Why MP3 support is missing

Both Fedora 3 and SUSE Linix 9.3 don't have support for MP3 out of the box.
Most users and even artists are not aware that mp3 is not free. Fraunhofer owns the mp3 patents and charges royalties for their use.

For SUSE 9.3, Novell introduced the concepts of Multimedia Optional Packs,
now available via regular YaST Online Update.