[EthoX]

A friend of mine sent me a Ogg Vorbis file, first of all what is it(?), and what advantages does it have over MP3 file/format. Can I play this format thru iTunes, what do I need to do thise?

Thanks

[Technicolor]

You can use Audion to play Ogg files.

[Mithras]

Ogg Vorbis is an audio format that is
(1) open source, i.e. the software to encode and decode it is open source
(2) not patent-encumbered.

#2 is particularly important. Phillips has a patent on mp3, which means that legally, every mp3 encoder must pay Philips a small fee. For example, Apple pays for its use of mp3 in iTunes; presumably we make up for it with the prices for Mac hardware, and by buying Jaguar update.

This is a problem for open-source software; if you download a Linux distribution for free, who's going to pay Philips for the mp3 encoding software included? (For this reason, Red Hat and other distributors have been forced to include mp3 software only in a paid boxed edition)

Because of these issues, and because people like to code their own stuff, Ogg Vorbis was invented. It offers somewhat better compression than mp3, or somewhat better quality for a given file size.

You can download an Ogg Vortbis Quicktime Component that will allow iTunes (and any Quicktime-compliant app) to play ogg files.

[Millennium]

Mithras is half right about the patent-encombrance of MP3. There are patents on it, but they don't belong to Philips. They belong to Fraunhofer. The same goes for MP3Pro.

There is an Ogg plugin for iTunes, but last I checked, you still couldn't just open an Ogg file as-is and play it; there's some extra stuff you need to do. Personally, I just use Audion. You can also use Mint Audio or OggDrop (which also encodes Oggs) to play them.