Winamp has announced that it is opening up its source code to enable collaborative development of its legendary player for Windows

boem@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 1226 points –
About Winamp - Winamp has announced that it is opening up its source code to enable collaborative development of its legendary player for Windows.
about.winamp.com
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It really whips the llama's ass.

I don't like animal abuse but I make an exception for llamas

Millennials will see this and say "hell yeah"

'Sweet.'

Also acceptable: Dope, dude, w-t-f, oh my God, holy shit, duuuuuude.

Gen X: Radical, gnarly, cowabunga, I want a living wage.

No, no. We want a thriving wage at this point. This living wage BS isn't getting us anywhere.

Hell nah. I moved to Plexamp years ago and nothing will bring me back.

Ahh yes. Reminds me of my teenage years. Experimenting with Marijuana, pirated MP3s, and the Milkdrop visualization plugin for Winamp. Those were good times... Real good times.

Maaan, I had so many different skins for my Winamp player. Was such a great time to be on the internet. It was open and anonymous and had yet to be fully commercially exploited.

There was a setting (or plugin?) to use a random skin on startup.

The best part was the commercially "exploited" parts were so woefully done. It was great seeing mega corporations stumbling to figure out how the internet worked, while the little guy has full control over it.

In Foobar2000, Shpeck allows you to run those old Winamp vis plugins - I have Milkdrop 2.2 with all those old classics. They still look great on modern tech!

Still whipping the llama’s ass all these years later! So glad this one never died. Way too much time getting all my music tags right so everything would be formatted correctly in Winamp when I was young.

This is the ONLY music player I found with a logical and reasonably laid out library.

Ever try Media Monkey?

MediaMonkey is the GOAT for ease of use and library management. Been using them for years since like 3.x, maybe 2.x.

Next can we get ICQ?

Uh oh!

Fuck I forgot my number

I still remember mine somehow.

I remember mine, but it's cause mine is only 7 digits

I still remember mine too. I wonder what useful information I could remember if I didn't remember shit like this?

If you need a quick Winamp fix -> https://webamp.org/

Never heard of anything on the playlist before and I doubt I would have really stumbled on it normally because it's not the style I normally seek out but so far it all slaps. How is it they're allowed to include this stuff on their website?

Turns out one of my favorite bands is that Playlist (Diablo Swing Orchestra), pretty cool of them to release free music under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, TIL.

I've seen this before, but didn't realise they got milkdrop working. I bought an MMX compatible processor specifically to be able to run this, back in the day.

If this gets updated and ported to Linux, I'd switch. Until then, Sayonara Player is still the best I have found on Linux.

What about xmms? It was basically a winamp clone, I used to use that on my Linux boxes 20+ years ago

I have never found a Linux media player I liked (I don't really like Sayonara). I would love Winamp for Linux!

Interesting. As much as I'm a Foobar2000 fan, it's not open source. Looks like I'll be giving Winamp another spin soon.

So, where can I get a fresh copy of Limewire?

Screw limewire, soulseek is the way, an endless sea of perfectly organised music libraries, you'll find what you want and stuff you didn't know you needed.

The problem is when they're perfectly organised in a different manner from what you expect :D

Yeah I judge them by how they organise their collection.

I organize them into

Source (Bandcamp, Deezer, etc) --> Artist - Album --> Files

It's easy to navigate and makes handling multiple versions of the same album easy because they are seperated into source folders.

For the files themselves lately I've been doing something like Country of Origin/Artist/Original Year - Album (Catalogue Number) (Release Year)/ (used to do it without the country, but at one point they became way too many, and I don't really like organising by letter or whatever). I love foobar2000 with Facets because of the fact that you can shove any arbitrary tag into the files and then have columns show it (I'm doing that with the countries for example), but I'm now suffering a bit because of that habit - I started also self hosting my library and Navidrome that I'm using doesn't like just any tags that you throw at it (it especially doesn't like it if you have multiple releases of the same album that have come out in the same year).

Sorry but I gotta say it... having artist as a seperate folder is wild.

My view is that not having separate artist folders is wild, but hey, whatever works for you.

All in all however specific folder structure is not terribly important to me; what's important is that the tags are in order and that I can make the app I'm using present the stuff in the manner that I want.

Do you share music on p2p services or do you just have a personal collection? The reason people don't like seperate artist folder is because when sharing the folder it won't include the artist name.

I do, but shush, don't tell anyone! Still, nobody has complained about that so far.

Perfectly organizing in 50 different ways has a name too

Now I'm sad that it already has a name - I don't get to name my diagnosis.

/s

Thanks for this. I'd not heard of soulseek. I'm an *arr person with Usenet. It'll be nice to see if I can find some rare / missing items.

I am a mildly net savvy person who only knows about torrents and file sharing. Can you point me to resources where I can learn more about Usenet? Also, what client and service do you use to access it? Thanks in advance.

