VLC 1.0 series End of Life

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Hello,

The official release of VLC media player and LibVLC version 1.1.0 is coming to a
close. The badly stretched VLC development team is not currently able to
maintain more than two development branches at a time. The team has been
focusing on the VLC 1.2 future series and the VLC 1.1 stable series.

As a consequence, source code for VLC 1.0 is officially unmaintained
as of now. There will be no further security or major bug fixes. The last version
was 1.0.6 and will be marked formally obsolete if/when a major issue is
discovered. I would also like to remind you that:

• the LibVLC API is known to be broken in all 1.0.x releases,
• that the Mozilla plugin is broken on X11 platforms in release 1.0.6, and
• that binary packages (Windows, MacOS) have already been discontinued.

If you need any of these, please update to VLC 1.1.0-RC4 already, or 1.1.0 at
the earliest.

N.B.: VLC 1.0.5, 0.9.10, 0.8.6i and older versions exhibit known published
security issues. Update urgently if you have not already done so.

Best regards,

[dotnetCarpenter]

The main VideoLAN page only shows option for downloading version 1.0.5, the VLC player version 1.0.5 "Check for Updates..." states that it is the latest version and the "other versions" page (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) shows only an option for downloading version 1.0.5. I'm confused...
Where is the link for the current version?
Why has the main web page not been updated to reflect your decision?
Will version 1.0.5 not be able to update?

I wonder how many regular users will be stuck with an unmaintained version VLC...

[Arite]

Assuming you are on Windows, there are no official Windows binaries of VLC 1.0.6. If you want a more up-to-date version of VLC try the latest release candidate of VLC 1.1.0 (currently RC4):
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=77881

For more information about VLC 1.0.6 etc.:
http://www.remlab.net/op/vlc-1.0.6.shtml

Arite.

[LighScan]

The main VideoLAN page only shows option for downloading version 1.0.5, the VLC player version 1.0.5 "Check for Updates..." states that it is the latest version and the "other versions" page (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) shows only an option for downloading version 1.0.5. I'm confused...
Where is the link for the current version?
Why has the main web page not been updated to reflect your decision?
Will version 1.0.5 not be able to update?

I wonder how many regular users will be stuck with an unmaintained version VLC...

You can get the latest RC-version here:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/releases/1.1.0-RC.html

It is mentioned on the front page by the way, in the "News"-section.

VLC 1.1.0 Release Candidate 1
2010-05-27
VideoLAN and the VLC developers are proud to announce the first Release Candidate of the 1.1.0 version of VLC.
This test release, aimed at power-users is a major update on the current VLC 1.0.x branch. It includes numerous changes, modification and improvements, including GPU/DSP decoding, support for more formats and codecs and extensions.

Source and full Changelog are available now.

[ebud]

Hello,
[...]
There will be no further security or major bug fixes.
[...]
N.B.: VLC 1.0.5, 0.9.10, 0.8.6i and older versions exhibit known published
security issues. Update urgently if you have not already done so.

Best regards,

Hello there,

I'm not very good at computer and I am a novice user of VLC.

Currently, I have the version 1.0.5. out of which I have just now realize the update bug (from the Help menu of the VLC GUI of VLC1.0.5), and the release of version 1.1.0.
Now, I wonder how long and at what level of risk I have exposed my computer by making VLC my default media player, without ever having been made aware of the problem ! I downloaded some streams recently using this expired version and I am worried because I can't ascertain the risk level of the site that I did the download from!
I would like get an answer to these concerns, please.
I find it truly shocking that there is no automatic update option. Now I'm gonna go download your new version, hoping that the missing option will be available... If not, would you please add it to the upgrade list, or "to do" list.

[*]Moreover, another concern, I noticed the Note on the site's top page, and I quote :

so far, on Windows for GPU decoding, VideoLAN is recommending nVidia® GPU, [...] and until the VLC developers get access to some Intel® hardware supporting GPU decoding.

So, If I have an Intel(r) 965 Express series card, is it gonna work properly?? I wonder this because with the old version, I didn't have much problem (some little bugs that I wasn't angry enough for to report them or to figure them out myself, solution in the latter case I believe it would do more harm than good because I'm not a very skilled computer guy.

Thanks for your attention.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

GPU decoding isn't activated by default.

[ebud]

GPU decoding isn't activated by default.

Salut, j'vais enfin pouvoir écrire en français, puisque je me rends compte que vous portez des noms franco, à moins biensûr que vous me l'interdisiez... Je me dis que ceux qui ne le parle pas fassent comme moi (pour le cas de l'anglais) et traduisent. Je mets beaucoup d'effort de traduction partout ailleur, alors!

