Topic: The history of Winamp

[idolminds]

Pretty interesting and sad.

[JacksRag(e)]

Basically, fuck AOL?

[Cools!]

Yeah. Yet another piece of software that got fucked by a parent company.

[scottws]

I was more of a Sonique user. Pretty much the same thing that happened to Winamp also happened to Sonique, except Lycos was the culprit there. Sonique is dead now though.

[sirean_syan]

That's pretty interesting. It's funny to see how Winamp's history was at the center of how we view and used our computers. Things went from cobbled together but free, to all encompassing programs that handled almost all our media needs. We totally had some growing pains when it seemed like most companies were more interesting in locking you in through shitty background processes or unbearable bloat and Winamp was totally the poster child for that. At least now, for me, Media Player does most of what I want out of media program. I still handle organization of my files on my own so I just need something that actually plays said files.

Funny thing, I still install a copy of Winamp 2.91 on my computer. This was the last version before it got all bloated and shitty. It had all sorts of extensions that let me play chiptunes and old game music in their native format and convert them to MP3s.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Interesting article.  I was a heavy user of Winamp in its early days but like many people got fed up with it when it became bloated with Winamp 3 and used 2.91 until I heard of Foobar and have been using that ever since.

[Xessive]

I've had a back & forth relationship with Winamp. The bloatware days really pushed me away; I even recall the poll Nullsoft had about changing its name to AOL Media Player.

I remember when Sonique had won me over with its style and minimalistic install setup. I was pretty psyched for Sonique 2 but that fell apart. Went back to Winamp but I tried cycling through a few other alternatives. Foobar was alright but I never really stuck with it. Eventually I just used Zoom Player as my video and music player since it could handle playlists as well (back when it was still free).

Eventually I went right back to Winamp when they introduced Winamp 5 (2+3) and used classic skins until they came up with the Bento skin. I still use Winamp and I am grateful for the community around it; that's what's really holding it together.

Foobar is the only other player that I've seen with a strong community backing it. If shit ever hits the fan with Winamp I'd consider switching to Foobar.

[Cobra951]

. . .

Funny thing, I still install a copy of Winamp 2.91 on my computer. This was the last version before it got all bloated and shitty. It had all sorts of extensions that let me play chiptunes and old game music in their native format and convert them to MP3s.

Hmm, my version is 2.95.  I'm assuming that discrepancy is no big deal.  I've never even installed 3 or beyond.

[sirean_syan]

Huh. I didn't know there was a "newer" one. At this point it probably doesn't matter. I should probably be happy it still works as expected in Windows 7.

[Cobra951]

In response to users reverting to Winamp 2, Nullsoft continued the development of Winamp 2 to versions 2.9 and 2.91 in 2003,[48] even alluding to it humorously.[49] The beta versions 2.92 and 2.95 were released with the inclusion of some of the functionality of the upcoming Winamp 5.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winamp#History

I guess that explains it.