Open Source Youth Ministry

For those of you who’ve never heard of VLC media player: GO DOWNLOAD IT NOW! That’s an order!

Basically, It’s a multimedia player that, well, just plain works (“out-of-the-box” if you like). I’ve already replaced Windows Media Player as default with VLC on every Redmond box I get a hold of.

Why? Well, here’s a few reasons:

• It plays pretty much every filetype automatically (no need to track down DivX, Quicktime, or even FLV codecs)
• It’s stable, sleek, trim and quick (not bloated with useless eye-candy like WMP and iTunes). In fact, it’s so trim you can run it off a USB memory stick problem free!
• It’s Cross-Platform (ie: runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, and something called Syllable)
• It has a road-cone/pylon as a mascot!
• A VIDEO EDITOR IS IN THE WORKS (with all the above benefits and more)

I probably don’t need to explain to youth workers why a rugged and capable media player is a worthwhile tool. But add a decent video editor that doesn’t require fashionable (read: “overpriced”) hardware, is Free (gratis & libre), and is not limited severely by a lack of tools and import options (I’m looking at you, Movie Maker), and is Free! (oh wait… said that already).

Now, I don’t do a lot of video editing, but I sure would like to. I can’t justify Adobe Premiere (and, therefore, certainly not a $1100 Macbook for iMovie). None of the current Linux offerings really work for me (if at all). And Movie Maker… well, it’s my current go-to and I would really like an alternative.

So, I’ll dare to dream and hope that it becomes available soon (at least in beta). It’s on my tech wishlist right beside Canadian access to Google Voice, WIND Mobile, and a Nexus One.

Links:

[Lifehacker post that informed me]

[Post that informed Lifehacker]

[VLC & VLMC]

[5 Best Desktop Media Players according to Lifehacker]