[Advocacy] Is Microsoft being cruel to OGG?

Carlo Capocasa capocasa at gmx.net
Fri Sep 30 00:27:20 PDT 2005


Hi!

I just installed a copy of Windows XP inside a heavily guarded and 
quarantined QEMU partition and got me a copy of Windows Media Player 10 
so I could test my OGG files in that environment...

So when I installed WMP10 it suggested I associate OGG files with it, 
which I was pleasantly surprised by, but it asks to associate OGG files 
with the file extensions, hold your horses 'OGA' and 'OGV', and no 
mention of 'OGG'. (To be fair, 'SPX' is there correctly)

Now I know couple of 'renegades' (kidding) outrageously renamed ogg 
video files to 'OGM' to distinguish, which is already frowned upon by 
the OGG community.

Now what about 'OGA' and 'OGV'? This looks suspicously like a tactic to 
create more consumer lock-in by making WMV the only format simple enough 
for a non-tech-interested user to play videos with. It is well known a 
lead Microsoft developer made it clear in a memo to his boss that the 
only reason Microsoft is still in business is consumer and developer 
level customer lock in.

First off, are my suspicions grounded, or has there been an agreement by 
Xiph for Microsoft to name OGG files OGA and OGV?

If not, what can be done about this?

Carlo


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