Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Best Free Downloads For Your Computer 4

by Terrence O'Brien on June 6, 2008 at 12:17 PM



VLC (XP/Vista/OS X/Linux)

Surprise! Yet another free and open source application -- this time for people who don't like all the extra little performance-slowing programs that iTunes or MusicMatch might add to your laptop. VLC is an incredibly versatile media player that won't let you manage your iPod, but will let you play back almost any video or audio format you can throw at it, whether it's a stream from a Web site or a file on your desktop. Best of all, VLC is amazingly light weight. You'll experience none of delay that accompanies the launch of iTunes or Windows Media Player, and VLC uses fewer system resources, so your battery may even last a few minutes longer than if you were using iTunes.

VLC won't play back songs purchased through iTunes, or any other DRM track, but it will save you the hassle of opening up Quick Time to play a video, then iTunes to play a song you ripped from a CD, then Windows Media Player to stream NPR from its Web site.

Comments

1

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular