VLC's keeper of the cone nets European free software gong

If you don't know what app will open a random media file (or URL), VLC is the answer. It runs on everything, plays anything, and it's free – thanks to Jean-Baptiste Kempf. Kempf is the chap who keeps VLC going and he blogged earlier this week that the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) gave him the European SFS Award 2025 …

[cookieMonster]

Bravo

And merci Mr. Kempf

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bravo

bravo monsieur !!

Though note GoldenEye was the code name for the Space Based Weapon the film plot was oriented around.

[SnailFerrous]

ubiquitous

Friends who have no interest in computers, software, open source etc, know VLC as the app that can play anything and will have it on their laptop. A beer icon for the keeper of the cone.

[Victor Ludorum]

Merci Monsieur Kempf

Having seen many articles recently '5 apps I immediately install on {Windows|macOs|Linux}', I must admit this is on my list. Great app for playing/streaming pretty much any AV file.

[Andy 68]

Errrrr

"VLC ... officially short for "VLC Media Player."

is not a recursive acronym.

It would be one if VLC were officially short for something like

VLC Loops Catgifs

[CorwinX]

Re: Errrrr

VLC stands for VideoLan Client.

There was originally a Server-side component before it became standalone.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Errrrr

The article quite succinctly stated that.

It also stated "VLC is now a recursive acronym, officially short for "VLC Media Player."" - that doesn't meet not my definition of recursive.

My definition of recursive it, naturally, "something that is recursive"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Errrrr

The first rule of recursive club is found at the beginning of this sentence

[Liam Proven]

Re: Errrrr

Pendant!

[Kane]

Re: Errrrr

More Avec!

[jeffdyer]

Re: Errrrr

Standard Lamp!

[Cruachan]

Friend recommended VLC to me in about 2006, been using it ever since.

Being Scottish, the traffic cone icon is nice too. The Duke of Wellington wouldn't look the same without his.

[David 132]

From the article: “VLC's icon, a traffic cone – which the program automatically festoons with decorations during the holiday season.:.”

I remember reading a year or three ago that there were bugs filed against VLC because some humourless grinches out there resented the festive icon-change. Can’t remember if it was on grounds of “confusing users” or “cultural sensitivity” but… screw-ge them. Long may VLC continue!

[JulieM]

The obvious thing to do in that case would be to submit a patch that applies decorations to the cone for other holidays.

If you collected the full set, then you might never even see the plain cone .....

[Cruachan]

Culture warriors love getting upset over nothing. Some people weren't happy about the Duke of Wellington statue being given a blue and yellow Ukraine cover.

[uccsoundman]

I know it is a traffic cone, but it actually reminds me more of a Candy Corn that is given out as a Halloween treat, at least in the USA.

[Antron Argaiv]

I learned about VLC from our IT dept at work. In the era when MS Media Player would invariably respond to any attempt to play a video file with a "missing codec" error. I don't think I've used anything besides VLC since. Many thanks and well deserved!

[CorwinX]

For probably getting on two decades now...

... I've never used anything other than VLC to play media files. PC, Laptop, Phone.

I was using it when you had to download many and various codecs individually.

If you've got a file that it won't play then nothing else will.

Accept no substitutes.

[Sandtitz]

Re: For probably getting on two decades now...

On Windows, MPC-HC is better.

Also, on my Android TV streamer box Kodi is much better than VLC.

[pip25]

Re: For probably getting on two decades now...

MPC-HC had been a worthy rival of VLC for some time. It's regrettable that it stopped being developed almost a decade ago now. (In 2017.)

[Sandtitz]

Re: For probably getting on two decades now...

" It's regrettable that it stopped being developed almost a decade ago now."

Ot stopped for quite some time, then picked up. Latest release was just 2 weeks ago. https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc

To the downvoters: was it mention of Kodi or MPC-HC that enraged the VLC fans? Both Kodi and MPC-HC are open source.

VLC on AndroidTV fails to change the display refresh rate which causes choppy video when playing 23.976 stuff on 60Hz TV. There's an option it - but it does nothing. My TV can change the rate just fine with Kodi.

VLC took ages to support Enhanced Video Renderer on Windows, which is required for offloading h.26x to graphics cards that support the decoding natively. I think it was VLC 2.x that finally started supporting it.

[pip25]

Re: For probably getting on two decades now...

Thanks for the link! It's interesting because the MPC-HC site mentions that it's been abandoned even now. Maybe this is a fork?

[Sandtitz]

Re: For probably getting on two decades now...

It is a fork. And the original MPC Home Cinema was a fork of the original Media Player Classic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Player_Classic

[El.Mich.]

Not all heroes wear capes ...! :-)

'nuf said! ;-)

Been using VLC literally since its beginning in the mid 90ies and was (nearly) never disappointed! To be honest there were some versions that had been a little bit buggy at the beginning but these quite rare problems all got solved pretty soon! So what more can one reasonably expect from a piece of software? THANKS A LOT! :-) Especially at this price ...!!! ;-)

[chivo243]

It's at the top of the list!

