Hi,
As you may say, mp3 is not free. For example Linux-Mandrake cannot provide
an mp3 encoder since Fraunhofer would sue us and/or our clients for patent
infrigement.
As a results, in late 1998 a new free software project started in order to
produce a patent and royalties free compressed audio file format.
Roughly, the size/quality is equivalent to the mp3. (but adaptative
bitrate seems to be better handled) (e.g., it dynamically changes its
parameters in order to keep optimal quality, relatively to the quantity of
information that may vary throughout the audio stream).
It is now in the state where it's useable. I included packages in
Linux-Mandrake to encode/decode Ogg Vorbis, to convert from mp3 to Ogg
Vorbis, and to play Ogg Vorbis from within the XMMS multimedia system.
For more information please read my page:
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/~gc/html/oggvorbis.html
and/or install the packages `oggvorbis' and `oggvorbis-xmms' from Cooker.
--
Guillaume Cottenceau -- Distribution Developer for MandrakeSoft
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/~gc/
