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Actually, Winamp is not going Open Source (programming.dev)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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https://x.com/winamp/status/1793615140241240395

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

Maybe someone can explain to me why Winamp is still so popular?

I have used Winamp 2, 3 and 5 around 2000ish, and it was a fine player, but nothing really special. After Winamp I think I switched to MediaMonkey, which IMO was easier to manage my music collection. Then I used VirtualDJ, which supported cross fading between music with synchronized beats. I think I also used foobar2000 a bit.

Winamp was an okayish player, but there was much more powerful software around at that time. It this just nostalgics or is there really something that people miss today that Winamp provided or still provides?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It's still popular because it was popular.

Also, it was simple and modular.

It was largely succeeded by monolithic and enshittified versions of iTunes, which have zero appeal these days. So it's still remembered fondly for not enshittifying and not trying to build a walled garden.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

I can use it to update my ipod.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Better interface than Windows Media player
100s of cool and edgy skins
Nice looking graphic equalizer
Nice music visualizer
Easy to make playlists
Tiny looking player which gelled with the early-mid 2000s vibe

And most importantly, it really whips the Llama's ass. TBH, there aren't a lot of serious reasons. It was just slightly better than the default music player. I personally feel the skins played a significant part.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I wasn't that much a fan of the skins and found the interface of winamp very small and fiddly.

The milkdrop plugin however was rather nice though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

ProjectM is a thing :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Yeah, but we are talking 2000-2005 or so.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

I don't think it's actually still popular, but I'm just talking out of my ass here. I remember it made some waves a few months ago about finally having a new release after so long, and my feeling was a shitload of nostalgia brought it back into the internet spotlight, regardless of how many people are actually using it.

I gave it a spin again, purely for nostalgia. I could find no compelling reason to use it over my actual preferred player, foobar