6 ms·

VLC for the new Windows 8 User Experience fundraiser

66 points by feepk 14y ago

mortenjorck 14y ago
I'm really glad they're looking to hire some design expertise, but I hope they scope it right – graphic design will definitely help, but that UX is going to have to be rethought as well if they want to truly take advantage of the design language and make a great Win8 app.
isani 14y ago
"VLC for Windows 8 might not be applicable for the store." And that's a major problem. Without distribution on the Windows Store, this thing isn't going to see any kind of mass adoption. I'd be wary about funding until they work out whether their code and licenses pass the Store certification requirements.
- jbk 14y ago
  Well, we hope this is enough... http://www.jbkempf.com/blog/post/2012/Windows-Store-and-the-GPL http://www.jbkempf.com/blog/post/2012/Windows-Store-and-the-...
rmrfrmrf 14y ago
If you'll remember, Rémi Denis-Courmont made such a big stink about keeping VLC out of walled gardens that Apple was forced to remove it from the App Store. So my question is: why does VLC suddenly WANT to be in a walled garden now that Windows is following suit?
- thresh 14y ago
  because VLC is not owned by Rémi Denis-Courmont, and not everyone agrees on his move towards AppStore.
PaulHoule 14y ago
This is the first time I've funded a project on Kickstarter.
NathanKP 14y ago
Direct link to the Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1061646928/vlc-for-the-new-windows-8-user-experience-metro http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1061646928/vlc-for-the-n...
mrchess 14y ago
I used VLC since I was a kid to watch my "backed-up" videos in the days where codecs were rampant and confusing. Now that I have some income, it feels good to give back. Here's to the next generation of VLC!
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  I love VLC for that too, whenever I see someone farting around with WMP trying to get something to play I always just link them to the VLC download page. Haven't found a problem that this hasn't solved yet.
aes256 14y ago
1) It's 2012 and we still need third party software to watch videos? I understand VLC does other stuff, but the reason most people use and install it is just to watch videos; 2) This seems like an awful lot of money, not to mention the precedent it sets, just to craft an interface for what is, ultimately, a transient 'design language'. Metro is ugly and a UX nightmare. It will be replaced with something completely new come the next Windows release, with inevitably mediocre backwards compatibility.
- Nikaido 14y ago
  1/ It's 2012 and Windows 8 has decided it can't play DVD movies. Yes, that's right. You now NEED to install third party software just to play a legitimately bought DVD movie ! VLC is even more necessary than ever.
- NathanKP 14y ago
  With regard to point #1 I generally find VLC to be much more forgiving than the generic video players built into Windows or Mac OS X. VLC will often play damaged video files and all sorts of random, slightly corrupted files found on file sharing sites, etc. With regard to point #2 it is more than just a new interface look for VLC. It will require extensive rewriting to work within the Windows sandbox using appropriate security sandboxed API's to allow distribution through the Windows Store. There is also the subsequent project to get it to work on ARM architecture, which will be a challenging project due to the reliance on low level C and assembler code.
  - zmonkeyz 14y ago
    The best description of VLC was that the icon is a traffic cone because it will actually play one. :)
  - aes256 14y ago
    1) Oh absolutely, I don't dispute VLC remains useful. I just think it's a shame that we still need VLC. To most of its users, VLC is "that thing that my friend told me I'd need to install to play these videos because for some reason Windows can't play them on its own" 2) I'm more worried about the precedent this sets. Is VLC going to need new cash injections every time Microsoft change the rules of the Windows Store, or release updates to Windows 8 that break the app? As I say, the next major release of Windows will undoubtedly break everything all over again. It just strikes me as an awful lot of time, money and effort to build a solution to a problem that really oughtn't to exist in this day and age...
albertzeyer 14y ago
I think it is a nice idea to finance the development via Kickstarter. I think this could become much more common for common big open source projects, i.e. some particular interesting missing feature or redesign which might need anyway some professional designer or so - financed by the community. And if I am interested in the particular feature, I am also very open to spend a bit money there. Also, by doing separate campaigns for separate features/goals, you could see where the user really is interested in. For example, in this particular feature (a Win8 Metra GUI for VLC), I am not interested at all so I wont really give any money there. But if it would be something which I would like to have, I definitely would.
- albertzeyer 14y ago
  Another thought, going even further: I would also very happy to work on many other open source projects if I would be paid for. Maybe there could be an open platform similar to Kickstarter but maybe the users itself could suggest features and obligatory say how much money they would spend. And developers would say on what things they would want to work on. In the end, probably the project maintainers would then decide to start it and select the developers for it. Or alternatively: People would not determine the amount of money obligatory but they would just say some amount. Developers would register for it. And then the users again would decide for what developers (or maybe other external needed resources) they would give how much money and if some constraints are given, it can be made final. That way, the official project maintainers would not have to maintain this work and many more random features on random open source projects, maybe even abandoned ones could be implemented.
  - tantrix 14y ago
    Such a thing actually already exists! Take a look at BountySource: https://www.bountysource.com/ https://www.bountysource.com/ As a backer you can put cash bounties on Github issues (other trackers to come) and when a project committer accepts a pull request for that issue, the developer gets paid. On the flip side, we're about to launch Fundraisers, which is very similar to the Kickstarter model: create a project spec and get it funded. We're building specifically for open source, rather than a generic platform. We'd love to hear your thoughts! (#bountysource on freenode)

