[Wikipedia-l] Links to sound

[lcrocker at nupedia.com]

>> I don't think it's appropriate to put Realaudio on Wikipedia.
>> The only sound format that is readily usable by freely-available
>> software on multiple platforms and that is compressed for Web
>> transfer is Ogg Vorbis.  Especially now that they've released
>> 1.0, I see no reason to use anything else.

> Can ordinary Windows users, i.e. users who aren't into music and
> file sharing and the like, use Ogg Vorbis with relative ease?
> For example, could my mom, running Windows 2000 or Windows XP,
> click on an Ogg Vorbis sound and end up happy?

She probably doesn't have the software installed already, but it's
not that difficult.  Some players like Sonique come with OGG support
out-of-the-box; others like WinAmp require you to install a plugin.
It's likely that Mozilla will add native support.  I.E. will
likely always launch the external player.

But the big benefit is that unlike RA, she won't have to install
software that takes over her machine, sends her spam, and was
written by a company that has proven it can't be trusted.  As
much as people complain about MS, Real.com is ten times worse.
I personally refuse to use any software from them--I value my
computer, and won't risk it.  So I simply can't use RA at all.
It's a one-company format, so if I don't use their software,
there's no alternative.

I'm not quite as opposed to MP3--there are some patent problems,
but at least it's not a one-company format and there are players
for all platforms, and players are more likely to support it
without pugins.  But most software supporting MP3 is also
supporting OGG these days or has promised to.