Browser Pugins

[GaryN]

I must be going soft in the head, but despite having played with computers and operating systems for as long as they've been around, I'm stumped by trying to get browser plugins to work with Ubuntu or Mint. I recently installed 14 Nadia, did all the updates as far as I know, but using Firefox or Chrome, the only plugin that will work is Flash. If I go to the Firefox plug-in test page, it tells me I need to update Quicktime plugin, says flash is up to date, and all the others say 'unknown plugin'.
The Apple page does not tell me how to upgrade their plugin on Linux, very helpful.
So I removed iced-tea and anything I can find to do with Java, so now when I click on a link the videos/audio will open in their own window in VLC or whatever I chose, the whole process is MUCH quicker and less frustrating, no doubt some pages may not work if Java is needed, so I'd like a fix, but trying to set up novice users with Linux is just getting to be a real pain and I'm seriously looking at running XP again, or maybe using GNU and customising it as needed.
I've played with Linux since 0.84 on floppies, and only recently (with 10.04) did I think it was ready for the masses, but I'm rethinking that just now. Too complex and unstable and impossible to find simple answers to some basic questions. Can anyone convince me to hang in with Linux??

[TheDynamicHamza21]

I must be going soft in the head, but despite having played with computers and operating systems for as long as they've been around, I'm stumped by trying to get browser plugins to work with Ubuntu or Mint. I recently installed 14 Nadia, did all the updates as far as I know, but using Firefox or Chrome, the only plugin that will work is Flash. If I go to the Firefox plug-in test page, it tells me I need to update Quicktime plugin, says flash is up to date, and all the others say 'unknown plugin'.
The Apple page does not tell me how to upgrade their plugin on Linux, very helpful.
So I removed iced-tea and anything I can find to do with Java, so now when I click on a link the videos/audio will open in their own window in VLC or whatever I chose, the whole process is MUCH quicker and less frustrating, no doubt some pages may not work if Java is needed, so I'd like a fix, but trying to set up novice users with Linux is just getting to be a real pain and I'm seriously looking at running XP again, or maybe using GNU and customising it as needed.
I've played with Linux since 0.84 on floppies, and only recently (with 10.04) did I think it was ready for the masses, but I'm rethinking that just now. Too complex and unstable and impossible to find simple answers to some basic questions. Can anyone convince me to hang in with Linux??

I never had problems with Ubuntu 10.04 one my favorite distros within the six years I've been using Linux. Moreover Nadia is buggy as hell. I wish Mint would not follow the Ubuntu six month releases,most those non-LTS releases are too buggy for most users. If you want stability always choose a LTS version of Linux distro.