66 points by feepk 14y ago

I'm really glad they're looking to hire some design expertise, but I hope they scope it right – graphic design will definitely help, but that UX is going to have to be rethought as well if they want to truly take advantage of the design language and make a great Win8 app.

isani 14y ago

"VLC for Windows 8 might not be applicable for the store." And that's a major problem. Without distribution on the Windows Store, this thing isn't going to see any kind of mass adoption. I'd be wary about funding until they work out whether their code and licenses pass the Store certification requirements.

jbk 14y ago
Well, we hope this is enough... http://www.jbkempf.com/blog/post/2012/Windows-Store-and-the-GPL http://www.jbkempf.com/blog/post/2012/Windows-Store-and-the-...

rmrfrmrf 14y ago

If you'll remember, Rémi Denis-Courmont made such a big stink about keeping VLC out of walled gardens that Apple was forced to remove it from the App Store. So my question is: why does VLC suddenly WANT to be in a walled garden now that Windows is following suit?

thresh 14y ago
because VLC is not owned by Rémi Denis-Courmont, and not everyone agrees on his move towards AppStore.

PaulHoule 14y ago

This is the first time I've funded a project on Kickstarter.

NathanKP 14y ago

Direct link to the Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1061646928/vlc-for-the-new-windows-8-user-experience-metro http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1061646928/vlc-for-the-n...

mrchess 14y ago

I used VLC since I was a kid to watch my "backed-up" videos in the days where codecs were rampant and confusing. Now that I have some income, it feels good to give back. Here's to the next generation of VLC!

jiggy2011 14y ago
I love VLC for that too, whenever I see someone farting around with WMP trying to get something to play I always just link them to the VLC download page. Haven't found a problem that this hasn't solved yet.

aes256 14y ago

1) It's 2012 and we still need third party software to watch videos? I understand VLC does other stuff, but the reason most people use and install it is just to watch videos; 2) This seems like an awful lot of money, not to mention the precedent it sets, just to craft an interface for what is, ultimately, a transient 'design language'. Metro is ugly and a UX nightmare. It will be replaced with something completely new come the next Windows release, with inevitably mediocre backwards compatibility.

Nikaido 14y ago
1/ It's 2012 and Windows 8 has decided it can't play DVD movies. Yes, that's right. You now NEED to install third party software just to play a legitimately bought DVD movie ! VLC is even more necessary than ever.
NathanKP 14y ago
With regard to point #1 I generally find VLC to be much more forgiving than the generic video players built into Windows or Mac OS X. VLC will often play damaged video files and all sorts of random, slightly corrupted files found on file sharing sites, etc. With regard to point #2 it is more than just a new interface look for VLC. It will require extensive rewriting to work within the Windows sandbox using appropriate security sandboxed API's to allow distribution through the Windows Store. There is also the subsequent project to get it to work on ARM architecture, which will be a challenging project due to the reliance on low level C and assembler code.
- zmonkeyz 14y ago
  The best description of VLC was that the icon is a traffic cone because it will actually play one. :)
- aes256 14y ago
  1) Oh absolutely, I don't dispute VLC remains useful. I just think it's a shame that we still need VLC. To most of its users, VLC is "that thing that my friend told me I'd need to install to play these videos because for some reason Windows can't play them on its own" 2) I'm more worried about the precedent this sets. Is VLC going to need new cash injections every time Microsoft change the rules of the Windows Store, or release updates to Windows 8 that break the app? As I say, the next major release of Windows will undoubtedly break everything all over again. It just strikes me as an awful lot of time, money and effort to build a solution to a problem that really oughtn't to exist in this day and age...

albertzeyer 14y ago

I think it is a nice idea to finance the development via Kickstarter. I think this could become much more common for common big open source projects, i.e. some particular interesting missing feature or redesign which might need anyway some professional designer or so - financed by the community. And if I am interested in the particular feature, I am also very open to spend a bit money there. Also, by doing separate campaigns for separate features/goals, you could see where the user really is interested in. For example, in this particular feature (a Win8 Metra GUI for VLC), I am not interested at all so I wont really give any money there. But if it would be something which I would like to have, I definitely would.

albertzeyer 14y ago
Another thought, going even further: I would also very happy to work on many other open source projects if I would be paid for. Maybe there could be an open platform similar to Kickstarter but maybe the users itself could suggest features and obligatory say how much money they would spend. And developers would say on what things they would want to work on. In the end, probably the project maintainers would then decide to start it and select the developers for it. Or alternatively: People would not determine the amount of money obligatory but they would just say some amount. Developers would register for it. And then the users again would decide for what developers (or maybe other external needed resources) they would give how much money and if some constraints are given, it can be made final. That way, the official project maintainers would not have to maintain this work and many more random features on random open source projects, maybe even abandoned ones could be implemented.
- tantrix 14y ago
  Such a thing actually already exists! Take a look at BountySource: https://www.bountysource.com/ https://www.bountysource.com/ As a backer you can put cash bounties on Github issues (other trackers to come) and when a project committer accepts a pull request for that issue, the developer gets paid. On the flip side, we're about to launch Fundraisers, which is very similar to the Kickstarter model: create a project spec and get it funded. We're building specifically for open source, rather than a generic platform. We'd love to hear your thoughts! (#bountysource on freenode)