 7.10. Each time, I was disappointed to learn that a majority of the video feeds did not play correctly on Ubuntu Linux. This time, however, something amazing has happened.

I don't know which stars aligned to cause this, but every single news website that I tested with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS now has a correctly working video feed! I wasn't expecting this great of an improvement when I began this series of tests. I always knew that it would happen eventually, but never this quickly.

So what is the reason for this change? The video news sites have obviously realized the value of having a cross-platform video player. Market share gains by Linux are still small, so it is more likely the growth of Mac OS that led to this change of thinking. Be sure to thank your local Mac OS user for their help in forcing these news websites to stop using Microsoft-only video players and providing a way for Linux users to watch the news!

ABC News

• Sound: YES (Improvement!)
  
• Video: YES (Improvement!)
  

BBC News

• Sound: YES (Improvement!)
  
• Video: YES (Improvement!)
  

CBS News

• Sound: YES
  
• Video: YES
  

CNBC

• Sound: YES (Improvement!)
  
• Video: YES (Impovement!)
  

CNN

• Sound: YES
  
• Video: YES

Note: You can skip advertisements by clicking on the video you want to watch as soon as the advertisement begins to play. This currently only works in Linux, and they will probably patch this hole eventually.

FOX News

• Sound: YES
  
• Video: YES (Improvement!)

Note: FOX News has a volume problem that causes the advertisement volume to be MUCH louder than the story volume. If this tactic is intentional, they should know that this is a great reason NOT to watch their news videos.

MSNBC

• Sound: YES
  
• Video: YES