On Windows, VLC is quite convenient though. While I also use mpv there, for an elderly relative I have simply used and installed VLC there, as the default GUI mode is more convenient for elderly people.
Incredibly accomplished already. What gravy this would be though.
I've heard he was working on an extremely low latency gaming system: Kyber
Anyone has any recent news on that subject?
past winners: https://www.sfscon.it/awards/
The only reply was someone saying you should contribute to the open source project yourself to fix it instead of complaining. I don't know anything about coding a multi-platform video player so I wasn't much use but not long after they released a version supporting it and I felt bad for complaining.
I suddenly became the computer person of my family at 11 because of that
These days, operating systems already have rock solid video players with far less clunky UI.
On Linux, video is already sublime thanks to ffmpeg and the dozens of available frontends.
It feels like wrestling with 1998 in trying to use VLC these days. It's got a real WinAmp feel to it.
But the real elephant in the room is that the lionshare of video is now being delivered by major media platforms like YouTube.
But that is incorrect. VLC has even more supported features, if you do not believe me, check the source code https://github.com/videolan/vlc/tree/a33f33ddb0a9e0d26d779eb...
This was mitigated by vlc and mplayer, two video players that integrated most codecs as fast as they could, and it was a breath of fresh air. You just started them and any video would play, no codec issue anymore. MPlayer has not been updated for some times, and traction was lost, but VLC, although looking a bit old on the UI-side (and a little buggy on ARM Windows) is still here and is solid when someone just wants to watch a video on any platform.
What do you mean by that? To me, it's like any other application - you double-click the file (or run `vlc file.mp4`), and it plays. That the UI is not oversimplified is a cultural thing, VLC decided to cater to those that prefer to have the extra controls.
What does this mean? I double-click and video file and it starts playing. What wrestling are you doing?
Not my experience at all. At least colleagues using Windows always run into video playing troubles in online meetings unless they use VLC.
/s obviously
Youtube is dubbing videos with AI for no reason whatsoever if you play the videos from the website these days.
But glad you had your feature!
Free software is not "free" (as in free beer). People have to build and maintain it.
So anyways, I switched to mpv.
VLC also still (or at least recently?) provides APKs you can download to install on very old Android versions. I have it installed on a few old Android tablets (and by old I mean something like Android version 4).
MPV everywhere else though.
The cynic in me says some PM rolled out it out because they had an internal metric to hit.
I know a lot of people who are bilingual (or trilingual) and they utterly loathe it.
The problem with VLC is that the interface consistently feels... both imprecise and ridiculously granular. Everything just behaves weird. It felt weird in 2002 and it still feels weird in 2025. Like they cribbed the design from a DivX player, and haven't thought about it since.
VLC seems bound and determined to not let you interact with a video without pausing it, then opening the menu and hunting for option you need. Yes, I could set up my own interface, but that's not an excuse for not having a bare minimum of functionality that matches modern user expectations. Besides, configuring VLC to have the interface you want is itself not an easy task. Like, they have interface presets. Why isn't there a preset interface for "make this match YouTube"?
Just looking at what they chose to make be default key bindings is just bizarre to me. Half the things they have bound to single key presses are things that have never come up for me ever, while several things I want to use frequently are double or triple key combinations or not available for binding at all. All the default adjustments like skipping ahead or adjusting speed are all so granular that you have to hit them 10 or more times to actually accomplish anything. Just a completely alien interface to me. This software feels like it was built to solve media problems that I have not encountered since the late 90s when video tracks and audio tracks were more frequently out of sync from the producer.
What using VLC has taught me over 20 years is that the best way to play media with VLC is to open the software, begin playback of the media, and then under no circumstances attempt to interact with the software again.
Many projects have great communities, making it all fun and engaging.
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=98182&p=3281...
TL;DR: they decided to force the playlist to stay open all the time, thus killing "mini-player" mode; reaction to this was, unsurprisingly, uniformly negative (but expressed politely); Mr. Kempf's response was to attack VLC users; I did an end-run around him by opening a bug ticket so other developers would be made aware of the problem, and Mr. Kempf banned me for doing so; my ticket was approved and addressed by other developers, fixing the issue; Mr. Kempf tried to back-pedal pitifully.
So I used Media Player Classic without any issues for years.
When I moved to Linux Desktop, it came with VLC so I tried and forced me to use that damn "space to pause". But half my videos had issues playing. Being in KDE, I switched to Haruna. It's ugly, but I can play anything without issues... and I can "click to pause"!
VLC was not important on Linux. Because we have ffmpeg as foundation, used by mplayer and nowadays mpv. The later is my recommendation. Whether on the tty (awesome!) or on Wayland. If you prefer a native Gtk an interface is available, named Celluloid. In all these cases mpv is mighty, reliable, fits into the environment with a frugal interface.
We’ve also players based on gstreamer but ffmpeg is more reliable.
But the need for a reliable player on Windows, Android, macOS, iOS and tvOS is big. Because their default players suck. VLC comes with an awkward UI and the weird built-in stuff for SMB. But from a 2001 point-of-view it makes sense, LAN-parties are nice and back then they were everywhere. And Windows doesn’t support WebDAV well.
My favorite is mpv. But I’m still tankful that I’ve one usable player in my iPhone.
PS: VLC also uses ffmpeg?
On Mac it wasn't until the mid-10s that I found a decent player.
It's pretty funny considering how google claims that their hiring practices make them hire only the most intelligent people on the planet.
It is of course worse when it tries to do so on a language I already speak.