Unfortunately, R#ddit is still a great resource for that. Check out the /r/Piracy wiki.

To summarize, Usenet is made up by servers that host all the "newsgroups", but nowadays newsgroups are used to share files (like email attachments).

You don't need to know anything about Usenet itself, the things you need are three:

  • an indexer (they let you find nzb files, like torrent files)
  • a Usenet server subscription (where files are actually stored)
  • a client to download from that server (nzbget and SABnzbd are the two most used)

Good luck!

Trashguides is a good place for the arr applications.

Tldr you'll need a hoster, newshosting is what I use And an indexer drunkenslug is one I use. I have 6. Lol

Indexer is the search that points to the files hosted on the hoster.

Good luck!

Audiogalaxy for me. But then I love BBC radio dramas and I got I have no idea how many hours from there. Most of it lost now sadly.

I have unironically used Winamp since 2003, and I continue to do so now, even with a lossless passthrough DAC, lol

which skin are you using? post a screenshot , alongside your current playlist so we can be entertained

Here is my current playlist. Using the "modern" (blue background) skin.

1981-Time\09 - Lights Go Down.mp3
1974-Eldorado\03 - Boy Blue.mp3
1975-Face The Music\06 - Strange Magic.mp3
1979-Discovery\02 - Confusion.mp3
1981-Time\08 - From The End Of The World.mp3
1976-A New World Record\02 - Telephone Line.mp3
1977-Out Of The Blue\03 - Sweet Talkin Woman.mp3
1979-Discovery\05 - Last Train To London.mp3
1974-Eldorado\02 - Can't Get It Out Of My Head.mp3
1981-Time\05 - The Way Life's Meant To Be.mp3
1980-Xanadu\09 - All Over The World.mp3
1981-Time\10 - Here Is The News.mp3
1976-A New World Record\05 - So Fine.mp3
1977-Out Of The Blue\10 - Standin In The Rain.mp3
1977-Out Of The Blue\11 - Big Wheels.mp3
1981-Time\03 - Yours Truly 2095.mp3
1977-Out Of The Blue\12 - Summer And Lightning.mp3
1979-Discovery\07 - On The Run.mp3
1976-A New World Record\08 - Do Ya.mp3
1981-Time\04 - Ticket To The Moon.mp3
1979-Discovery\04 - The Diary Of Horace Wimp.mp3
1975-Face The Music\03 - Evil Woman.mp3
1979-Discovery\03 - Need Her Love.mp3
1977-Out Of The Blue\13 - Mr. Blue Sky.mp3
1980-Xanadu\08 - Dont Walk Away.mp3
1977-Out Of The Blue\01 - Turn To Stone.mp3

No mention of a license but it talks about being the "official version", suggesting one can fork it.

I wonder what language it is in and what compiler is needed? I'm tempted to make some of my own tweaks when the source is released.

I really liked winamp when my screen resolution wasn't so high. I wish the interface could scale so I can still use the original look without having to squint.

The newest one fixes scaling but you need to set a compatibility setting. Use the newest version. After install right click and hit properties. Click compatibility settings. Set for all users if applicable. Select override hdpi settings. In the drop down select system enhanced. Ok apply ...... Restart the application. Enjoy.

You can also adjust the test in the actual winamp menus. But you can look up how easier than what I laid out.

I'm still using Winamp 2.91. I'm just too used to it to change. Now, if someone added Flac support to the same interface, I'd be happy. And if someone ported it to Linux and Android, I'd pay big bucks for it.

Not sure if that version supports them, but there's a FLAC plugin for Winamp.

I'm using winamp 5.666 for windows.

There is finally a decent winamp for Android, but I use the Samsung music player instead.

Would love a Winamp for Linux

Just like everyone else, at one point I used WinAMP, then when they started the upgrade to new and significantly more hardware demanding version I switched to Aimp, which to this day I use as mobile application. Am no longer on Windows, but I still miss those applications. VLC simply doesn't fit that role of a music player.

Open sourcing WinAMP means we'll probably get a ported version for Linux, which I am very much looking forward to.

While xmms is dead there's qmmp. Supports xmms and winamp 2 skins.

I used both and things felt off. WinAMP of old was no nonsense player. Once version 3.x came it wasn't as popular and it was much more of a polished product but came with bunch of features that weren't needed in my opinion.

Someone said it was explicitly written with Windows in mind, so the Linux port will probably take some time. Converting all the Win API calls will take some time.

If the port isn't named Linamp then I'll be mildly irritated.

I have mine configured as a background service with a Rainmeter desktop widget to play music at a moment's notice. Works better than any official Windows option.

It's been a while since I've used Rainmeter, but I love that thing. Such a flexible utility.

