Why no mp3 for linux.

[ChrisBooth12]

Unfortunately, due to legal restrictions and technical issues with some common audio formats, Ubuntu cannot play certain audio formats out-of-the-box. While support for certain restricted formats can be added after you have installed Ubuntu, it can be advantageous to convert audio files to a well-supported format. This is especially important if the files have been encoded using some form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) software, as DRM restrictions can render files unplayable in all applications but the one in which they were applied.

Now real and wma but why mp3? isnt it an open format that no one owns?

[friedo]

MP3 is indeed an open standard, and there is abundant support for it on Linux (and there has been for at least a decade.)

However, a large number of groups in recent years have claimed to have patents that cover all or part of the standard, or techniques used to implement the standard, in various jurisdictions. Although none of them have tried to collect license fees from open-source projects (as far as I know) some Linux distributions decided to exclude MP3 libraries from their mainline installations and encourage other formats like Vorbis instead. There’s nothing stopping you from installing MP3 support after the fact.

[ChrisBooth12]

@friedo

MP3 is indeed an open standard, and there is abundant support for it on Linux (and there has been for at least a decade.)

However, a large number of groups in recent years have claimed to have patents that cover all or part of the standard, or techniques used to implement the standard, in various jurisdictions. Although none of them have tried to collect license fees from open-source projects (as far as I know) some Linux distributions decided to exclude MP3 libraries from their mainline installations and encourage other formats like Vorbis instead. There’s nothing stopping you from installing MP3 support after the fact.

thanks for the quick reply. Thats what i figured. So basicly differnt distros decided not to risk it and just not go out of there way to support it.