I prefer Videolan over WMPlayer for VCD/DVDs, thanks to its excellent out of the box support for various formats, as well as better handling of scratched discs. While installing it on Ubuntu, I came across this article mentioning a serious threat to Videolan’s existence due to patents :( Not only vlc, but other open source players like MPlayer and Xine are also affected. This is currently applicable to EU, but shows the potential damage patents can cause to great open source software.
An online petition can be signed in support of open source software here.
One Comment