Codecs (Coder Decoder) are software plugins that allow multimedia files, such as MP3 and AVI, to be recognized on a system. For example, if your system lacks the necessary codec to support MP3 files, you won't be able to play these files on your system. At first, you might be thinking, "What's the big deal?" These types of files work immediately on Windows and Mac OS X. In these platforms, you typically double-click on a multimedia file or insert a DVD, and the content plays without any extraordinary effort on your part. It's very easy to take this ability for granted, as most people expect these types of things to work. In Linux, however, it is the norm for these types of things to need a bit of configuration on the user's side to function properly. As a result, media files such as MP3s, some video formats, and DVDs won't play unless you manually install the software that makes them work.

So, why don't all distributions just give their users a break...