Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Fri 7th Jun 2002 19:42 UTC
Audacity is a multitrack/recording free audio editor. It started a few years back as a simple sound editor, but since then it has evolved in a powerfull modern editor, by supporting multi-track recording. The stable 1.0 version was released only a few days ago.
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First the non-cynical answer, which is: Users are too stupid to understand the difference and they call helpdesk asking why e.g. the PCM volume control doesn't work on CDs, so Microsoft made playing CDs work just the same as playing MP3s or WAVs. It doesn't have to better, just simpler.
Now the cynical answer:
Microsoft have a product to sell. HDCD. It's cheap, works with existing CDs and if it takes off they could bring in $0.01 per CD in royalties (a lot of money). They can't rely on the audiophile market because SACD and DVDA have that sewn up. So they need to get Joe User to recognise and desire the HDCD logo on his pop classical albums, then they can make a killing on the licensing.
Fortunately MS control the desktop, so they push HDCD capable _software_ onto the desktop and play CDs through that using DAE. Now when you buy a "good" album with HDCD it makes an indicator glow on your MS Media Trinket and some filters kick in to make it sound louder (and thus better) than the rest of your CDs.
The only trouble with this great plan is that Joe User doesn't care. He still steals most of his music in MP3 rather than WMA and he buys CDs that are advertised on the TV, not by picking them from a MS list of authorised HDCD titles.