On 25 Sep 2004, at 23:45, Gerard Meijssen wrote:
<snip interesting ogg-related stuff>
Gerard -- Apologies in case I'm not telling you anything new.
IMHO the story of the .ogg sound format qualifies as a classical Greek tragedy. Maybe it will get better in the future, but at present it's best described as [[snafu]].
The .ogg sound format was a very noble attempt -- driven by the desire to create an entirely free, high performance audio codec. (MP3 by comparison is not at all free as there are patents/license fees to the Fraunhofer institute involved.) The problem is that many months and years on, about all mainstream audio players still don't friggin support .ogg -- so well over 90% of desktop users don't do .ogg, don't know .ogg and can't be 4rsed to learn about .ogg.
The situation may improve as there is a plugin available (not installed by default) that can make QuickTime play .ogg and Real have started to embrace .ogg. Also, it's possible that the main codec pushers locking horns over Real, WMA and AAC coupled with the public's distaste for getting DRM LindaLovelaced on them may help .ogg adoption.
But let's face it: it doesn't look too good so far and -- call me a gutless turncoat if you must -- I'll switch over to ogg when there is actual music available in it. Try googling for an ogg file. See what I mean? You'd likely find that you have to use a P2P program (which many users don't even know much about and are scared away from using thanks to RIAA FUD) to actually *FIND* ogg files on the 'Net.
For these above reasons, I say IF we keep insisting on "ogg only" (and I really doubt that that's a good idea), again IF we insist on "ogg only", then AT LEAST we should make it VERY clear and painfully obvious to our users how to get these bleedin ogg thingies to play:
SHORT, SIMPLE and SUFFICIENT links and help pages, w/ a link to only ONE player per platform -- the most user friendly one. (cf. Buridan's ass: http://www.cenius.net/refer/display.php?ArticleID=buridansass (yeah, I should have improved our WP article, which is shite, but I could not be 4rsed (no pun intended)))
(NB: People are becoming less and less ready to install a plugin "just for one website". Sometimes not even ABLE to install, as w/ desktop lockdowns in a corporate environment.)
Then again, as we're not actually in the business of writing audio encoding software, we might just as well put up with reality and allow mp3 uploads.
-- ropers [[en:User:Ropers]] www.ropersonline.com