InfoTech: moving away from proprietary music formats

But there is an alternative - and one you can download and install quickly, easily and for free.

It's OGG.

If you are running on any flavour of Linux/Unix or OS X, Windows or even OS/2, OGG works. And it works on the PocketPC.

Annoyingly, the cartel that major tech and media manufacturers operate means that OGG does not play on many portable devices. After all, most of them are called IPod or MP3 players for a reason - that's what they play. And many of the media companies insist on proprietary DRM - and put pressure on manufacturers to implement their DRM into players - and as part of the deal want restrictions on the type of media the kit can play. So, if a major electronics company also owns a major record company, it's not going to want to promote an open source means of playing it.

So you don't find OGG on many Japanese devices.

Samsung, however, include Ogg on almost all of their current rang of players.

Other device manufacturers who recognise the growth of this format include madcap (or so people used to think) Trevor Baylis with is Revolution, iRiver, Tonium, Sandisk, KIngston and Insignia.

WIth lesser known brands such as Cowon and Coby, Trekstor and MobiBlu and MPIO there is clearly interest in the format

It took a while but Sony has now provided OGG capability on the PSP and it is finding its way onto Sony Ericsson phones. But as for Sony portable music players? We didn't find one. Nor any of the other major Japanese brands.

But independent music makers are starting to use OGG for the simple reason that it is cross-platform, high-quality and royalty-free.

Download the player here

There are many open-source recording programs that record in OGG as a native format: the most popular is undoubtedly Audacity - which that pesky hardware / software cartel has acted to undermine by placing sound chips on motherboards which do not allow the facility to record what you hear. The solution is, usually, just to install an old-fashioned sound card from a redundant machine and bypass the motherboard sound option.

You can toss Windows Media Player and rip your CDs into OGG with a number of open-source products listed at the Vorbis.Com software section.

And if you fancy being a DJ - or even just setting up your own party tapes, there are several programs designed to help you do just that.

OGG is gaining such traction that even WinAMP has now been upgraded to play the format,

But perhaps the sign of mainstream acceptability is the endorsement of the mighty RealNetworks - their Helix Player accepts the format, too.