From: Johan Vromans <jvromans_at_squirrel.nl>
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2003 12:10:33 +0100

"Fred Maxwell" <rockbox_at_anti-spam.org> writes:

> Stop with the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). EAC is distributed
> free of charge and has no hidden spyware, etc. [...] EAC has been
> widely used for years and it doesn't call home, store undocumented
> data, etc.

You want me to believe this on _your_ word?

> The guy who distributes it is one of the nicest, most decent people
> you'll meet.

What's keeping him from open sourcing it?
The 'nice guy' even forbids trying to disassemble/decompile the
program.

> It simply works better than anything else.

It does not work for me, since I don't run Windows.

> There are no comparable open source tools of which I am aware. EAC
> is the only ripper I have found which actually goes to great lengths
> to assure that the rip is error-free before passing it on to the
> encoder.

Tools like cdparanoia[1] are well-known for the extreme amount of
effort they put in trying to get an errof-free rip. I wouldn't be
surprised if EAC used a cdparanoia derivate. Of course, there's no way
to find out.

> It doesn't automatically invoke the MP3 encoder. It does not do
> Freedb title lookups.

Although all this is undisputably an advantage, it is minor. E.g.,
this is how I do it (from the Linux command prompt):

  % rip

This invokes the ripper, then the encoder, and then tags the files
with ID3 info. All free, open source, platform independent tools.

-- Johan

[1] http://www.xiph.org/paranoia/index.html
Received on 2003-12-20