"VP8 is better in every way than Theora, as far as I know"
Except one: Theora is easier on the CPU to encode and decode. Considering the laptop that's doing the encoding (probably an X60 with libreboot because they want to pull off the even using only free software) this may be another factor.
As we look at newer codecs, the following has been said of them [0]: "The next-generation VP9 and HEVC codecs are the latest incremental refinements of a basic codec design that dates back 25 years to h.261. This conservative, linear development strategy evolving a proven design has yielded reliable improvement with relatively low risk, but the law of diminishing returns is setting in. Recent performance increases are coming at exponentially increasing computational cost."
[0] https://xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/daala/demo1.shtml
