How to play Windows Media files on Linux

It's a sad fact that many audio and video files are distributed in Windows Media formats. Windows users don't have any much trouble playing them and even Mac users can download Windows Media Player, but what about Linux users? Well, for them there's this tutorial at AllYourTech.com. It describes how to add Windows Media support to your Linux box using the Xine media engine, the Totem movie player, and MPlayer's Essential Codecs Package. As with many things Linux, it requires a bit of typing, but looks pretty straightforward.