VLC media player for Ubuntu

Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat 10.10

Graphical way

Open Synaptic application
Click on System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager.
In Settings -> Repositories, make sure you have an universe repository activated.
Search for vlc and install it. You should install vlc-plugin-pulse and mozilla-plugin-vlc as well.
If you are interested in streaming or transcoding, you should additionnally install libavcodec-extra-52 from a multiverse repository.

Command line way

You need to check that a universe mirror is listed in your /etc/apt/sources.list file.

% sudo apt-get update
% sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-pulse mozilla-plugin-vlc

Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 LTS

VLC version 1.0.6 in Ubuntu 10.04 is out-of-date. We recommend you install VLC 1.1.x manually.
If you wish to install VLC 1.0.6 anyway, please refer to the instructions above for Ubuntu 10.10. Note that there will be some bugs; you are on your own.
At your OWN risks, install VLC from PPA:

Command line way

% sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lucid-bleed/ppa
% sudo apt-get update
% sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-pulse mozilla-plugin-vlc

Ubunty Karmic Koala 9.10
Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope 9.04
Ubuntu Hardy Heron LTS 8.04

VLC 1.0.2 in Ubuntu 9.10 has known security issues, as do older versions in older Ubuntu releases. We strongly recommend that you update to a newer Ubuntu release, install a newer VLC version manually, and/or demand proper security support for VLC from Ubuntu.
Note: on Ubuntu 8.04, you should install vlc-plugin-esd instead of vlc-plugin-pulse.