So in my view he IS a sellout. You’re entitled to your view but don’t go around telling me or others they’re wrong, thank you.
https://preview.redd.it/bekphnqftcb41.jpg?width=1080&crop=sm...
Are you Jean-Baptiste or something ? lol
on: 2025-11-07
The FSFE and LUGBZ have recognized VLC president and core developer with this European award for his long-term dedication to the project. What began as a student initiative has, through his continuous effort, evolved into one of the most widely used media players, with billion of users worldwide.

Picture by NOI Techpark - Marco Parisi CC-BY-SA 4.0.
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), together with the Linux User Group Bolzano‑Bozen (LUGBZ), is proud to recognize Jean-Baptiste Kempf with the European SFS Award 2025, in recognition of his outstanding and lasting contributions to the Free Software movement and his long-term dedication to the VLC project.
Born as a student project in 1996, this software has evolved into an essential, all-in-one media player that plays almost anything effortlessly. Originally a simple network streaming client, it has grown into a powerful universal media player that continues to evolve and impress.
“For many people running non-free operating systems, it was the very first Free Software they ever installed. For many people running Free Software, it saved them from installing and booting into a proprietary operating system”, declared Matthias Kirschner, president of the FSFE during the Award ceremony.
Jean-Baptiste Kempf joined the project as a student, and when it faced the risk of dying after the graduation of its original developers, he took the reins. With the help of other core developers, he transformed it into the indispensable media player we rely on today.
Over the years, Kempf has become not only the president of the VideoLAN non-profit but also one of the lead developers of VLC Media Player and the founder of VideoLabs. “It’s small, fast, friendly, and seems to "understand everything you throw at it. I have always thought of it as "the program that eats everything", said Raphael Barbieri, a member of LUGBZ, during the winner’s announcement.
"I am extremely honoured to receive the European SFS Award. The Free Software multimedia community is quite niche and unknown, but we work hard so that video content can be free, can be played and processed. The work done around the VideoLAN community has been tremendous, despite its little resources. I want to thank the whole VideoLAN and FFmpeg teams, who spend their time on those projects, often with little recognition", declares Jean-Baptiste Kemp.
The European SFS Award recognizes individuals whose work has made a significant and sustained difference in advancing Free Software across Europe. Since 2023 it is presented jointly by LUGBZ and the FSFE and honours those whose efforts strengthen software freedom, community building, and the ethical foundations of technology.
In previous years, the award was given to Frank Karlitschek (2023) for his leadership with Nextcloud, and posthumously to Bram Moolenaar (2024) for creating the Vim editor.
Raphael: There’s a program most of us have used - on laptops, phones, tablets or desktops computers. It might have run on screens in supermarkets or shops. It’s small, fast, friendly, and seems to "understand everything you throw at it". I have always thought of it as "the program that eats everything."
Matthias: This amazing software did not come from a giant technology company with a huge budget. It began more than twenty years ago - as a modest experiment by a few students at an engineering school. They wanted to solve a problem they identified. Nothing fancy - just a student project to tinker, experiment, share, and have fun. No one knew that those first lines of code written for “network 2000” would one day reach billions of users.
Raphael: Like many student projects, it almost faded away when graduation came and the contributors had other priorities. But one young engineer, who had joined the group in 2000, refused to let it die. He reorganised the code, inspired new contributors, and slowly turned a university experiment into a world-class piece of software.
Matthias: He built a healthy community fostering the software. Hundreds of volunteers joined. They contributed by programming, testing, auditing, helping others, with translations, improving the design, or promoting the software. Thereby the community grew and people started using the software on every platform – GNU/Linux and other Unix like operating systems, Windows, Android, or MacOS and iOS. For many people running non-free operating systems, it was the very first Free Software they ever installed. For many people running Free Software, it saved them from installing and booting into a proprietary operating system.
Raphael: With this success our winner was offered tempting deals - big money, advertising, corporate buyouts. Every time, he gently said no. Because it was not about maximising profit. It was about maximising freedom for computer users.
Matthias: To protect that freedom, he later founded a non-profit organisation - so the software would always belong to its community. He also founded a company to support the technical side - keeping development professional while staying true to the values of software freedom. Under his leadership, the initiative has reached billions of downloads, maintained and added amazing features - all without losing its soul.
Raphael: And there’s another thing this community is famous for - its sense of humour. Their symbol? A bright orange-and-white traffic cone. Legend has it that the original students used to collect these cones after late nights out. When it came time to pick a logo, they chose it proudly - a playful symbol of creativity, chaos, and collaboration.
Matthias: Nowadays, that little cone has become an icon you find on a huge amount of computers worldwide. At conferences their contributors wear the cones on their heads with pride as a clear sign of who they are and what they stand for.
Raphael: And the person behind it? He’s not just a brilliant engineer. He’s a leader, a mentor, and a true advocate for software freedom. In 2018, his contributions were honoured with the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite - the first Free Software developer ever to receive that distinction. Yes - a real knight of software freedom.
Matthias: His “Holy Grail” was not fame or fortune - it’s freedom: the freedom for billions of people to watch, listen, and share multimedia files without restrictions or surveillance. He has shown the world that integrity, community, and a bit of humour can change how we experience digital media.
Raphael: Today, we celebrate someone who has made it possible for all of us to enjoy open, universal access to media - and who continues to prove that Free Software is powerful, beautiful, and fun.
Matthias: It is our great pleasure to present the European SFS Award 2025 to the president of the VideoLAN non-profit, one of the lead developers of VLC media player, the founder of VideoLabs, the bearer of the traffic cone, and a true knight of Free Software....
Matthias & Raphael: Jean-Baptiste Kempf!