this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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It's an arguable point, but unless you get weird with what you quantify as Linux, I think VLC might honestly have more users.
The fact that Linux runs on so, so many servers (let alone Android and embedded systems) means that Linux has orders of magnitude more users than VLC. That's not "getting weird with what you quantify as Linux"; both of those things are definitely Linux.
VLC has over 6 billion downloads, obviously there are people who downloaded it multiple times, but that's getting close to averaging one per person in existence.
6 billion download announcement (eventually leads to X/twitter): https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/09/vlc-tops-6-billion-downloads-previews-ai-generated-subtitles/#%3A%7E%3Atext=VLC+media+player%2C+the+popular%2Can+AI-powered+subtitle+system.
Not directly comparable, but guesses at the number of Linux servers out there are in the 10s-100s of millions.
Its been around and on enough different platforms that most people who use it would have lost count of how many times they have downloaded it.
I currently have it installed on 4 android devices (my phone, my tablet, my sons tablet, google TV dongle), 3 windows devices (personal PC, loungeroom PC, work PC), and 1 Xbox. That's 8 installs in current use but if you factor in a history of device replacement and software updates I would easily account for hundreds of downloads.