OggVorbis

An audio codec, similar to MP3 but higher quality (comparable to AAC) and generally resulting in smaller filesizes. Most importantly, it is patent free, unlike those other codecs. You might find [Ogg Vorbis] more useful if you want information.

Apple should support it in the iPod, but doesn't for some reason.

• Yeah, it would be nice if my new Nomad supported it, too.--AdamField

MichaelVrable tries to push its use, for example by using it in the LOTRaThon audio stream and recording.

Players that are known to play OggVorbis, both from disk and from a network stream:

• Windows: WinAmp (WinAmp 3 has trouble with network streams for some reason. Use WinAmp 2.x.)
• Linux/Unix: XMMS, ogg123, mplayer, xine, anything using gstreamer with the stock plugins installed, anything using kdemultimedia, etc
• Mac OS X: Whamb, mplayer, anything that uses QuickTime? and [XiphQT] (a free QuickTime? component)
  • There is an iTunes plugin that adds Ogg support, but it apparently doesn't work with streams.
    • It apparently worked for my parents during the LOTRaThon. I haven't asked about the details.
      • Perhaps they used the MP3 stream instead of the Vorbis stream. If they did get the Vorbis stream working, though, I'd love to hear the details. --MichaelVrable
    • It works with streams (ie: internet radio), but not with music shares, since iTunes is hard-coded to expect the share to be in an mpeg or wav container.
• VLC will also play OGG quite handily as a network stream. It's available for pretty much every OS build you can imagine, aside from DOS.

Feel free to add to the above list.