Open Source VLC Media Player Coming To iPad

Stoobalou writes "The people behind VLC, quite probably the most useful media player available right now, have submitted an iPod version to the Apple software police. VLC — which is rightfully famous for having a go at playing just about any kind of audio or video file you care to throw at it — should appear some time next week, if it makes it through the often unfathomable approval process implemented by Apple. The Open Source Video Lan Client has been tweaked to run on the iPod by software developer Applidium."

Custom mediaplayer on the appstore?

[TheGodxxxx]

I was actually under the impression that u could not release a media player that is not based on the stock one at the appstore because it would be count as replacing standard functionality. Has this changed or am I missinformed at all? Having VLC on iOS could be a dealbreaker for many people who don't buy a iPhone because of the lack of divx/xvid compatiblity.

Re:GPL Violation?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm trying to figure out why they haven't released the code yet. It is touted as "open source", why not let those of us that are iPhone Developers install it today, instead of waiting for Apple to approve it?

When Firefox Home was being developed, they released the code so I was able to use it weeks (or months) before it was submitted and available on the AppStore.

Re:GPL Violation?

[DdJ]

A few reasons I didn't go forward with it:

1) Even though I'm pretty sure the GPLv2 and App Store are compatible, I'm also pretty sure the FSF would raise a stink and I wouldn't have the resources to fight, and thus Apple would end up removing it from the store anyway, and

2) In order to get the full behavior I'd want with a bluetooth or USB keyboard, at this time I would have to use undocumented APIs, which would piss off Apple. An example of what I mean: I wouldn't be able to get the control keybindings to work properly without using undocumented APIs. And without correct keyboard behavior... what's the point?

3) In order to comply with the "users can't download interpreted code to the thing", I'd have to keep people from loading elisp on to it. But elisp files in Emacs aren't some special magic thing, they're just files. How could one absolutely prevent people from downloading elisp? By preventing network access and (most) file transfers. What's the point?

(In the end, #2 was the biggest reason. If the keyboard APIs open up a bit more, I'll re-evaluate.)

Re:GPL Violation?

[DdJ]

And thus we have a demonstration of that "fight the power!" attitude I mentioned.

They do support some FOSS, quite explicitly, and their agreements have been revised specifically to make this clear. There's plenty of FOSS in the app store right now, like the Wordpress and Redmine client applications.

But it's also still a curated platform, and Apple will maintain absolute and unflinching control over the end-user experience, period. There is no pretense or duplicity on this point. Anyone who's not comfortable with that fact ought to stay away from the platform.

This is not a contradiction, and it's not arbitrary "cruelty", and being willing to work within this framework isn't "servile". People who don't understand the value of a curated platform won't "get it". Even people who do understand the value of a curated platform, but who consider it a no-brainer that absolute end-user freedom must always trump that value, those people also won't "get it". But there really is plenty of room for reasonable compromise and respectful interactions, for a lot of folks who don't match those descriptions.