Something better than MP3 - Ogg Vorbis
Most Linux users have probably at least heard of Ogg Vorbis, while most Windows users most likely haven’t, unless they are super nerds.
The Ogg Vorbis website sums it up quite nicely…..
“Ogg Vorbis is a new audio compression format. It is roughly comparable to other formats used to store and play digital music, such as MP3, VQF, AAC, and other digital audio formats. It is different from these other formats because it is completely free, open, and unpatented.”
Ok, so now we know that it’s absolutely free. That alone gives us users some advantages. Linux distributions in general have Ogg Vorbis support built in. That means no additional codec installs. That’s good for everyone.
Of course there are other advantages as well. Installing an mp3 codec in linux could be against the law, depending on where you live. Using Ogg Vorbis, you will be worry free and law abiding.
The Ogg Vorbis format will save you hard drive space. If you choose to save your Ogg files at the same quality as your mp3’s, the Ogg files will be smaller. Or, you can use a higher quality than the mp3’s and still use the same amount of space.
- If you’re a developer, there’s a very large advantage. You can include sound files in your software and you won’t pay any licensing fees at all. Many game developers (Epic Games and EA Games for example) have realized this and started using Ogg to keep the money in their pocket.
Ogg Vorbis is also streamable via the icecast audio server. So, there is an alternative for websites and for home media servers that also happens to be completely open source.
At this point, you’re probably thinking……… Portable music players don’t play Ogg Vorbis. You’re absolutely right, if you’re talking about the ipod. But, there are actually quite a few players on the market that support Ogg Vorbis. Don’t believe me? Here’s just one of the many links to lists of Ogg players…. http://www.ciao.co.uk/Portable_MP3_Players_5266512_3-ogg_vorbis
Why should we put up with closed source, licensed, audio codecs when there are perfectly usable alternatives? Why don’t we change the world instead of going along with it?
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