VLC is one of the first apps I install on a new OS, any OS pretty much. I can't remember when I didn't use VLC. Thanks for making this a pillar of my experience!

[Eric 9001]

Why is the register focused mostly on how VLC is gratis?

Rather than how it's free software that respects the users freedom and for example allows them to play a DVD or blurays without running proprietary software.

It's quite sad that playing a encrypted DVD with free software is still illegal in the USA (albeit mostly left unenforced), but how VideoLAN is developed in France avoids that issue.

[doublelayer]

Re: Why is the register focused mostly on how VLC is gratis?

Who says they are? For example, when they quote others as saying that Kempf is the "the one who kept VLC free", they don't mean free of charge; the things he prevented wouldn't have introduced a purchase price. I admit that they also don't mean the version of free you're talking about, because you can still have a piece of software under GPL2+ that comes with unwanted additions. But not only has he maintained the code under its original license and kept it up to date and very full-featured, he has kept it free of plenty of things that could have helped him while harming users, for which we are grateful.

Is it possible your view on the article says more about your biases and preferences than anything the article actually had an opinion on?

[Eric 9001]

Re: Why is the register focused mostly on how VLC is gratis?

You can have software with added malicious features under the GPLv2+ with the source code available under the same license, but that almost never happens, as what always happens is that someone takes the malware out and releases a fixed version and people use that version instead.

I am grateful that he never authorized adding malware to VLC - it is most likely he was never even tempted to do so, but if he was, he didn't as he knew that a fixed version would be soon released.

[VicMortimer]

Gong? Really?

That just seems like a REALLY bad headline.

I'd think most people should know that getting the gong means you lose.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Gong? Really?

Sigh. A "gong" is a nick-name for a medal. These days, "gong" can refer to any medal, award or honour.

[Anonymous Coward]

*Sigh*? Really?

'A "gong" is a nick-name for a medal.'

A British nickname.

From the Collins English Dictionary: '(Military) slang Brit a medal, esp a military one'

Before sighing, please consider that not all of El Reg's readers are from the UK. I (a Canadian) had never heard that usage before.

To be clear, I am not criticizing El Reg for using the term in the first place. It's a UK-based site, so of course UK slang is fair game.

My beef is with commenters who are intolerant of non-Brit commenters.

(BTW, I don't know, but I assume that the person you were replying to is another left-pondian, whose referent for the word in question is the Gong Show. That was an American talent competition from the 70s - a precursor to all the Idols and Got Talents - in which a gong was rung to cut short a performance the judges didn't like.)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Gong? Really?

Unless you are talking about going farmers, that is...

[Lazlo Woodbine]

Re: Gong? Really?

Maybe look at the context and think that maybe your definition is not the only definition...

[TheFifth]

Re: Gong? Really?

"I'd think most Americans should know that getting the gong means you lose."

FTFY

[PRR]

I run VLC on a 2010 Atom netbook under WinXP. The poor Atom suffers with modern video rates but VLC does its best.

[Filippo]

I've always joked that if you put a slice of salami in your CD tray, VLC would play footage of the pig. We should all be thankful for one of the best pieces of software around.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've always joked that if you put a slice of salami in your CD tray, VLC would play footage of the pig

LOL. A few years earlier I probably would have rigged something that made that happen, just for the hell of it, but TBH, I haven't had or used a CD/DVD drive in, well, probably a decade now.

Given that I started my computing career with a PSION Organiser II and EPROM datapaks (yes, no 'c' in there, blame their marketing people) I'd say we've made some progress :).

[Lazlo Woodbine]

I've used VLC since the early 00's, when I worked for a CCTV distributor.

VLC was the only media player that could cope with all the different codecs the various Korean and Chinese DVR and NVRs used. Back then, Samsung would use one codec, but Samsung Techwin (the former defence wing of Samsung, now called Hanwha Vision) would use a different codec, so even Samsung's own player couldn't play back video from all Samsung recorders.

[Al fazed]

Gong bath, gongwash ??

Hmmm, either the commenters here don't use VLC very often, or maybe they're doing another task with VLC running a Playlist whilst they work ?

I sound like a Grinch

and maybe at a pinch

that's exactly what I am,

but otherwise I see a scam<

it may be free

and has entertained me

for as long as I can remember

on Windows Linux and the MAC

VLC has always had my back,

well until very recently

when I dragged the spoilt child screaming

off my mobile phone

and don't you ever touch it again,

my playlist of my own creations

was so rudley interrupted

by some twat advertising some shite

under guise of the VLC.

Now this really vexes me

Be gone I said,

never darken my door again

with unwanted rubbish

stuffed with payed for crud

On my mobile you have no home,

Gone sorry busted and dusted,

you really fucked me off son.

Who won ?

ALF