[gord288]

I think a lot of folks have been traumatized by their experiences with iTunes, and its default settings.

I don't know if this is still the case, but at one time installing iTunes on Windows meant that some or all of the user's default app associations for media files were hijacked. Then, because of the default iTunes settings, launching a media file for playback would always initiate a process of importing that file into the iTunes library. Whether or not the user cared about creating or maintaining such a library.

Whenever installing iTunes, for myself or others, I am careful to fine-tune the system's file associations, and even more importantly, I make sure the iTunes prefs are in line with what the user would expect/prefer. Especially the settings for 'copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library,' and 'Keep iTunes Media folder organized.'

With those two settings unchecked, the contents of the iTunes library are not duplicated or socked away in an obscure location; they're exactly where the user wants them to be. And the files don't get renamed. That's the way the media library feature behaves in the current version of VLC—and there's no reason to assume that VLC will change this behaviour, to be more like the iTunes default, just because it may change its GUI front-end.

[gjvc]

This "socking away or duplication" of the contents of the iTunes library (same for iPhoto or its successors) was the dealbreaker for me on OS X. It indicated that they were brazenly ignoring the wishes of power users who knew what they were doing, and thus signalled the direction of how the OS would develop.

Good for you for attempting to stop other users getting confused by it -- I have spent several afternoons restoring people's setups for people who are completely unable to organise their files, and explaining this behaviour to them was the dullest part of it.