> I seriously doubt the Gnome folks will include support for practical things like mp3, mpeg2, or any non-free format that supports this consumption model. So this device will be use full for what? Reading web sites?
It is not in their means to ship such support.
It would be idiotically unpractical to try to ship support for stuff like that in commercial products using open source software and while not paying for royalties.
The only choice you have is to have users install such support themselves or have the royalties fees paid and included as part of the price of the device your selling. Both eventualities are taken into account and can easily fit withing the gstreamer plugin framework that Gnome uses.
So far watching videos have not been much of a problem for me using Totem.