Probably no one could have imagined that VLC Media Player, which is now available on almost every system, would become what it is today because it was just a university project.
If you were a child in the early 2000s, you can take a journey into the world of nostalgia by remembering that you inserted a DVD into your computer and spent hours of enjoyable time using VLC Media Player, or that you opened a DVD with popular songs of the period and gave a concert.
You might be thinking, “How would we have had fun without VLC Media Player back then?” If you are ready, let’s take a journey into the history of VLC Media Player, which has influenced our lives so much.
The idea for VLC Media Player came from a group of students.
The year was 1996 and a group of students at the École Centrale Paris had started a project. It was called “Network 2000” and was intended to be just a streaming server, but over time it became clear that it had much greater potential.
These students were looking for a simple but effective solution to play multimedia files. This search led them to lay the foundations for VLC Media Player. The project was renamed the “VideoLAN Project”.
The students made a deal with a French software developer.
After creating a media player that could play various formats, the students hired another developer and the project was realized. Initially only available to students at the university, the media player was tested as open source in 2001. When a Dutch developer used it with macOS, it was an instant hit, and Apple and Windows followed suit.
By the mid-2000s, VLC’s popularity grew rapidly. Users were attracted by the fact that it was available on a variety of operating systems. Windows, macOS, Linux… No matter what platform you were using, VLC had a solution for you.
Today, VLC Media Player is still the media player of choice for millions of people.
Its open source code allows it to be continuously updated and supported by the community, while its user-friendly interface and wide format support ensure user satisfaction. In short, the story of VLC is much more than just a media player.
Bonus Where does the icon come from?
The VLC Media Player icon is a reference to the time students spent collecting traffic cones at their university. Originally hand-drawn, the low-resolution logo was released in a new digital version in 2005, designed by Richard Oiesad, and has remained so ever since.
source: VLC, 336 Productions