Well, I mean I loved Winamp, but streaming ease of use pretty much killed it. Even then, I've been Linux Desktop forever, and other options there with better network and non-file aware media management tools kinda took over. Would love to see them make it as extensible as VLC though, even just for the nostalgic purposes.

As a Linux user, check out Strawberry. The name isn't great, but the player makes up for it

as a former AIMP user, i second the Strawberry choice.

I'm kinda glad that my ears are not good enough to tell the difference between high end audio quality that I've never had to mess with enthusiast software like that. Ignorance is bliss.

It's mostly all a meme. Most modern motherboards have good DAC+AMP built in, and 44.1kHz 16-bit is indistinguishable from 192kHz 32-bit or higher for most people. 75% of audio quality is your listening equipment, 20% is the quality of the source file (YouTube rips are shit), the last 5% is the rest of the pipeline unless you did something really stupid.

Sidenote: You can get a bit of a quality bump by knowing how to use Parametric EQ to compensate for imperfections of your listening equipment.

Switched to Linux in 2005 or 2006. Been missing Winamp ever since. :) Finally.

So you haven't used XMMS, BMP, Audacious, QMMP?...

I did, mostly Audacious and Amarok. But, deserved or not, winamp has a special place in the heart of almost everyone in my generation.

I meant that all the mentioned support Winamp skins, and XMMS/BMP/Audacious are, eh, almost as esteemed.

OK, I'm confused.

I have seen 2 different articles that claim WinAmp is NOt going to be open sourced. At least in the common sense. But rather kind - of - sort - of - but - not - really.

Here is a https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/home-entertainment/winamp-is-not-going-open-source-heres-what-it-is-doing-and-why/ ZDNET article about it.

They are open sourcing, just keeping a proprietary license on it. Yes, it's weird, but it is not unheard of. The Unreal game engine's entire source code is open, anyone can read or submit changes to it. Even make changes and distribute said changes. But it's still a proprietary product owned by Epic Games, and commercial use is strictly controlled under the licensing terms. Open doesn't mean Free (as in beer), or Freedom (licensing). Those are three different things. It is just that people have associated the term open source with the entire Free and Open Source Software philosophy. But they aren't the same thing.

ZDNET is wrong, Winamp is open sourcing their code. The article is obtuse and refuses to elaborate or provide reasons about their claim that Winamp isn't open sourcing.

it cannot be open source with that level of corporate control

Why?

It not only can, we have several examples of corporate products that are open source precisely like this with this level of control.

Open source requiring a specific license is a decades old debate that continues to this day. We have like a million different licenses and people argue and bicker all the time about which ones are Truly Open source ™ and which ones aren't. It's all legalese that make most people have headaches. But there's one crux on this whole thing: Open source does not preclude commercialization of software. This is why people are proposing the term source-available software. Winamp might go for that model and the debate would still go on.

It is NOT open source. There is a meaning behind that specific term and they are said it in their announcement that they are only "opening up its source". Don't use that term for this.

A lot of companies are starting to do this most people are referring to it as source available rather than open source. I'm kind of surprised I don't just turn it into an electron app and get it over with.

Man. I still use winamp to this day and I've been using them since they came out.

It's the only music player that organizes the music in a way that makes sense. I love the library interface.

Same. My only gripe is that the ui doesn’t scale at all which makes it hard to use on 4K.

Apparently the newer version fixed that issue but it's not default. If you update it you can mess around with it in the settings.

There's someone in the comment here that explains it.

The only thing I don't like about the new WInamp is the NFT library, Hotmix and Fanzone things they added to it. But I guess the new owners had to try and make their money back somehow. Plus they're easily ignorable.

They updated the OG as well for modern systems, I use it in NY office for my ripped "physical" collection.

No mention of license in this article. Are they going to be releasing it through a git of some kind?

Very cool but even 15 years ago or so when I moved to Linux, I was already over Winamp and using Foobar... Loved it

First: Surprised it still exists.

Second: More surprised there are Apple AppStore and Google PlayStore links on the bottom.

this is cool but what is the point now given all the options today and the way we listen to music now?

Even back then the real power of winamp was in plugins. You can't get away with the truly hacky crap and windows anymore.

The only thing I really cared for back in the day was visualization and the aggressive crossfade plugin.

Wow this brings me back. What is winamp used for these days?

To play music.

Like, ripped mp3s like the old days?

Nothing wrong with how it was done back then, I still do the same today

No nothing, I just didn't think anyone did this anymore. I don't even have any CDs anymore

I refuse to pay for a subscription where I don't own the music. CD's, records, tapes - I still do it. I do need to start ripping mp3's off YouTube more though - just a matter of time before shit starts disappearing

I'm not sure what can be brought to Winamp that'll make it better through open source. Maybe it'll be a default alternative for Linux distros? That'd be cool.

