[vorbis] How to make Vorbis popular

[rob1 at rekl.yi.org]

On Fri, 11 Jan 2002, fungus wrote:
...
> I thought the file format (and decoder) was now finalized
> and it was only the encoder which was being tweaked.

<p>Right.  That's why I'm not encoding any of my music using Ogg.  If the
encoder is not "done", any encoding I do now will probably be repeated
later when everything is "tweaked", since it will sound better (in
theory).  Plus, until the whole suite is considered "released", things may
change, like file format, etc.  (I know the goal is to keep the file
format consistent and no decoder changes, but it's not guaranteed.)  If
the format is set-in-stone, call it and the decoder 1.0, and the encoder
1.0rcX.  That way, everybody will know the true state of development.

Software is interesting for the fact that it can always be tweaked, or
improved, or fixed, as time goes on.  It seems like it's taking forever
for Ogg 1.0 to get out, because it's trying to "perfect" for 1.0.  Every
day that goes by that it's still in "pre-release" is a day that a
potential user dismisses it because it is not "released".  Sure, it's nice
to have things finalized on release (_every_ bit rate tweaking, etc), but
you also have to look at the business case:  not everybody cares about
having every bitrate "optimized".

I haven't followed the development of Ogg for a while.  Personally, I
would have released a 1.0 a while ago that has a few common bitrates
"tweaked", like 96k, 128k, 160k, 256k.  That way, everybody who is waiting
for a "released" version has it, and other companies can base their
products on that version.  While it's getting momentum, work can continue
on all of the other stuff that you really want in it, and then call it
1.1.

Oh well.  I guess I'll just keep waiting.

<p>--- >8 ----
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