Indy devs to AOL: Save Winamp, or at least make it open source A petition to save the doomed media player Winamp has already garnered more than 15,000 signatures, but the software's parent company has yet to show any signs of reversing its decision. Nullsoft, the AOL subsidiary that has developed Winamp for the last 15 years, announced last week that the software will reach the end of its …
I used to use VLC for video. Used it for years. When it came out it was a god sent. But recently I've had no end of trouble with it. Sync goes wrong, takes ages to start up, and skipping through is massively laggy. Had to go back to the CCCP codec pack. Dunno if its a me thing or a VLC thing. But as it stands, VLC is unusable for me.
Still use Winamp, but due to sound level fluctuations I recently started using Foobar2000, which Im beginning to prefer.
VLC is great for video, but for managing tens of Gb of MP3s (and FLAC, OGG etc) I need something with a decent media library.
Obviously, because I've been using Winamp since I was at school, my idea of a decent media library is identical to Winamp's (never overlook the importance of familiarity!).
+1 just for 'concision', which is a new one on me. I'm ashamed to say that word has passed me by after 40+ years on this planet. I'd have said conciseness or something awful :)
As for VLC, it seems to miss the first half a second or so of an MP3 file for me (on multiple PCs of varying horsepower, some very capable) whereas Winamp plays right from the very start. That, and Winamp's concise GUI and useful array of plugins makes me prefer Winamp for music. I had an old version that choked on WAVs but an upgrade solved that. It's just perfect in the classic interface incarnation. I do hope it lives on somehow.
Have to agree for Music playlists I havent liked anything else but its completly useless at other types of media. Closest I have come is 1by1 player although it lacks everything
Pretty sure some open sourcers could improve it seeing as Winamp doesnt feel like its moved on since version 2.
I've used Winamp since the very first time it was released, way back in 1997 was it?
I've only ever used it to play MP3's, and I've never found anything to beat it. I lived my 20's through a series of house parties on weekends, all powered by a big Winamp playlist and a massive collection of songs. Windows Media Player, pah - bloated and pathetic. What I wanted was a slimline player where I could easily queue up a load of songs and just play them.
And one thing I liked about the software was that it never really became bloated with each new release. It always felt right just sitting there in my taskbar, waiting to receive an "Enqueue in Winamp" command.
It HAS to go Open Source. AOL, do the right thing.
There's a 3rd option. AOL sell it on. How much would they need to simply take over the source and support web sites?
There's a lot of proprietary libraries and agreements in winamp at the moment. Open Source may not be possible or it may be at least awkward.
While we're looking at music applications that were bought by a huge company that doesn't know what to do with it, last.fm Can we get CBS to sell it to somebody who understands? Like the original authors.
It really does whip the llama's ass.
I have been using Winamp since the late 90s, and have found nothing to compare. I have found some useful MP3 players; but none with the feature set, library flexibility, and concision (Thanks for that word, Jack 23.) of Winamp. And absolutely nothing that can compete with Winamp's visualizations. I used to set up a playlist of soothing music, with full-screen visualization, timed to play something suitably rousing when it's time to wake up, dream machine, and alarm clock (and soft light for getting up in the middle of the night). Although there is always the risk of getting sucked in and just watching the visualizations for ...way too long.
I also love the fact that a playlist can be as long as it wants to be, or WinAmp can handle a library. I usually use the bloody-near infinite playlist, (7-8 weeks continuous play, last I checked) set on shuffle. I also like how Winamp handles randomized playback, with many options, depending on how you like your random.
A******* On Line. Says it all really. I'm amazed that they are still in business given how poor their services were when I last used them in the late 90's. As for them killing WinAmp, that would be a great shame as along with many others have been using it to Whip the Llamas Ass for 15+ years now. I use the ShoutCast links most of the time but also have several playlists. I guess I'll just have to stay with the version I have now until I can no longer get it to run on Windows 2025. I am still using a copy of PaintShopProXE I bought back in 1997 and it still does what I need.
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