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Sunday Vote: MP3 Versions in TechBytes

Ogg Theora



Summary: Open question about the future of MP3 format in TechBytes

THE next episode of TechBytes will revolve around office suites, LibreOffice in particular. After Richard Stallman's advice that we should omit MP3 versions of the show altogether I wish to ask readers of this site (or listeners of TechBytes for that matter) what they think about the subject. It's going to be a group decision. My main concern has been, having no MP3 versions would render the show unplayable on many portable devices, cars stereos, etc. Much of the target audience uses FOSS operating system, so Ogg is typically supported out of the box and the Ogg downloads by far exceed those of the MP3 anyway. So, today'a small poll (members-only vote) will help determine if future episodes of Techbytes will be encoded as MP3 as well as Ogg or just Ogg (encouraging people to download Ogg-playing software and buy Ogg-supporting gadgets, as Stallman would allege)

"If you are registered with this site, please consider voting right now, with or without listening to Stallman's advice in advance."If we drop the MP3 versions, the show will be Ogg only, as well as VP8/WebM-supporting (as fallback) for browsers that are less Ogg-tolerant. The vote will be considered and taken into account within the next 24 hours or so.

For those who wish to know Stallman's views on this subject, I have just encoded his conversation with me (as ogg of course), allowing folks to hear his side in this. He does make a rather compelling argument.

To the right side of this post (scroll down a little) I have added a poll question. If you are registered with this site, please consider voting right now, with or without listening to Stallman's advice in advance. Also consider leaving a comment.

Richard Stallman on MP3 Options for Techbytes: Download:

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Richard Stallman on MP3 Options for Techbytes: Embedded (HTML5):





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