would like to see itunes be able to play both of these formate, especially flak
Yeah it would be nice if Apple supported these formats. In particular I would like to see OGG supported, not that I would use it - I know people who do though. It's unfortunate that Apple don't embrace open-source multimedia like they do other things. I guess it is a conflict of interest. More likely though is that it is the GNU Public Licence putting them off. Personally I'm not a fan of the GPL, it's too restrictive and prevents good software from being utilised more. That doesn't mean I'm not in favour of open-source, I just think there are better ways to do it like the BSD licence.
More likely though is that it is the GNU Public Licence putting them off. Personally I'm not a fan of the GPL, it's too restrictive and prevents good software from being utilised more. That doesn't mean I'm not in favour of open-source, I just think there are better ways to do it like the BSD licence.
The Xiph/Ogg stuff is nearly all under the BSD licence. The FLAC project started outside of Xiph so it's under the LGPL but the L(for lesser)GPL is for most purposes the same as the BSD licence and can be easily used by companies following the proprietary software model.
The KHTML rendering enging used by Safari is under the LGPL for example. That's why they have to release the changes to KHTML but not the code for Safari itself.
The basic idea (as put forth by GNU) is if you create something tricky or unique then you put it under the GPL and anyone building on it is forced to GPL their additions in order to take advantage of your work (or reinvent the wheel themselves).
If, on the other hand, you're trying to set a standard (audio, video, image, web formats etc.) or there are already plenty of commercial alternatives then you use the LGPL. Most of the lower level libraries are licenced under the LGPL and in fact it used to be called the Library GPL.
I stand corrected. The Xiph stuff is indeed BSD licensed. Well there is no excuse, get to it Apple. And yeah I like the LGPL it is basically GNU answer to the BSD licence.
What's the big deal with ogg and FLAK, do they really offer anything substantial over AAC ?
Ok, first thing Ogg is a lossy format like AAC and MP3, FLAC is a lossless format - no audio information at all is lost in the compression process. Now the big thing about both of them is that they are totally open and totally free of patents, licences and other issues. They are more or less free to use how you wish. Unlike AAC and MP3 which have licences and/or patents hanging over them.
Ogg is almost identical to AAC for most purposes, the main reason it will probably not show up in iTunes is that it offers little that AAC doesn't and so would be confusing for the average user.
It would be nice to have though, and there is already an Ogg icon (and a WMA one too) in the iTunes bundle.
FLAC, however is lossless, it's more like a .zip or stuffit format designed for music so you get a file identical in output to a WAV or AIFF at ~50% of the size.
Apple doesn't have a lossless compressor and WMA does so I thought it quite likely that they would adopt it. However I just heard that LPAC, a FLAC competitor has been adopted as the official MPEG-4 lossless codec, so you're more likely to see that. It should be official by the end of 2004.
Comments
Originally posted by tonton
iTunes can play .ogg files. You just need to install the appropriate plug-in.
how do i install it?
Originally posted by mattjohndrow
would like to see itunes be able to play both of these formate, especially flak
Yeah it would be nice if Apple supported these formats. In particular I would like to see OGG supported, not that I would use it - I know people who do though. It's unfortunate that Apple don't embrace open-source multimedia like they do other things. I guess it is a conflict of interest. More likely though is that it is the GNU Public Licence putting them off. Personally I'm not a fan of the GPL, it's too restrictive and prevents good software from being utilised more. That doesn't mean I'm not in favour of open-source, I just think there are better ways to do it like the BSD licence.
Originally posted by WJMoore
More likely though is that it is the GNU Public Licence putting them off. Personally I'm not a fan of the GPL, it's too restrictive and prevents good software from being utilised more. That doesn't mean I'm not in favour of open-source, I just think there are better ways to do it like the BSD licence.
The Xiph/Ogg stuff is nearly all under the BSD licence. The FLAC project started outside of Xiph so it's under the LGPL but the L(for lesser)GPL is for most purposes the same as the BSD licence and can be easily used by companies following the proprietary software model.
The KHTML rendering enging used by Safari is under the LGPL for example. That's why they have to release the changes to KHTML but not the code for Safari itself.
The basic idea (as put forth by GNU) is if you create something tricky or unique then you put it under the GPL and anyone building on it is forced to GPL their additions in order to take advantage of your work (or reinvent the wheel themselves).
If, on the other hand, you're trying to set a standard (audio, video, image, web formats etc.) or there are already plenty of commercial alternatives then you use the LGPL. Most of the lower level libraries are licenced under the LGPL and in fact it used to be called the Library GPL.
Originally posted by Matsu
What's the big deal with ogg and FLAK, do they really offer anything substantial over AAC ?
Ok, first thing Ogg is a lossy format like AAC and MP3, FLAC is a lossless format - no audio information at all is lost in the compression process. Now the big thing about both of them is that they are totally open and totally free of patents, licences and other issues. They are more or less free to use how you wish. Unlike AAC and MP3 which have licences and/or patents hanging over them.
It would be nice to have though, and there is already an Ogg icon (and a WMA one too) in the iTunes bundle.
FLAC, however is lossless, it's more like a .zip or stuffit format designed for music so you get a file identical in output to a WAV or AIFF at ~50% of the size.
Apple doesn't have a lossless compressor and WMA does so I thought it quite likely that they would adopt it. However I just heard that LPAC, a FLAC competitor has been adopted as the official MPEG-4 lossless codec, so you're more likely to see that. It should be official by the end of 2004.
For more info: http://www.nue.tu-berlin.de/wer/liebchen/lpac.html