Convert MP3 Files to OGG

For those of us who prefer not to install or not rely on proprietary codecs, we can use Ogg Vorbis to freely listen to our music. It is not illegal to install the ubuntu-restricted-extras to listen to MP3 files (it's illegal for Canonical to pre-install them because they sell distros), and for many people this is a blessing since they don't care so much about 'minor' proprietary issues but just have some greater problem with Windows be it its overbearing market share or instability. For those of us who are trying to wean ourselves away from proprietary software altogether, there is a way to convert your mp3 collection to Ogg. You'll need to install mp32ogg (aptly named). From there its a simple command. I'm currently working on a friendly UI for mp32ogg. Currently OggConvert is a good GUI but is limited -as far as I can tell- to converting one song at a time rather than batch converting a directory. Here are the basic commands for converting your music:

sudo apt-get install mp32ogg
mp32ogg --quality=10 --rename=%t *.mp3

This will convert all files in your current directory. You can also use a --delete flag if you are hardcore and want to rid yourself of your mp3s but you may also want to hold onto them if you have a portable device that doesn't support Ogg Vorbis. You can, of course, modify the quality (1-10) and change the rename (from the manual entry: "Instead of simply replacing the .mp3 with .ogg for the output file, produce output filenames in this format, replacing %a, %t and %l with artist, title, and album name for the track").

I'll keep you updated on my GUI progress.