I've been using EAC for a while now and I can say that it rocks, except for its
player which sucks (often doesn't respond). I was using Musicmatch before that,
so EAC's "secure" reading method, "spin up disk before extraction" option and
external compressor support made all the difference. But from what I've seen,
EAC hasn't updated for months, whereas CDEX is constantly evolving. Isn't it a
safe guess that soon every ripping program will have it's own "secure" ripping
modes, thus there will be nothing to distinguish EAC from the rest? I don't know
if a EAC v.1 is planned to be released soon, but if it isn't I am afraid that EAC 0.9
Beta 4 won't be the ripper of choice for much longer...

yes i'd really like to know too when there will be a new release.
if there will be no development anymore it's ok but I want know about it.

Funny, as I was at the EAC website just a moment ago having the same thoughts...

The What's New page says [from 2002-05-22]:



So I don't think there would be many improvements/modifications to the ripping process, which is where EAC's key competitive advantage lies.

Meanwhile, Albert Faber is planning to include C2 support for CDex in the near future.

However, I don't see slow development speed as a valid reason to stop using EAC. It's still the best ripper I've found, bar none. Its only shortcoming is that it cannot encode directly off the CD with a console-based encoder. Now that's something I'd like to see.

For this to happen, other rippers shall first perform better than EAC.