VLC has been around since 1996, when Google and YouTube didn’t exist. For nearly three decades now, the orange traffic cone has remained a familiar sight on computers. Several media players and file formats have come and gone, but VLC quietly keeps doing what it does best: playing media without asking you to pay. That longevity isn’t about nostalgia. VLC began as a student project before becoming open-source software that now works across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. Beyond just handling audio and video formats, it also bundles a collection of built-in tools that don’t require separate plugins or apps.