But, Winamp to me is just a program I use that plays video game soundtracks that are different formats aren't MP3 or WAV. Like Super Nintendo with .SPC for example.

AIMP has predominantly taken the mantle on my system as default media player, it's just feature rich and long won me over the day my PC suddenly rebooted and the song I was playing was just on pause with that program! Winamp couldn't do this, whenever I re-opened it, song stopped playing entirely, gotta play it again.

There are likely lots of improvements that can be made under the hood. I'm willing to bet that it depends on several aging libraries that could probably be swapped out for something better.

Its maybe a small thing, but being packaged in linux repos would be huge for me

Being able to type

$sudo apt install winamp

Would be so cool

Winamp for me is a program that makes it easy to create my own music playlist (.m3u) files.

Would it be possible to add (smoother, in some cases) integration with music services? Imagine one library that could reach into Spotify, Tidal, etc. all in one player.

Mac Port! Mac Port! Mac Port!

How many mac applications are coded using win32 api?

As a product manager, I simply choose to overlook things like "implementation details" or "the laws of physics!!" /s 🤣

On a more serious note, I'm just reaching a point where I just want a small, reliable, and minimalist mp3 playing app for the Mac, as I'm starting to get sick of every single service wanting $20/m for stuff.

I pine for the whipping the Lamas ass winamp used to give...

There's a recreation in re:Amp for osx, but I'd much prefer OSS apps...

Generally, I'd rather go back to just buying the music I want, ripping it and putting it on the devices I want to listen to it from...

Finally! Couple weeks back I downloaded it again for the first time in probably 10 years and it really made me wonder why they basically fucked it up and abandoned it

Before finding MediaMonkey Winamp was all I used. I like sticking to things I understand well.

Be careful with MediaMonkey, it can incorrectly change your files.

I've got dozens, if not hundreds of songs where it's changed the track number to the play count, and I've got a load where it's decreased the volume by a significant amount, presumably as part of the volume leveling function.

I don't use anything else to play or manage my music, and nothing has permission to affect it this way.

It really whips the llama's ass. It's back from the death!!

Favorite skin? The NASA one. Perfection: Achieved.

All good until "for windows" fuck that.

Port it then, you coward, lol.

Winamp hasn't seen real development in 20 years, and was exclusively a windows app at that time. What're you expecting?

My guess is this is a win32 program or a codebase that is very Windows specific. It was probably discarded because it did not port very well to other platforms. Again, just a guess.

Still, it's nice to see such a historicaly popular program get its source officially released.

Audacious has support for Winamp skins and EQ presets, so you could call it a Winamp-like.

Meanwhile https://github.com/XMMS2 has been open source from the start.

Last time I tried it there was no view library like Winamp. Nope. At that point just use VLC or MPV.

What use do we have today for a music focused media player? Is it common for people to use mp3, flac or wav for playing music? I feel like music streaming services hold the market here.

I like winamp back when it was an alternative for the basic windows media player to listen to all my music but I dont keep mp3s anymore so I don't know if I can see the point.

Was it anything more than just a music player with eq and skins? Did I miss the point back then?

Maybe I just don't have the vision that others have and will be pleasantly suprised when someone comes up with a good use case and develops it.

I have a big library of music, mostly MP3 or OGG and don't really see myself pivoting solely towards streaming services where access to songs could be revoked at any time or could be changed/censored like movies or series sometimes are on streaming platforms. I do use YouTube for listening to new music and when I like it enough, I buy it to download (or acquire it in a different way if it's not available).

Don't know about others, but I still have music in both mp3 and flac err I listen to sometimes.

Mostly they are rips off CDs that just aren't available for streaming anywhere, but also just music I bought as digital before streaming really was a thing.

I use musicbee and MP3/FLAC.

My music collection is to large and keyed to my tastes to throw away, and I don't want to pay for Spotify.

My music library is hosted on my server, automatically synced locally on fixed devices and played from local files most of the time. Streaming services combine the advantage of sometimes disappearing, altering, removing content with the other advantage of needing an active internet connection at all time. That's neither a good thing nor an efficient thing when the alternative is cheap and works all the time from everywhere.

Of course, I know this is not the most common use case; most people usually don't care about any of this (and usually complain when something break). But it exists.

I've been building my music collection since I was ripping CDs by hitting play, recording in Win95 Sound Recorder and running the .wav through LAME (nowadays EAC to flac, of course). I see no need to pay a subscription to listen to my music, when I can just use that same money to buy and own the albums* and not worry about them disappearing.

* also means more money goes to the artist

Also Navidrome + Symfonium means I can still stream to my phone so the only benefit Spotify etc has is new music, but YouTube (+ uBlock) gives me that.

Mine is mostly mp3, and the player is MPV. I would not notice higher quality amidst the street noise or listening through laptop's subpar speakers anyway.