Why I can’t upgrade to Tiger

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I’ve been meaning to upgrade my Mac to OS X v10.4, a.k.a. Tiger, for a while now. The DVD is sitting by my computer. I have updated all of my applications so that they will operate on Tiger after the upgrade. However, there is still one thing missing… Ogg support in iTunes.

My music collection currently consists of a mixture of mp3s and Ogg Vorbis files, with a few FLAC files thrown in for good measure (I used to be a free software absolutist, and I attempted to convert my entire music collection to open formats). ITunes does not natively support Ogg files, but there is a Quicktime plugin which allows me to play Oggs in iTunes, burn them to CDs, basically anything that I can do with an mp3 file. Unfortunately, the plugin stopped working with the release of Quicktime 7.0, iTunes 4.8, and OS X 10.4 (and the project appears to be abandoned, so I don’t anticipate an update). Therefore I have not upgraded any of that software, so that I can continue to play Oggs and use them to burn CDs.

This is the last thing holding me back from upgrading to Tiger (and the new Quicktime and iTunes). I need something which will play mp3s and Oggs, and burn CDs with both mp3s and Oggs. Any ideas? (Damn you Apple, for not building in Ogg support.)

3 thoughts on “Why I can’t upgrade to Tiger”

  1. Apple has no interest in supporting Oggs, because they’re tied into the AAC format. Stating the obvious, but still. iPods aren’t going to get Ogg support either anytime soon.

    I was unaware that the Ogg plugin kablooied with QT7, but I’m not surprised; they changed a lot of the backend of Quicktime to gear up for the switch to H.264.

    There is a way to downgrade to QT6.x (this hint), but I don’t know if it applies under 10.4.

    • iPods aren’t going to get Ogg support either anytime soon.

      It is possible that they might. as Robert Cringely has noted, recent versions of iTunes have included icons for Ogg files:

      Looking at the unused iTunes icons that shipped with your new version of 10.4, you’ll notice icons for currently-not-supported ogg vorbis and Windows Media Audio (wma), as well as several others including a variety of video formats, too.

      With this new information we can make a pretty good guess about the evolution of both iTunes and iPod. When Apple feels that the success of iTunes is absolutely assured, which will be shortly, they’ll address the user complaint that iPod only supports AAC and MP3 audio by adding these additional formats, leading to increased iPod sales.

  2. Audion plays MP3 and Ogg and all that. I think you’re missing out on a ton of stuff by not upgrading to Tiger. 75% of my music is Ogg, but having to use Audion is a small price to pay for spotlight and dashboard, to me.

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