So, Microsoft "quietly ditches" Windows Media Player for Mac

Created , updated 1 minute read

So, Microsoft "quietly ditches" Windows Media Player for Mac:

Despite pledging its support for Apple’s platform, Microsoft has backed out of future releases of Windows Media Player for Mac, and the company’s Web site now directs visitors to download a third-party application from developer Flip4Mac.

Disappointing. The Mac version of Windows Media Player was always terrible (slow, hideous UI) but this third-party alternative seems little better. I did download and try out the trial version but it was plagued by horrible slowness and lag issues on my 1GHz G4 PowerBook, rendering it even less usable than the Microsoft player (now that’s saying something).

QuickTime is a superior format and player, but there’s still a lot of Windows Media out there that needs to be played, and unfortunately not all of it plays in the VideoLAN Client.