VLC successfully crowd funds Windows 8 port

The developers who were seeking funding for a port of the VLC media player as a Windows 8 User Experience (Metro) application have reached their goal. With five days still to go on the campaign on the Kickstarter crowd-funding web site the developers have raised just over £40,000. In an announcement to their backers, the developers thanked them for their support and proposed additional goals that will be worked on once the port to the Windows 8 UI is completed. These additional goals include support for camera input and SmartGlass and DLNA media sharing client and server integration.

VLC already runs in Windows 8's desktop mode, but the developers want to integrate it more firmly into the Windows 8 look and feel. As the current standard media player in Windows 8 is not able to play DVD and Blu-ray content, the developers see a good chance for VLC to gain even more market share on the platform with this port. Running under the new touch-oriented mode will also enable them to later port the software to ARM-based Windows tablets.

To complete the porting to the Windows 8 User Experience, VLC's code base will have to undergo many changes and the funding raised will enable the developers to work full time on the project. The developers plan to license their changes and new code under the GPLv2 or later, with an exception that would allow the code to go into the Windows Store. The core VLC code will remain under the recently completed LGPL 2.1 re-licensing with any changes being committed upstream to the main project.

(fab)