I still find it unacceptable to have this kind of a problem with changing servers, however I’m quite sure there will be a 2.0 spec to implement contact list import or something like that, I don’t expect anything less in the long/middle term, because we (free/open source) are just better.

As far as Ogg Vorbis goes, as much as I’d love to completely switch to that format, there are currently no aftermarket CD players for cars that play Vorbis. I burn all my music to a CDRW and take it with me on the road, wouldn’t be able to do that currently while only using the OGG format. If you know of any solutions, I’d be glad to hear them.

SIP is VoIP, pure and simple. Jingle is a great solution to the user-to-user voice problem (that problem being Skype and absolute vendor lock in), however it does not fix the grand scheme of things.

I use SIP for now, and once more authors adopt it, I’ll be more astute to Jingle.
(There’s also an upcoming SIPJingle bridge, so the point may be totally moot soon.)

However, what most don’t realize, and I hope to educate through this blog, is that there are consequences to choosing proprietary standards over open ones. For example, .doc format. While opening, saving, editing and printing this format in OpenOffice.org is transparent, the OOo developers rely on updates and security fixes from Microsoft to present it in the application suite. If Microsoft decides to switch gears, which they have, or drop the format all together, then where do you turn for support when a document, or the application, fails on some level? Ultimately, you are stuck in vendor lock-in, and rely on that vendor for everything. Format and application. This is bad.

Consider Massachusetts, and since, many other states. Massachusetts has announced that all state and lower-level government documents and publications will be stored in the Open Document Format. The reason is about usability, and becoming free from the vendor lock-in. ODF can be opened in any text editor, by uncompressing the document, and viewing the XML. By being an open standard, many applications are supporting it, and it’s easy to implement if not already. Thus, the need for relying on a vendor for the format, and the ability to manipulate the documents is obliterated. And, the guarantee that the document will always be usable is imminent as ODF is stored in plain text, and not a binary blob such as the Microsoft formats.

In the terms of MP3 versus Ogg Vorbis. Both are patented technologies. Both are a means to an end. However, one is a patented royalty-based protocol, and the other in non-royalty-based. One is proprietary, the other Free Software. What does this mean? Well, in the United States, you have to pay a royalty to the MP3 patent owners every time you encode an audio track to MP3. This fee can come in the price of the operating system that you paid for, or in the application that you pay for. However, you are still paying the royalty. With Ogg Vorbis, no royalty is needed, thus encoding can be freely distributed in any application. This makes the nature of the protocol more attractive than MP3. As far as answering your question about whether the iPod or iTunes supports Ogg Vorbis, the answer is yes and no- no, it does not natively, yes, you can replace the firmware in the iPod, and there are other iTunes-like apps that support Ogg Vorbis, and the iPod natively. Surprise- they’re Free Software!

I for one am a fan of open standards when it solves a problem. Jabber solves a specific problem: other chat protocols are proprietary and you can’t chat with someone on Yahoo from AOL. That’s annoying. So an open protocol makes sense.

But for something like documents, there is no real disruption, is there? You can share a .doc by printing a PDF. Or if you want that person to edit, who doesn’t have Word these days? And if you don’t have Word, why can’t you just open the .doc with OpenOffice? It doesn’t seem to solve a “real world” problem.

So while there are people of principal that adopt based on what they think is right, I think there might not be as much practical benefit to propel a mass conversion to other open formats.

I mean–does the iPod or iTunes even support Ogg Vorbis?

As far as calling me selfish and immature, as well as a condescending jerk in your last comment, I guess to each their own. However, I’ll respond to both of your comments.

First, I discussed leaving MSN for Jabber exclusively with my family a great deal. We were all in agreeance that me moving to Jabber wasn’t that big of a deal, as they all had Gmail accounts anyhow. So, I didn’t lose one member of my family or friends during the switch.

For your second comment, the problems I faced with were related to the Java-powerd Wildfire server and the proprietary nature of Gmail’s Google Talk, and not Jabber. Anyone who had an account that was not a Gmail account, I was able to bring over to the new ejabberd instance with no troubles. Gmail was the pain, not Jabber.

Regarding your comment about whether or not Jabber is ready for the mainstream, of course it is. It’s further ahead than any of the other protocols.

According to Wikipedia, here are the number of users:
AIM: 53 million
Jabber: 50 million
MSN: 27 million
Yahoo: 22 million
ICQ: 4 million

Jabber is “just not there yet”? Heh, I think you need to give it a try. I personally would recommend staying away from Google Talk, however, as it’s proprietary invite system is problematic, not Jabber itself. Rather, get a jabber.org account. It has all the features, and it’s a stable server, not going anywhere.

Now, a challenge for you: on your next comment, can you avoid the name calling and aggressive nature? Also, keep the cursing out of your comments. Thanks.

Once this thing is grown up, I will be glad to join, not before.