Recommended software!

Recommended software entry! Wee!

A friend of mine bought himself a new computer.  Because he didn't want to spend much money, as his sole intention was to replace his dinosaur-old computer, he went for an averagely cheap over-the-counter computer that came with windows xp pre-installed.

I know.  BAAAAD IDEA.

Because this is the third world, and Micro$oft doesn't like people who aren't willing to pay high amounts of money for defective products, my friend got the "Windows XP Starter Edition" pre-installed.  I think this version of Windows is one that those of you in prettier areas will never get to see and only consider it to be a matter of crypto-softwarelogy.

Anyway, jokes aside... there are lots of applications my friend does not get and is not allowed to install.  One of them is Windows Media Player.
When he told me this, I tried to cheer him up by telling him that this is actually GOOD NEWS! as the less Micro$hit on your comp, the better.  But I don't think he thought I was doing a great job at helping.

So, I recommended him VideoLAN/VLC.

VideoLAN, as much as wifey hates it, is a wonderful MultiMedia player that supports many many codecs and video/audio formats.  It is available for Windows, MacOS and Linux, and it's free.
It installs fast and nicely, it has a very intuitive interface without much stupid eyecandy, and it doesn't hog your RAM. \^_^/
It can be skinned to look prettier, if that's what rocks your boat; and it can also be used to stream music and videos, but we won't go there yet.  Concentrate on the playing your music easily part.
The most important thing about software like VLC is that it's OPEN SOURCE, which means, anyone can see the code that makes the application work and suggest changes, tweaks and improvements to it; as well as security fixes.

If you find that the software you use to play videos, dvd's or even music is too bloated and too fucked-up, give VideoLAN a try.  I have a feeling you might like it a lot, and who knows... maybe that old video auntie sent you of her puppy Rigobert that you could never open with WMP or QT can be played now with VLC. =D

A side note about FOSS:
Free Open Source Software (FOSS) reaches you at no cost.  However, writing these applications does cost the programmers time, patience, resources, etc. 
Usually the people behind these applications -who are regular human beings like you and me- do these projects in their spare time, because they don't get paid for it.  As you can imagine, since they don't make a living out of this, they most surely make a living out of something else.
Sometimes users protest about not getting features they want or stuff they want in their FOSS, disregarding the fact that the person who writes this software is putting everything on his or her part on it and getting nothing in return.
So, please, if you find a piece of FOSS to be useful to you, remember to support the writers of this software.  They all take donations and it helps them a lot to make ends meet more smoothly and keep writing the software that is so useful and we like so much.
You don't need to donate a lot, and you aren't in obligation of donating money, just please consider it next time you have some spare money.  It goes to a good cause. ^_^