... ok donc GPU decoding, huh, ça veut dire exactement ce que ça décrit hein? lol Moi, j'suis pas encore assez "callé". Et donc, puisque j'avais pas bien porté attention sur la page web, ça concernait la HD! Bon. Mais est-ce que j'vais pouvoir obtenir l'image d'un film tourné en HD exactement tel que ça doit l'être avec ma configuration actuelle (carte graphique Intel Série 965 Express)? Bon, de toute manière j'vais comparer les rendements avec mon lecteur média du fabricant Toshiba... on verra bien (en tout cas, en terme d'utilisation des ressources, même pas besoin de comparer, vous les battez sur toute la ligne).

N'empêche, les updates automatiques, ça serait bien apprécié! Surtout quand vous décidez de discontinuer une version... Serait-il plus simple que VLC puisse connecter à un serveur qui passe les messages et les font s'afficher à la fermeture du programme, genre " MESSAGE IMPORTANT : nouvelle version disponible à videolan.org. " Biensûr, faut voir à ce que ce soit sécuritaire encore là...

J'imagine que c'est pas facile tout ça! Beaucoup de travail...

Lâchez pas, merci! Ça reste du beau et bon boulot!

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Currently, I have the version 1.0.5. out of which I have just now realize the update bug (from the Help menu of the VLC GUI of VLC1.0.5), and the release of version 1.1.0.
Now, I wonder how long and at what level of risk I have exposed my computer by making VLC my default media player, without ever having been made aware of the problem ! I downloaded some streams recently using this expired version and I am worried because I can't ascertain the risk level of the site that I did the download from!
I would like get an answer to these concerns, please.

That's your problem for not listening. It was announced on the website, on the VideoLAN news feed and on the videolan-announce mailing list over two months ago already:
http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/v ... 00154.html

[ebud]

Listen, how rude do you find your last answer
Ok, Rémi, Thanks for half-answering, feeIs good to know I should know it all right at the beginning...

I've been kind enough to ask politely at first, I'd like a polite answer in return...

If could you please tell me how big of a risk I have put my computer to up to now with that 1.0.5 version, it would be nice. For the record, I only downloaded a few streams and watched a few torrents (the latter mostly from so-called "trusted" seeders)... but I'd only tell you the website on PM, so you can reply me if there's any problem.
Right now, my computer is running pretty ok, maybe slightly slower.
Ho, and It seems I can't download the new version... somethings down? Neither mirror sites work.

As well, again, for the record, I update my AV., run it frequently and auto-update Windows too, does that help in anyway?
I submitted my subscription to the videolan-announce@videolan.org mailing list... that should fix some of my problems as well... It seems to take quite a long time to receive an e-mail confirmation, which as not yet arrived after 15 min. now. dammit
Thanks anyways!

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

All we know is there: http://www.videolan.org/security/sa1003.html

But there is no zero risk, you know. How do you assert that your CPU manufacturer designed the processor securely? How do you know that your operating system, your antivirus, or your device drivers did not put a backdoor into the operating system? The VLC bugs have been there for years. For all we know someone might have found and exploited them long before we discovered then fixed them anyway. In practice, it is very unlikely that anybody fell for this (we will probably never know).

By releasing security fixes to VLC 1.0.x. and announcing them, I already did more, much much more, than the VLC warranty disclaimer requires. And I don't need to mention I had to do that on my free time. If you are not happy, you are welcome to pay an expensive subcontractor for commercial support of your software.

[ebud]

I read your security report, thanks you. And I understand what your saying. I just found out that you volunteer for it.

I'm ok with VLC. Did you hear me complain about it? It's not what made me sweat. I explained my concerns, that's it. I think your work's great and I'm impressed by your résumé. I wonder what it's like to be a software engineer. Like I said, I'm new here and I'm still figuring it out.

Otherwise, I'm still waiting for an e-mail confirmation for my subscription to videolan-announce mailing list. It's been 2 request that I sent and almost 24 up to now, and nothing arrived in my inbox yet. I'll try again, but let me know If you can help.

Best regards,

ebud

[ebud]

That's your problem for not listening. It was announced on the website, on the VideoLAN news feed and on the videolan-announce mailing list over two months ago already:
http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/v ... 00154.html

HELP... I tried to subscribe 3times at http://www.videolan.org/support/lists.html but it seems it doesn't work!! Why? Could you please tell me how to submit my request via mailman@videolan.org (what do I wrote as subject and mail body??)

Thank you very much

[nolalamb]

Please, help ebud out. For all of us!

[vlcfanman]

I appreciate the security advisory re 1.0.5. I'm running Windows. I had a problem in my normal workflow with 1.1.0 (posted in the forums) so I had not much choice to downgrade to 1.0.5. I would like to patch to 1.0.6 but there is no Windows binary available here. Can Remi or another VLC dev indicate the minimum set of files to patch to resolve this? If there is someone around the forums who would like to compile and host a patch set of files that would be really helpful. Love VLC!

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Well it's probably not very difficult to figure out by looking at the change history of the specific plugins mentioned in the advisory. But it is probably far simpler to compile 1.0.6 directly.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

1.0 series is now end of life...