Fedora 官方合法地全面支持 MP3 编码方案
MP3 Fedora
![](/data/attachment/album/201705/06/082915uxwvlk8y8v8ll0ww.png)


MP3 的编码和解码不久将被 Fedora 官方支持。


[去年十一月](https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/legal@lists.fedoraproject.org/thread/PUCTFFYU5L2A3L7QVME7TOMX3R6WIO2F/#34NPNTJITRHRP2FRKKYGL2YMEUU4BDYF)，随着覆盖了 MP3 解码的专利失效后，[Fedora Workstation](https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2016/11/10/mp3-support-now-coming-to-fedora-workstation-25/) 通过 [mpg123](https://www.mpg123.de/) 库和 GStreamer 启用了 MP3 解码支持。该更新允许用户通过安装在他们的计算机中的 gstreamer1-plugin-mpg123 软件包来播放 MP3 编码的音乐。


MP3 编码方案在过去十年间和开源界闹得颇不愉快，尤其是在美国。在历史上，由于[许可证问题](https://www.redhat.com/archives/rhl-devel-list/2007-November/msg00028.html)，Fedora 不能在其基础发行版上包括 MP3 解码或编码功能，所以，很多用户只能通过第三方软件库来提供 MP3 支持。


两周前，由于专利到期，[IIS Fraunhofer and Technicolor 终止了他们的授权流程](https://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/ff/amm/prod/audiocodec/audiocodecs/mp3.html)，并在几天前， Red Hat 法律部门[批准了在 Fedora 中提供 MP3 编码支持](https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/thread/KM557DP7OR2UEEPYQRNHJU7T45XDSXYJ/)。不过还需要一点时间进行软件包审查，该工具是确定会被加入的。同时要说明的是只包括 MP3 而非其它的 MPEG 技术。相信很快我们就可以在 Fedora 中不用第三方库即可转换各种格式的音乐为 MP3 了。


附录：


MP3 的开发始于上世纪八十年代的 Fraunhofer IIS，其基于之前的埃尔兰根-纽伦堡大学的研究成功而开发。2017 年 4 月 23， Technicolor 结束了 MP3 的相关专利授权流程。虽然今天 MP3 已经不是最有效、最先进的音频编码方案了，但是在过去的二十年间，MP3 一直是最流行的音频编码方案，在之后若干年，MP3 想必也会流行依旧。


以下是来自 [mp3-history.com](https://www.mp3-history.com/) 上的两张开发团队合影，有关 MP3 的历史信息也请查阅此网站：


![MP3 开发团队，摄于 1987 年](/data/attachment/album/201705/06/084801dwcuqzwqw6vc2vww.jpg)


![MP3 开发团队，摄于 2007 年](/data/attachment/album/201705/06/084801wnojwoo67zoo66e9.jpg)


 


OK
Both MP3 encoding and decoding will soon be officially supported in Fedora. [Last November](https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/legal@lists.fedoraproject.org/thread/PUCTFFYU5L2A3L7QVME7TOMX3R6WIO2F/#34NPNTJITRHRP2FRKKYGL2YMEUU4BDYF) the patents covering MP3 decoding expired and [Fedora Workstation](https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2016/11/10/mp3-support-now-coming-to-fedora-workstation-25/) enabled MP3 decoding via the [mpg123](https://www.mpg123.de/) library and GStreamer. This update allowed users with the

package installed on their systems to listen to MP3 encoded music.

The MP3 codec and Open Source have had a troubled relationship over the past decade, especially within the United States. Historically, due to [licensing issues](https://www.redhat.com/archives/rhl-devel-list/2007-November/msg00028.html) Fedora has been unable to include MP3 decoding or encoding within the base distribution. However, many users utilized 3rd party repositories to enable MP3 support.

A couple of weeks ago [IIS Fraunhofer and Technicolor terminated their licensing program](https://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/ff/amm/prod/audiocodec/audiocodecs/mp3.html) and just a few days ago Red Hat Legal provided the [permission to ship MP3 encoding](https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/thread/KM557DP7OR2UEEPYQRNHJU7T45XDSXYJ/) in Fedora. There will be a bit of time whilst package reviews are carried out and tools that are safe to add are identified, as only MP3 is cleared and not other MPEG technologies. However, it will soon be possible to convert physical media or other formats to MP3 in Fedora without 3rd party repositories.

## Bill Chatfield

That’s great news! Thanks for letting us know. That will be one more thing to make Fedora easier for new users.

## Rodrigo de Araujo

Good news, but I noticed that working with .ogg files saved me more disk space without reducing sound quality. Either way it’s a good thing to have .mp3 support ready to use.

## Paulo Alfredo

Good news, but I like to use ogg files.

## IFo Hancroft

That’s awesome.

However, like Rodrigo de Araujo said .ogg is better.

I wish one day we would all be using nothing but open source and no manufacturer will produce closed source stuff.

This is still totally awesome though.

## Matthew Miller

Ogg and other more modern formats are generally better — I mostly use lossless these days anyway — but it is important to note that we are not adding any closed source to Fedora. The mp3 playback we have and encoding we are adding are all 100% free software / open source.

## Dude

Opus is the way to go. It is completely open (made by the same guys as Vorbis/Ogg), however it has much better quality (much better than MP3/Ogg/AAC/HE-AAC).

Android supports it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_(audio_format)

## Olivier

HE-AAC is from the same generation as Opus, so the sound quality should be similar at high latencies. For lower latencies, that AAC can’t match, the comparison is more the AMR family of codecs used in 3G telephony and once again Opus gives largely the same quality at similar bitrates. So in summary, it’s a bit misleading to say that Opus is better, but it’s entirely true that it gives the same quality without patent hassles.

## alex marhantz

\m/

## iluvvalice

That’s good. I hope that there won’t be any problems.

## Anonymous

Dolby Digital AC3 is also free now, since March. For more information see https://web.archive.org/web/20170401170436/https://ac3freedomday.org/ Maybe Fedora could include it by default as well?

Anyway, it’s nice to see that a format as important as MP3 is now patent free and will soon be included in Fedora 🙂

## James Hogarth

So you (and others) are aware AC3 was added to the main Fedora repos via a52dec in late March.

https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2017/03/22/another-media-codec-on-the-way/

## Roger Hammer

Very good. That’s an obstacle to general acceptance of Fedora that we won’t need to deal with any longer. I was a paying customer to Fluendo for a good long time but eventually realize it was mostly superfluous for my purposes and I switched to using the gstreamer plugins supplied by fusion repo. I can’t say that I am missing anything that Fluendo supplied. I was an .ogg user ’til I ran across a podcaster who advocated using AAC; the person,an old guy like me, therefor has credibility in my eyes. Now, most of the music I listen to regularly is .m4a, and gstreamer has a plugin for that.

## sunnyhere

Personally I feel it is a little late to the game as I stopped using the mp3 file format years ago and is happy with more modern formats, but Good thing nontheless and a win for FOSS!

## Be

Today, when a 1 TB USB hard drive costs just $50, lossy compression is obsolete for storage. Lossy compression still has uses for streaming, for which MP3 is still widely despite less bad lossy codecs being available, so I’m glad those streams will just work in Fedora now.

## Ryan K

I’m glad to hear this.

Yes, there are many better formats than MP3s for audio, but MP3s are still the most widely adopted and compatible formats between all the non-FOSS software and hardware out there.

Choices are good.

## Timothy

Agreed. I’m new. I am an advocate of fedora even though I am largely ignorant of all the possibilities. It will be nice when attempting to win over others, to be able to have an M3P operable with no additional work or work arounds.