FYI - each article clearly states the author's name at the top of each page... no one is holding a gun to your head to force you to read Nick's articles. If you don't like them, don't read them. It's quite simple!

Ya'll sound like a bunch of children. "Whaaa, mommy, The Inq won't fire the author who's writing style I don't like. I don't care if other people like his writing, it's all about me and since I dont like him he must go. Whaaaaaaaa.

Like most Apple whingers you are only happy when people write nice stuff. Face facts Apple is an evil empire which gets all its cash from stuffing people like you over. Nick is one of the few hacks brave enough to say that. The fact that you spend all your posts attacking him rather than the story reveals you to be operating in Hubbard mode congrats. If Farrell was fired from the INQ on Apple fanboys say so it would be a very very sad world

why are comments complaining credibility of this article and the author of this article deleted?

It's been too many misleading articles on the INQ recently from Nick.

Why do you pay this moron?

Apple would have nothing to gain by listing free software on their database list when they have their own alternatives. They charge people money to upgrade to the Pro version of Quicktime, so if they were to list something like VLC, which has all of the same features as Quicktime Pro and more, they won't sell any Pro licences knowing that VLC is free...

I personally use Quicktime sometimes, but only for downloading the 1080p movie trailers available from the Apple website and saving them to my hard drive. Now a days even Windows Media Player 12 will play Quicktime files anyway in addition the standard Windows formats and most others that you can provide a codec for, so who would use Quicktime as their default player anyway?

Free players like VLC and MPC are quite good, but I personally don't use them as I mostly only play MP3s, AVIs and DVDs/Blu-rays so WinAmp and PowerDVD are the main players I use as I consider them to be far superior for those specific tasks. iTunes on the other hand is completely banned from being installed or run on my PC...

What has VideoLan's lack of Mac developers got to do with Apple? Apple probably don't have a link for VLC because Handbrake uses it's CSS circumvention to allow DVD ripping - not a good look for Apple when it's trying to get along with the studios.

VLC's OK but a bit clunky like Handbrake (it must be a French-design thing). The Perian plugin replaced it for me ages ago allowing all QT apps (Front Row, iMovie, QT, iTunes even iDVD) to play/acquire/convert a stack of old-school MPEG4/ASP-based pirate formats. Now the pirates have finally moved on to MPEG4/AVC(H.264) it's becoming less relevant.

So this whole thing is just an Apple-hatred rant accusing them of something which has nothing to do with them.

McD

@Ri-Nickulous
AMEN!!!

@Posters
I'm not sure where this publication is based, but whereever it is, i wonder if there are laws for protecting against wilfully publishing lies. I'm thinking 'false advertizing', 'slander', 'wilfully misleading', etc..... And what the penalties for such wrongdoings/crimes are.

I own a mac and have been using VLC for as long as it has been availible. Apple and VLC are mutually exclusive companies. Apple cannot stop independent software developers from programming on open source projects (in fact Apple does contribute to the open source community(A LOT more than Microfluffy). If there are no developers working on VLC(Mac). it isnt Apple's fault. it's VLC's for not attracting developers on said platform.

A suggestion for the owners of this site:
Hire "journalists", not fanboys. And maybe some fact checking would be appropriate instead of fabricating lies.

They can't help but jump in!

Fan, you're right, VLC has an ugly interface.

I install VLC on my computer, but only as a backup if my good player wont play something.
Why is it backup? because it has the crappiest GUI i ever seen, which is too bad, because it can play anything, I would gladly make it my default if someone who knows what he's doing would rewrite the whole interface.
In case you wonder, my main player is MPC-HC.

I saw the lack of devs reported on a couple of Mac sites - neither struck me as implying anything other than concern about the future of a very useful app.

I've never met any Mac user who actively dislike VLC - most seem to consider it essential. So what on earth is Nick talking about?

No, you can't. If you don't like Nick's take on things, you can fuck off on out of here and go back to whereever it is you Mac roaches breed. Besides, aren't you missing morning services at the Church of Jobs?

This story is completely 100% false.

VLC and Apple have no relationship whatsoever, you useless twit.

Will somebody FIRE this moron already?

Can I get an "AMEN? ??

Move along nothing to see here.

Just a bunch of mac heads arguing about how there ugly girlfriend is really beautifull.

I love VLC. Quicktime is a crappy intrusive piece of junk that keeps trying to install itself because of Itunes...

If stating facts is fanboyish then so be it, it is irrelevant.

The H.264 spec isn't freely available? What's this then? http://www.itu.int/rec/dologin_pub.asp?lang=e&id=T-REC-H.264-200305-S!!PDF-E&type=items
You want an open source encoder? What about this one http://www.free-codecs.com/download/x264_Video_Codec.htm
A decoder? Look here http://ffmpeg.org/

The problems with the OGG codec is that it's not guaranteed to be unencumbered by patents, and its lower quality than H.264. W3C are currently looking for an alternative to both of them.

apple isn't doing anything and has nothing to do with VLC, there's lack of mac developers and that's it, no conspiracy, no blocking, nothing so please stop this bullshit and get some life!

You won't see a link to VLC from Microsoft's site either (nor should you). Anyone having a problem finding VLC for the platform of their choice would also probably have trouble using a computer at all.

This story is idiotic--what the project needs is more Mac developers, not Apple's support of a link in its DB of apps for the Mac.

@David Roy - please don't be a fanboi

Sadly Apple and Google think that H.264 is the way to go for video on the web.

And Google has to provide a "special" MP4 alternative URL for YouTube videos so that Apple / iPhone fanboys can watch them. Bah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_Ogg_formats_in_HTML5

Did you know that H.264 (MP4) is patented so a) the specification document is not freely available, you have to pay big bucks to get it and b) you probably will get sued if you develop an encoder / decoder (even as open source) and c) you have to pay license fees to the MPEG4-LA if you want to stream videos on the internet or anywhere for that matter.

Don't believe me ? Look it up.

Apple can do anything they want if they are not a "monopoly"?
Long live VLC.. the best media player aruond.

I have used VLC on every os I have run for the last 5 years or so. It has the best support for any codec with rare exceptions and has functions many media players dont.When I realized my mac wont play wmv files, VLC was my first choice and frankly I never cared for quicktime or itunes. Maybe apple is a little insecure?They are doing there customers a disservice by not listing some of the best apps like VLC, Xee for photos and Gimp for mac.It took me a long time to find some of the very apps which by the way are free.

<plug
Perian has been quite a good substitute for video playback, since installing Snow Leopard.

It updates the Mac OSX QuickTime to play:
Divx, XviD, FLV, AVI, MS-MPEG4 v1, MS-MPEG4 v2, MS-MPEG4 v3, DivX 3.11 alpha, 3ivX, Sorenson H.263, Flash Screen Video, Truemotion VP6

Formats include: h.264, mpeg4, AAC, AC3 Audio, and VBR MP3.

</plug

VLC is still brilliant with the features that it brings to the Mac though. I really don't want to see it die on the Mac!

No one is stopping you from running VLC on a Mac. Not Apple nor the developers of VLC. A story just came out saying they were a bit short on developers for the Apple interface of VLC.

Um, since when has Apple done anything to block VLC? Not listing it on their site isn't a unique thing, they list very few items of software.

No Mac user wants to use the terrible Quicktime (although the limited new Quicktime X in Snow Leopard is meant to be a lot better, at least for the three video files that it supports).

VLC is installed on all my computers regardless of OS. Just another reason to stay away from Apple products. Their draconian decisions do not impress. Yes, they have the right to do what they want on their platform. And I have the right to not give them any of my dollars.