Where is VLC 1.0.6?

VLC 1.0.6 was announced two weeks ago (at the time of writing this piece), and a few people ask where to get this new version.

Releasing

The short answer is, you can get it at the usual location:

ftp://ftp.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/1.0.6/

So what do have there? We have three files:

vlc-1.0.6.tar.bz2: The source code for VLC media player version 1.0.6.
vlc-1.0.6.tar.bz2.asc: A digital signature of the first file, which proves that the file was originated from the VideoLAN project.
vlc-1.0.6.tar.bz2.sha512: The SHA-512 fingerprint of the first file, which can be used to detect (unlikely) errors during the file transfer.

So how do you proceed from there? Well, you need to download the source code, unpack it, configure it, compile it, link it, install it and then you can use VLC. If you know how to that, anyway. As the VideoLAN main page notes:

VideoLAN (...) produces free and open source software for multimedia.

The VideoLAN projects is made of

developers: writing code, implementing new features and fixing bugs;
translators: polishing localizations or adding new ones;
testers: testing the unreleased software and filing bugs;
~~writers~~: ~~writing the documentation~~ (volunteers needed).

The result of all their work is collected by the release manager, who is responsible for making the source code file above available, and announcing it.

Most importantly, the release manager is responsible for ensuring that the release makes any sense, i.e. that it will be useful to some people. So (s)he will look at the list of known bugs and unfinished work items. Once the severity of remaining bugs is deemed low enough, and the quantity of new features and bug fixes makes it worth the effort, a release is made.

Packaging

Most users of VLC however won't use the source code release. That's where the VLC packagers come into play. Those cool guys/gals take the source code, munge it and make easy to install VLC binary packages out of it.

There are several packagers. Out of a single VLC source code release, many different binary package are made. Also, not all types of binary packages are necessarily built for every version, such as those counter-examples:

VLC 0.9.10 was only targetted for MacOS X.
VLC 0.9.0 and 0.9.1 did not ship on Windows due to stability problems.
VLC 1.0.4 was only targetted for Linux (they were no major differences from 1.0.3 on other systems).

Some packagers are members of the VideoLAN project, and they publish their work on the VideoLAN website. This includes most notably the Windows ("Win32") package and the three MacOS X packages (PowerPC, 386, x86-64).

Other packagers are actively cooperating with the project but publish their work in other places as adequate. For instance, the Debian and Ubuntu packagers publish their VLC packages via those distributions respective websites.

And then there are even packagers working in their own corner, with hardly any cooperation. The "Portable" versions of VLC fall in this category.

Back to the point... where are the VLC 1.0.6 binaries that you can install? That depends on the package...

Linux

The VideoLAN project does not make Linux binaries at the moment. Linux distributions are expected to integrate their own VLC package. As an example, you can already find VLC 1.0.6 in Debian Sid and in Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid).

Unfortunately, the situation is not always so bright. Most Linux distributions do follow the VLC release schedule but use their own. This is a major problem for their users, as they experience already fixed bugs, or worse, security vulnerabilities. This is also a major problem us, as it is a cause for bad publicity, and waste of effort in support queries and untimely bug reports.

All variants of Ubuntu from 2009 and earlier ship old versions. So does the so-called stable Debian Etch, which still includes the ridiculously old and -paraxodically- unstable VLC version 0.8.6. In both cases, the provided VLC packages suffer from known published security vulnerabilities.

MacOS X

There is no VLC 1.0.6 for MacOS X because there are no active MacOS X packagers at the moment. This is no big news. I already mentioned it a year ago, and it suddenly became big news last Christmas on many Information Technology websites.

The two active MacOS X guys then announced their new project, Lunettes, which uses the LibVLC media engine, but is not VLC media player.

That may have precipited the demise of VLC on MacOS, as nobody would want to work on an abandoned "legacy" project.

Windows

There used to be developers and packagers doing VLC for Windows as part of, or in connection with their day job. Unfortunately, they both quit the project several years ago.

The VideoLAN project still supports Windows thanks to the efforts of several volunteers, but the situation is less than ideal.

Currently, there is simply no time to dedicate on VLC 1.0.6 for Windows, in addition to the upcoming VLC version 1.1.0. Security-concious users can install VLC prerelease version 1.1.0-pre3 which is quite stable and addresses the recently published security vulnerabilities.

It is understood this is inconvenient. But you need to keep in mind that VLC is an almost exclusively volunteer effort, and there are no warranties. The VideoLAN project would welcome any help in this area, and in many others as well: browser plugins, documentation, core, etc.

Remlab