Vorbis isn't at war with MP3. It's a format that is completely safe to use in free (as in free speech, not as in free beer) software. Anyone distributing software that encodes MP3s could be liable for patent royalties to Fraunhofer Labs, depending on exactly what's in the software and how they are distributing it. You can download the specs and code for an Ogg Vorbis encoder and use it in any software product without anyone coming at you for patent infringements, guaranteed.

It's not quite like Betamax vs. VHS, because no video player could ever play both formats unless it was two mechanisms in one box, whereas most software audio players can play many formats including MP3 and OGG.

BTW I discovered my Linux system can play WMA audio using the vlc player. The WMA decoding must have been reverse engineered because much of the spec. is proprietary to MS and not published, so from the disclosure-of-specs point of view it's even worse than MP3.

Anahata