January 1, 2010 | Misc

VLC Reverts to Normal Without the Santa Hat After New Year

I wrote a few weeks ago about VLC sporting a Santa hat icon for Christmas.

Look like things are back to normal again after New Year’s Day:

VLC About Screen Without Christmas Santa Hat Icon

Whereas, before, the hat showed up on the VLC icon in Help: About:

VLC About Screen with Christmas Santa Hat Icon

The Controversy Over the VLC Santa Hat

Although most people who wrote about the topic on the Internet seemed to like the holiday cheer, others, who don’t celebrate Christmas, weren’t so happy:

Rob Whelan posted the following message to the VLC development mailing list:

Greetings.

Is there a way to remove or disable the Christian holiday Easter egg? Many
users (myself included) are not Christian and feel that this icon is
probably not a good idea. We do not see similar Easter eggs for high
holidays of other faiths (Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Hanukah, Buddhist and Hindu
holidays etc.) and wonder if VLC is positioning itself as ‘anti’ other
faiths since its development team is mostly European and American.

It is a shame to make users who have supported the project feel as though
they are less valued than other users.

Is there a way I can remove this icon from my viewer without having to
recompile my own copy which is something far beyond the average user’s
ability?

Pierre Ynard responded:

My personal opinion is that the majority of our user base is positively
receptive to the christmas spirit, and that the majority of those who
aren’t positively receptive, aren’t receptive at all, i.e. just don’t
care.

What do you think? Would you accept a VLC that had Hindu, Druid, Muslim, or pagan symbols?