I find it annoying that you can’t watch a DVD in Windows XP, Windows Vista Basic, or in Linux (i.e. Ubuntu).
Thankfully though there is an easy fix!
The easy fix is VLC from videolan.
VLC in Windows XP.
VLC is a opensource codec player. It allows you to play DVD’s, windows media, real player, divx, QuickTime, you name it, without the hassle of using (and abusing) bloat-ware.
It will play pretty much all formats that you can think of (except blu-ray/HDDVD), which is handy. You no longer need to spend $50 to have the right to play DVD’s and its legal 
.
VLC will also download and play podcasts so it’s also a all-in-one podcast manager.
I love VLC, and I hope you will too.
VLC, all the way! It will play just about anything.
Rick
I’ve known about VLC but I never knew about how good it was. I was trying to play a DVD on my XP laptop, (Julia, and Juliet) but it didn’t work! (Cursed DRM).
Luckily I had a MaximumPC CD disk with VLC on it, since I do not have internet at home. It saved my sanity
. I am now highly aware of its useful(ness).