I'll just say (A) I didn't think it was OT because it was about FOSS 
software that runs on GNU/Linux and (B) I thought the discussion was 
pretty informative.  I did look at how it started and what caused it to 
become something of a battle.  I think the problem started because the 
original question wasn't very complete -- somewhat less complete than the 
OP thought it was, so he didn't understand the questions that were coming 
back at him.  It was just a bit confused and so people could easily 
mistake certain kinds of questions more as accusations than questions and 
one thing led to another.

I think VLC is pretty amazing.  I'm using it a lot these days, e.g., to 
play DVD ISOs from my HDD.

Mike