Slashdot Mirror
VLC Running Kickstarter Campaign To Fund Native Windows 8 App
New submitter aaron44126 writes "Some VLC developers have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of a native port of VLC as a Windows 8 app. The goal is to create an app with a UI that fits into the rest of the Windows 8 ecosystem that supports the playback of all of the types of files that VLC already supports. Playback of optical media (DVD/VCD/BD) is also on the list. They hope to use as much existing code as possible while doing whatever necessary to get VLC running in the 'Metro' environment and meet Microsoft's requirements for distribution through the Windows Store. Porting to ARM so that it can run on Windows RT devices will happen after the Windows 8 app is complete. The campaign has actually been going on for almost two weeks but they published their first update yesterday, in which they announced their intent to produce a Windows Phone 8 port as well."
I'm actively avoiding donating any money to anything that helps make Windows 8 become relevant.
Apart from the fact that Windows 8 is a crap product to start with that also actively tramples on our privacy and forces unwanted ads on the user, Microsoft have insisted that profit-driven commercialism is the only good way to develop software. They have actively turned their back on the open source community (other than as strictly necessary to further their own agenda). Good. Let them live and die by their own philosophy.
I dont see why we now should now give charitable aid to even indirectly help them, a selfish and already rich megacorp keep their crap products making even more money that will just fund them staying alive longer and fighting opensource.
Wouldn't charitable contributing to their product also be in contradiction of Microsofts own chosen "survival of the fattest" mantra too?
All VLC donators should withhold their money until VLC's devs can prove they no longer wish to legitimize Windows 8's closed "ecosystem" and radically wrong "Modern" UI. They should wait until the devs can agree to skip this version (and instead improve support and integration with earlier Windowses as needed until 9 arrives). Even one dollar will convince MS that people think 8 is some "necessary evil" and keep them from immediately apologizing for that dreck.
It's one thing to, say, force programs (by default UAC settings) to save docs and settings away from the Program Files folders (which should've been the norm anyway), as Vista and 7 do; it's another to drop the Start button to make people want to buy a whole new computer with an inherently less-precise touch interface, or ban freely-developed programs outright (on Windows RT, at least) to force programmers to pay for admission to the API and app store. There are other (larger?) problems, but those alone require us to send a friendly reminder that developers (developers developers...) within and without MS made prior Windowses usable in the first place, and that we have not authorized career marketers to fuck up what could've been a decent OS.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
YOU fucking shut up, you condescending twat. There are more choices than what you dictate. Windows 8 is more than just a bad user interface, it's a shift towards seizing control of our computing environment like Microsoft has never done before. They want PCs to be dumbed down, locked down devices controlled by them where all developers have to pay them homage in order to sell software for the platform. They can't phase out "legacy" applications (that's what they are referring to them as already) immediately, but there will be more disincentives coming.
What makes you think Microsoft is going to allow VLC in the Microsoft Store? They won't like the license, and they won't like the codecs (for reasons more than one). This is exactly the problem with their control freak plan.
I am fighting against this tooth and claw. I refuse to help people with Windows 8 (I build computers, I do computer service... repairs, cleanup, lessons/instruction). The only thing I will do is replace it... in fact I am offering Windows 7 and Linux installs (Mint if they don't ask for something specific) for a nominal fee. I am talking complete setup for my minimum fee of $40. I don't care if I spend 6 hours, it's time well spent.
Some of you with "moderator points" need to get over yourselves. If you want to waste them on people just because they use nasty language, then you negate their value. There are good posts that you could have promoted, but instead you chose to flex your scrawny muscles.