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VLC Core is LGPL

jbkempf.com

11–20 of 149 posts

Re: VLC Core is LGPL

#11
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which AppStore? Isn't it already available on Google's AppStore?

iTunes App Store, GPL is incompatible so it was pulled by request, I've still got a copy on my iPad though.

Don't think so, considering the limitations as to how many devices you may download the application to. If i am not mistaken was it five.

Re: VLC Core is LGPL

#12
On a reading of how it was done, I guess if anyone had contributed stuff under the GPL and particularly objected to LGPL relicensing the could probably still make arguments about derivative works...

Interestingly there's no mention of dissenting opinions from anywhere. Not that I'm implying that this move is a bad thing, I would just expect if you ask a large enough group of developers any question about licensing you would get a variety of arguments cropping up.

Re: VLC Core is LGPL

#13
post #10

Good for them, I guess. Though VLC's popularity still makes me pretty sad and how better video players like MPC-HC (on Windows) and mplayer/mplayer2 (on everything else) are much more unknown in comparison. I mean, most of VLC's development outside of the streaming stuff has been about playing catch-up with these two for years. But well, the unfortunate truth is that many people are bad at computers and if they manag…

VLC has been able to handle pretty much anything you throw at it for many years and always been available across diverse platforms. It's an awesome product.

Why so negative?

Re: VLC Core is LGPL

#14
Does this mean VLC will be back on the App Store? I remember it being pulled due to a contributor (who around ~2010 worked for Nokia) complaining to Apple.

Re: VLC Core is LGPL

#15
post #13
post #10

Good for them, I guess. Though VLC's popularity still makes me pretty sad and how better video players like MPC-HC (on Windows) and mplayer/mplayer2 (on everything else) are much more unknown in comparison. I mean, most of VLC's development outside of the streaming stuff has been about playing catch-up with these two for years. But well, the unfortunate truth is that many people are bad at computers and if they manag…

VLC has been able to handle pretty much anything you throw at it for many years and always been available across diverse platforms. It's an awesome product. Why so negative?

Because better and equally free and open source alternatives have existed for about as long yet remain more unknown. VLC sure plays a lot of things, but it's a a real jack of all trades and master of none.

I certainly understand it's appeal, but there's certainly better yet equally simple solutions out there as well (eg. CCCP for Windows, various MPlayer2 bundles for OS X like MPlayer.app). Of course, the "downside" of DirectShow-based playback solutions on Windows is that if a user has managed to fuck up their DirectShow beyond recognition, it's going to need a lot of unfucking before you can do anything about it, whereas VLC in its stand-alone nature can play stuff even in a situation like this. Though you could also always get a SMPlayer2 & mplayer2 bundle in such a situation too...

Re: VLC Core is LGPL

#17
post #5
post #3

That's a shame.

Why is it a shame?

Because while every piece of free software is a wound against proprietary software, the more liberal licences like LGPL and the BSD/MIT-style licences are a wound against free software: proprietary interests can take free code without giving anything back.

Re: VLC Core is LGPL

#18
post #13
post #10

Good for them, I guess. Though VLC's popularity still makes me pretty sad and how better video players like MPC-HC (on Windows) and mplayer/mplayer2 (on everything else) are much more unknown in comparison. I mean, most of VLC's development outside of the streaming stuff has been about playing catch-up with these two for years. But well, the unfortunate truth is that many people are bad at computers and if they manag…

VLC has been able to handle pretty much anything you throw at it for many years and always been available across diverse platforms. It's an awesome product. Why so negative?

VLC has always lagged behind in proper x264 decoding. For most of the 1.x and the first few versions of the 2.x series I had dozens of video files with visual artifacts whilst the newest versions of mplayer at the time did not.

I maintain this kind of test suite since I do video production using open source software and I have to make sure it works in all the major video players.

VLC is useful and important but it is no where near perfect.

Re: VLC Core is LGPL

#19
post #15
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VLC has been able to handle pretty much anything you throw at it for many years and always been available across diverse platforms. It's an awesome product. Why so negative?

Because better and equally free and open source alternatives have existed for about as long yet remain more unknown. VLC sure plays a lot of things, but it's a a real jack of all trades and master of none. I certainly understand it's appeal, but there's certainly better yet equally simple solutions out there as well (eg. CCCP for Windows, various MPlayer2 bundles for OS X like MPlayer.app). Of course, the "downside"…

What does other players do better than vlc?

Re: VLC Core is LGPL

#20
So every contributor essentially gets to vote on the license change, and their vote is proportional to the contribution they made (because if they vote no, their contributed code has to be rewritten).

I think I quite like it, but only because there is an option to replace their code if they vote no (which admittedly may be very technically difficult). No single contributor can truly veto the license change.

Clearly has it's downsides though.

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