VLC media player is freely downloadable
software [1] having a size of 28 MB and two billion downloads. It works on 14
platforms like Windows, Linux, Android, Apple TV, ChromeOS and so on. As
expected, VLC is regarded as the world's most preferred media player [2]. It is difficult to believe that VLC player
developer team consists of 12 active members including five core developers [3].
The team thrive on the donations they collect. Building a very successful
software using small band of developers with shoe string budget is really
fascinating. Adequate documentation regarding the VLC player project and about
the people involved are not available in Internet. This post tries to summarize
the scrambled pieces of information about VLC player.
VLC
stands for VideoLAN Client. VLS i.e. VideoLAN Server existed in the initial
stages of development. Later it was merged with VLC. Technically it is possible
to stream a video over a network using VLC player. VLC is software developed by
a non-profit organization named VideoLAN. As the name suggests the VLC project
was developed to send video over Local Area Network (LAN). The software was
developed by students of École Centrale, (a famous engineering college in France, located in Paris ) to deliver videos from
satellite across the computer network present in the campus. [4]. It was code
named as "Network 2000". The project was started in the year 1996.
The birth date of VLC is not 1996 instead it is 1st February
2001 . On
this day only the VLC project was made as an Open Source by École Centrale authorities. General public uses “free software” and “Open
software” interchangeably. Free software means the price of the software
is zero. Open software permits the user to access the code (programs). Thus
users can fine tune the software according to their wish. Invariably open
software comes with zero price tag and general public think these two terms are
synonymous.
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| Photo of Mr. Jean Baptiste Kempf. Image Courtesy: ocsmag.com |
