<P>FLAC 1.0.3 is out. This release includes a decoder speedup, 24-bit input support, more robust plugins, a new metadata block for Vorbis-style tags, a vastly improved metadata editor, and for developers, a new C++ object wrapper library around <B><TT>libFLAC</TT></B>, among other things. For a complete list see <AHREF="news.html#20020703">here</A>.</P>
<P>Also note that <AHREF="http://www.phatnoise.com/">PhatNoise</A> now officially supports FLAC in both the PhatBox/Kenwood Music Keg firmware and the PhatNoise Music Manager software; see the announcement <AHREF="http://www.phatnoise.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=74">here</A> for more info.</P>
<P>If you use FLAC and have suggestions or patches, please <AHREF="http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=13478">join the mailing list</A> or <AHREF="http://sourceforge.net/project/memberlist.php?group_id=13478">developers group</A>. Bugs can be filed <AHREF="http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?func=addbug&group_id=13478">here</A>, but make sure to check the <AHREF="documentation.html#bugs">known bugs</A> section first.</P>
<LI><B><TT>libOggFLAC</TT></B> and <B><TT>libOggFLAC++</TT></B>, which wrap the encoders and decoders of <TT>libFLAC</TT> and <TT>libFLAC++</TT>, respectively, to allow access to FLAC streams in an Ogg container</LI>
<LI><B><TT>flac</TT></B>, a command-line wrapper around <TT>libFLAC</TT> to encode and decode FLAC files</LI>
"Free" means that the specification of the stream format is in the public domain (the FLAC project reserves the right to set the FLAC specification and certify compliance), and that neither the FLAC format nor any of the implemented encoding/decoding methods are covered by any patent. It also means that the sources for the libraries are available under the <AHREF="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/lgpl-license.html">LGPL</A> and the sources for <B><TT>flac</TT></B>, <B><TT>metaflac</TT></B>, and the plugins are available under the <AHREF="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.html">GPL</A>.
FLAC compiles on many platforms: most Unixes (Linux, *BSD, Solaris, OS X), Windows, BeOS, and OS/2. There are build systems for autoconf/automake, MSVC, Watcom C, and Project Builder.
</P>
<P>
See the <AHREF="features.html">features page</A>, <AHREF="documentation.html">documentation page</A>, or <AHREF="format.html">FLAC format page</A> for more info, the <AHREF="comparison.html">comparison page</A> to see how the reference encoder measures up, or the <AHREF="goals.html">goals page</A> for what the FLAC project hopes to achieve.
Visit the <AHREF="download.html">download page</A> for links to the source code or pre-built binaries, or go directly to the <AHREF="http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/flac/">source</A> on SourceForge.
The documentation is available online as well as in the distributions. The general installation and usage documentation for <B><TT>flac</TT></B> and the plugins is <AHREF="documentation.html">here</A>. For a detailed description of the FLAC format and reference encoder see the <AHREF="format.html">FLAC format page</A>.
If you have an application that uses FLAC and would like it to be able to tag .flac files with custom metadata, visit the <AHREF="id.html">registration page</A> to register an ID for your application.
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="news.html#20010720">20-Jul-2001</A> :<BR> FLAC 1.0 is here!<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.bagu.dhs.org/flac.html">Patch</A> for <AHREF="http://lly.org/~rcw/abcde/page/">abcde</A> (A Better CD Encoder)<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.gstreamer.net/">GStreamer</A> streaming media framework<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.danrules.com/macflac/">MacFLAC</A> Mac OS X FLAC distribution<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://mediaxw.sourceforge.net/">MediaXW</A> includes FLAC DirectShow filter<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.icculus.org/SDL_sound/">SDL_sound</A> audio add-on to SDL<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.lammerts.org/software/soepkiptng/">Soepkip TNG</A> music playing daemon + web interface<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.cyclooctane.com/sonice/">sonice</A> FLAC to Vorbis transcoder<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://arson.sourceforge.net/">Arson</A>: KDE ripper/burner<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://smurf.sourceforge.net/">Smurf</A> Sound Font Editor<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.baudline.com/">Baudline</A> signal analyzer<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
