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I use mpc-be because it's prettier, or mpv on linux. Although vlc is brilliant, it's sometimes like chopping a twig with a chainsaw

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Can you explain the reasoning behind this? Genuinely interested.

I'm not the parent commenter, but I'll take a crack it at. Some of the mpd and similar command line utilities (as well as those that get a little more flashy like ncmpd or another front end) are usually pretty simple and low resource. VLC can do everything, which makes it a gigantic swiss army knife chainsaw thing, but most of the time I can get away with something lighter.

That said, VLC is still pretty good. It handles the various webm, mkv, mp3, mp4, plus whatever else I've got floating around in /home without losing a beat.

I guess, with how powerful it is, and how small of a bundle it is, I’ve never had any reason not to use it.

I’ve never opened media files from a command line, personally.

The ‘Swiss army knife’ approach is why I love VLC - the knowledge I can throw literally any file at it and it will just open is very satisfying. iTunes/QuickTime just don’t make that cut, even with Perian. (is that still a thing?)

> I’ve never opened media files from a command line, personally.

Then how do you open media files? /s

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