Winamp you were relevant for just a moment and then... well, back you go to cute memes about the olden times
this post was submitted on 26 May 2024
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For those that don't know, they are going to release something called FreeLlama which might be FOSS (no public info as to what the license actually will be).
Winamp says that they still want to control 'what features' go into winamp and it'll remain proprietary. I assume they really just want people to contribute interesting things to FreeLlama and then put the contribution into Winamp.
The license probably won't be FOSS because they probably aren't going to want anyone contributing to own copyright to the code that they are committing.
It is odd because FOSS contributors aren't really known for being OK with this sort of thing in the past, so I doubt they're going to get much out of it. Maybe it's a Hail Mary and they'll end up blaming people for not freely giving up their devtime and creativity to a company that wants to make money on it.
I wasn't too worried about it tbh
How is foobar2000 not on Linux?
There are other WinAmp-like apps - including ones that can use old WinAmp skins in classic now etc - such as QMMP or Audacious
Well, it is on Android...
But the main app is tightly integrated into the win32 api--moving it to linux would basically require a complete rewrite. DEADBEEF is an example of something like this. Parallel values and ideals, but open source.
There are wine-bottled versions out there. Of course, whether or not output is bit perfect would depend on the wine settings. Bottling it, of course, defeats the point of the program being highly modular/extensible.
Also, you have to remember that a lot of proprietary formats have proprietary encoders/decoders that are incompatible with the GPL.
Shipping Windows binaries are much less of a hassle for the dev than than trying to reverse-engineer everything they need or figuring out how to manage dependencies with different licenses across different package managers and distros with different goals.
tl;dl foobar2000 is an excellent sum of its parts; like Winamp was back-in-the-day. You start changing parts and you get a different sum.
Does xmms fit the bill?
Edit: oops. It had its final release in 2007. Shows how much I use Linux for multimedia lately! Around 2000 this was my go-to. I had it hooked up to an Inspiron laptop in my car with a usb game controller to switch tracks and stuff.
Time to make Linamp
There was x11amp at one point. I forget what it's named now.
It really lips the whamma's ass
...............gross.
That does not whip the llamas ass.
It's a little bit sad to me that Winamp collapsed just a year or two before smart phones really took off because it's interface and customizability were pretty well suited to the app format of smart phones. And now that the code and design are owned by a company that's being run by greedy morons there is likely never going to be anything resembling the original available for the phone app market.
I just use VLC on my phone these days. It works, no bullshit ads, and no glitches.
its* interface and customizability were
OMG, I CANT BELIEVE I FORGOT TO TAKE OUT THE APOSTROPHE WHEN I VOICE TO TEXT MY COMMENT!!!!! IM THE ABSOLUTE WORST!
VLC is always respectable. I've been using AIMP. It lets you import folders as playlists and there's not an ad in sight, so it won me over.
I personally use Metro. I'm a sucker for that material you look.
talk about burying the lede. the title should've been: WINAMP STILL EXISTS (also not going open source)
probably because it's a piece of shit and so they would have to rewrite it
I love it on the surface. It sadly has major issues with scaling and the window controls not allowing you to drag it about (at least on Wayland).
it's immersive
And it’s available on Linux!
I had no idea that xmms died and got forked. Thanks for the tip
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?
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.
I can use it to update my ipod.
- 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.
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.
ProjectM is a thing :)
Yeah, but we are talking 2000-2005 or so.
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
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