Goodbye, VLC!
Posted: 12 Sep 2024 06:33
Dear all,
today I am desperate enough to do something I never even thought possible: I'll throw the p.o.s that once used to be the very best player available, from my system.
I've been using vlc for (...don't even know, feels like forever) I think eleven, twelve years now.
First, on WIN, and since 2014, on my macs.
The Mac-version has eroded with each update.
By now, even strating vlc is like the lottery: Will it run - or not?
Next frustration comes when trying to open a file, ref above.
Months ago, I posted my problem here - not even a single reply ("2 Bugs: 1.Updating-issue & 2. A/B-loop freezes", posted in JULY).
As it is, VLC has become an utter mess, and I cannot use this, unfortunately.
Frustrated and desperate as I am, I would still like to take this opportunity to thank the old time devs, who did produce a player, that once was the pinnacle of all available media players.
I will forever remember my first VLC installation on the windows machine: W O W ! ! ! It worked. It just worked:
- No matter what kind of exotic files, VLC worked.
- The settings JUST WORKED (now, I save a setting - only to find that the next time I startVLC, it has returned to the old settings...
- I will always remember my amazement, when I could even play 320x240 "midget-vids" FULL-SCREEN IN MORE THAN DECENT QUALITY!
- I used to endorse VLC to my students for years - and (probably unbelievable, at least for Mac users) got lots of thanks from the guys...
- For the last 2 years or so, I could not recommend VLC anymore. After I got a very aggressive reply from someone I did recommend VLC to, I stopped.
- By now, VLC has become the one software on my computer, that I open with fear only.
- today, I have been fighting VLC for almost 4 hours - once more: no matter which video I tried to play, VLC kept crashing and that damn pop-up window with the --please stay polite-- error messages kept popping up, I pressed the "clean up"-button... well, I could have shot myself - that would at least have worked. As it is, the pop-up keeps popping up. No, not funny, not the least!
My mood is such that I am glad there's no-one around trying to tell me about the GREAT VLC! THAT would have ended tragically.
Thus, before I do hurt somebody, or die of heart attack out of sheer frustration, I WILL KILL VLC NOW!
This is all very very sad.
Dear development team, I do hope that sometime in the future you will find the programmers, who will allow your product to become quality again.
If I were you, I'd just quit - you could spend your free time doing something that MAKES SENSE! E.g. Getting cosmetic surgery, so you will not have to run around ashamed anymore.
Last comment: your support pages are the same mess, your software has become. But no one seems to care anymore anyway.
YOU BRAG A LOT HERE, that you are spending spare time "working" on VLC... DID YOU EVER EVEN THINK OF THE HOURS & HOURS YOUR USERS SPEND TRYING TO MAKE YOUR POS WORK?!?!?!
If I were you, I would immediately shut up and become very, very quiet about my "spare time".
Thus goodbye.
I can only recommend to all Macke users: throw that thing off your system! Rather pay $5 then be frustrated for however long you will try to make it work:
VLC JUST WILL NOT WORK RELIABLY - well, maybe it is okay for you, but then you would have to be deaf and blind.
End of raant, end of the ONE software, I used to think, that kept up the spirit with which we started "the well": ENABLE EVERYONE TO THE ADVANTAGES OF MODERN COMPUTING BY PROVIDING F R E E & E A S Y A C C E S S to software (and even hardware, but that was ages ago). Our counter culture of sharing quality and being proud of that, has died.
today I am desperate enough to do something I never even thought possible: I'll throw the p.o.s that once used to be the very best player available, from my system.
I've been using vlc for (...don't even know, feels like forever) I think eleven, twelve years now.
First, on WIN, and since 2014, on my macs.
The Mac-version has eroded with each update.
By now, even strating vlc is like the lottery: Will it run - or not?
Next frustration comes when trying to open a file, ref above.
Months ago, I posted my problem here - not even a single reply ("2 Bugs: 1.Updating-issue & 2. A/B-loop freezes", posted in JULY).
As it is, VLC has become an utter mess, and I cannot use this, unfortunately.
Frustrated and desperate as I am, I would still like to take this opportunity to thank the old time devs, who did produce a player, that once was the pinnacle of all available media players.
I will forever remember my first VLC installation on the windows machine: W O W ! ! ! It worked. It just worked:
- No matter what kind of exotic files, VLC worked.
- The settings JUST WORKED (now, I save a setting - only to find that the next time I startVLC, it has returned to the old settings...
- I will always remember my amazement, when I could even play 320x240 "midget-vids" FULL-SCREEN IN MORE THAN DECENT QUALITY!
- I used to endorse VLC to my students for years - and (probably unbelievable, at least for Mac users) got lots of thanks from the guys...
- For the last 2 years or so, I could not recommend VLC anymore. After I got a very aggressive reply from someone I did recommend VLC to, I stopped.
- By now, VLC has become the one software on my computer, that I open with fear only.
- today, I have been fighting VLC for almost 4 hours - once more: no matter which video I tried to play, VLC kept crashing and that damn pop-up window with the --please stay polite-- error messages kept popping up, I pressed the "clean up"-button... well, I could have shot myself - that would at least have worked. As it is, the pop-up keeps popping up. No, not funny, not the least!
My mood is such that I am glad there's no-one around trying to tell me about the GREAT VLC! THAT would have ended tragically.
Thus, before I do hurt somebody, or die of heart attack out of sheer frustration, I WILL KILL VLC NOW!
This is all very very sad.
Dear development team, I do hope that sometime in the future you will find the programmers, who will allow your product to become quality again.
If I were you, I'd just quit - you could spend your free time doing something that MAKES SENSE! E.g. Getting cosmetic surgery, so you will not have to run around ashamed anymore.
Last comment: your support pages are the same mess, your software has become. But no one seems to care anymore anyway.
YOU BRAG A LOT HERE, that you are spending spare time "working" on VLC... DID YOU EVER EVEN THINK OF THE HOURS & HOURS YOUR USERS SPEND TRYING TO MAKE YOUR POS WORK?!?!?!
If I were you, I would immediately shut up and become very, very quiet about my "spare time".
Thus goodbye.
I can only recommend to all Macke users: throw that thing off your system! Rather pay $5 then be frustrated for however long you will try to make it work:
VLC JUST WILL NOT WORK RELIABLY - well, maybe it is okay for you, but then you would have to be deaf and blind.
End of raant, end of the ONE software, I used to think, that kept up the spirit with which we started "the well": ENABLE EVERYONE TO THE ADVANTAGES OF MODERN COMPUTING BY PROVIDING F R E E & E A S Y A C C E S S to software (and even hardware, but that was ages ago). Our counter culture of sharing quality and being proud of that, has died.