But everybody already knows this. And since we live in a meritocracy it's just a matter of time that a free codec with no marketing muscle behind it takes over

But everybody already knows this. And since we live in a meritocracy it's just a matter of time that a free codec with no marketing muscle behind it takes over the world, right? The mob (Xiph) who designed it is responsible for the speex codec, and is trying to apply the same principles to video in a codec called daala. Sadly it appears to have died. Regardless, we should hail them as heroes. They gave the world the two best audio codecs we have. Suck on that, Fraunhofer.