Ogg Vorbis 1.0 Approaches With Release Candidate 1 Expected Today

Ogg Vorbis, the patent-unencumbered sound standard its developers hope will lay MP3 to rest, is approaching version 1.0. According to the development team, 1.0 Release Candidate 1 should be hitting servers today. This release will be feature-complete and the only changes the team plans to make are for bugfixes.

ZDNet has a writeup on the significance of the release:

Traditionally, companies that might license other developers' software have been skeptical of using anything that comes before a 1.0 release, viewing that as a sign that there are still bugs, or flaws, in the software code. Vorbis' developers have said that they view the 1.0 release as a critical moment for gaining support from a wider range of commercial backers.

The version set for release Sunday will officially be a "release candidate"--containing essentially everything that will be in the final version but still being checked by its users for last-minute flaws.

"After some pounding on this, we'll ship 1.0," Jack Moffitt, a Vorbis developer, wrote in an e-mail. "This is essentially 1.0, but we're giving ourselves a short cycle to squash any bugs that come up."

Complete Story

The project download page (where a specifically-labeled RC1 release has yet to appear)

Related Stories:

• Wall St. Journal/Canoe.com: Tech Industry Aims to Render MP3 Obsolete (Apr 12, 2001)
• BSD Today: Ogg Vorbis, cdparanoia and ripping(Mar 13, 2001)
• Binary Freedom: Vorbis Recombinant(Feb 27, 2001)
• Binary Freedom: Ogg Vorbis - The Successor to MP3?(Jan 21, 2001)
• Linux Journal: Ogg Vorbis--Open, Free Audio--Set Your Media Free(Dec 16, 2000)
• CNET News.com: Open-source MP3 project [Ogg Vorbis] continues after parent's demise(Dec 11, 2000)
• Goodbye MP3, Hello...Ogg Vorbis?(Dec 10, 2000)
• Canada Computes: Audio Column: Format Wars 2 - The Chicken or the Ogg? (Oct 19, 2000)
• O'Reilly Network: Could Ogg Vorbis Replace MP3?(Oct 14, 2000)
• MachineOfTheMonth: Ogg Vorbis [open source replacement for MP3 format](Aug 26, 2000)