Real Alternative installs the Real codec without the player or any other crap (it comes with MPlayer Classic, though), there's also a Quicktime Alternative out there. Did you find any problems with it, Hawken?
if you're downloading the files, they should work in VLC or media player classic if you have the real player codec installed. I agree with you, but I bit the bullet and downloaded this bloatware a while ago to listen to radio1 on the bbc website. Actually if you stop the installation process after the player and it's…