Portable Apps is making its name as something thats easy to install and so on and that regular computer users can use it.
But the lack of Lame MP3 support confuses many people and they dont understand all that 'dll' and 'tar.gz' lingo. so i would recommend adding lame mp3 support by default because the majority of people will probably export to mp3, especially if its a portable app.
Unfortunately, adding it is illegal due to the fact that the MP3 algorithm is patented and requires a licensing fee for each inclusion. This is why it is NOT included in a base Audacity install and why it can't be with Audacity Portable. If you live in the US and download/use Lame, you're actually breaking the law. (Yay for closed / proprietary formats)
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Licensing_and_patent_issues
And also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAME#Legal_issues
And finally: http://lame.sourceforge.net/tech-FAQ.txt (See no. 6)
And that friends, is the reason why Ogg is teh shizzle!!!!!Shift-1! (sic)
Off-topic post:
Anyway, didn't they reverse engineer the algorithm?
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Ryan McCue
Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
(Tom Lehrer)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Is there a reason why I can't specify a default directory for LAME?
There's no need to. You just drop the lame DLL in and the launcher uses it:
https://portableapps.com/support/audacity_portable#lame
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!