5 ms·

Winamp, the best MP3 player of the 1990s, just got a major update

27 points by carride 4y ago

autoexec 4y ago
I might actually check this out, but the screenshot at the top of the article demonstrates so much of what I don't want in a music player. To this day I'm tempted to reinstall old versions of winamp on some of my systems because it is simple, unobtrusive, and can be minimized to to an extremely thin bar (or two) that just sits quietly and does its thing. The lack of support for newer formats is a problem though. I've tried a few other music players, but I'm not interested in a huge application that will scan my hard drives and network (sometimes constantly) looking for things to index. I don't need it build a "library". I don't need a record of every piece of media I have sent over the internet to be logged by god knows who so it can try to find album art or lyrics. I don't need it to play video. I don't need it to pull "related" content or "suggestions" from the web. Old winamp didn't do much, but what it did do, it did very well. These days I use VLC, and it comes pretty close, but it is overkill, the UI takes up more space, and it comes with its own little annoyances.
- mikewhy 4y ago
  I'm confused, you say you want the "old" versions of Winamp, but Winamp has had a media library since the "old" versions. Maybe you can ignore the current one just as you always have and not base your diatribe off one screenshot in an article?
  - autoexec 4y ago
    The old versions (v2 or older) just had playlist box. You could choose to add folders to it, or drag and drop stuff into it, but it didn't go scanning your system for things as soon as you installed it. It didn't maintain a database of those files either. Even if you saved the playlists they were plaintext m3u files. I could ignore the current version of winamp, but I'd rather give it a try and see how much of that stuff is able to be disabled and ignored. It might still prove to be better than VLC.
    - JoBrad 4y ago
      A library button which allows you to choose a folder for scanning music files, has been in WinAmp for decades.
      - autoexec 4y ago
        Probably true? v2 came out in 98. Winamp3 came out in 2002 and it may have had the feature. It was total rewrite, added a bunch of stuff, but killed off a bunch more and a lot of people (myself included) never used it. Nullsoft was basically forced to keep the v2 edition alive since it was what everyone stuck with and Winamp5 was supposed to unite the userbase (it was based on v2) but I never bothered with it since by then Winamp had been owned by AOL for a long time and I didn't really want AOL software on my machines. Winamp Lite was pretty popular too and helped to bridge the gap https://download.cnet.com/Winamp-Lite/3000-2139_4-10788894.html https://download.cnet.com/Winamp-Lite/3000-2139_4-10788894.h...
t6jvcereio 4y ago
Can someone explain to me Winamp's fandom? Is it just nostalgia (which I understand and also feel), or is there something else genuinely better about it? My naive expectation is that a sound player that hasn't had an update in 20 years probably isn't the best in any dimension.
- bni 4y ago
  Its nostalgia or maybe there is a use-case for people that didn't like the iTunes like "database" of songs that every player and streaming app is today. Winamp is just your files in folders on disk, and you can make playlists. I tried reAMP recently and its quite unusable on a modern screen, because its UI is so small.
- carlos_rpn 4y ago
  It didn't really need much of an update, except to play newer file formats. Other than that, I feel it has a much better interface than any other player I've tried, on both Windows and Linux.
- chha 4y ago
  Back when it was popular it was one of the early players which supported a lot of different formats, as well as early radio streaming. Competitors either cost money, wanted you to install IE toolbars, or simply didn't have the features Winamp had. It could be expanded with loads of different plugins (games, visualizers, EQs and other dynamic effects, ++), and could even be used to broadcast streams with the proper plugins IIRC. For my part, having an updated version of Winamp would be great. I've got a big music library sitting around, never really became friends with foobar, and Plex and Apple Music struggles with some of the formats I've got.

27 points by carride 4y ago

I might actually check this out, but the screenshot at the top of the article demonstrates so much of what I don't want in a music player. To this day I'm tempted to reinstall old versions of winamp on some of my systems because it is simple, unobtrusive, and can be minimized to to an extremely thin bar (or two) that just sits quietly and does its thing. The lack of support for newer formats is a problem though. I've tried a few other music players, but I'm not interested in a huge application that will scan my hard drives and network (sometimes constantly) looking for things to index. I don't need it build a "library". I don't need a record of every piece of media I have sent over the internet to be logged by god knows who so it can try to find album art or lyrics. I don't need it to play video. I don't need it to pull "related" content or "suggestions" from the web. Old winamp didn't do much, but what it did do, it did very well. These days I use VLC, and it comes pretty close, but it is overkill, the UI takes up more space, and it comes with its own little annoyances.

mikewhy 4y ago
I'm confused, you say you want the "old" versions of Winamp, but Winamp has had a media library since the "old" versions. Maybe you can ignore the current one just as you always have and not base your diatribe off one screenshot in an article?
- autoexec 4y ago
  The old versions (v2 or older) just had playlist box. You could choose to add folders to it, or drag and drop stuff into it, but it didn't go scanning your system for things as soon as you installed it. It didn't maintain a database of those files either. Even if you saved the playlists they were plaintext m3u files. I could ignore the current version of winamp, but I'd rather give it a try and see how much of that stuff is able to be disabled and ignored. It might still prove to be better than VLC.
  - JoBrad 4y ago
    A library button which allows you to choose a folder for scanning music files, has been in WinAmp for decades.
    - autoexec 4y ago
      Probably true? v2 came out in 98. Winamp3 came out in 2002 and it may have had the feature. It was total rewrite, added a bunch of stuff, but killed off a bunch more and a lot of people (myself included) never used it. Nullsoft was basically forced to keep the v2 edition alive since it was what everyone stuck with and Winamp5 was supposed to unite the userbase (it was based on v2) but I never bothered with it since by then Winamp had been owned by AOL for a long time and I didn't really want AOL software on my machines. Winamp Lite was pretty popular too and helped to bridge the gap https://download.cnet.com/Winamp-Lite/3000-2139_4-10788894.html https://download.cnet.com/Winamp-Lite/3000-2139_4-10788894.h...

t6jvcereio 4y ago

Can someone explain to me Winamp's fandom? Is it just nostalgia (which I understand and also feel), or is there something else genuinely better about it? My naive expectation is that a sound player that hasn't had an update in 20 years probably isn't the best in any dimension.

bni 4y ago
Its nostalgia or maybe there is a use-case for people that didn't like the iTunes like "database" of songs that every player and streaming app is today. Winamp is just your files in folders on disk, and you can make playlists. I tried reAMP recently and its quite unusable on a modern screen, because its UI is so small.
carlos_rpn 4y ago
It didn't really need much of an update, except to play newer file formats. Other than that, I feel it has a much better interface than any other player I've tried, on both Windows and Linux.
chha 4y ago
Back when it was popular it was one of the early players which supported a lot of different formats, as well as early radio streaming. Competitors either cost money, wanted you to install IE toolbars, or simply didn't have the features Winamp had. It could be expanded with loads of different plugins (games, visualizers, EQs and other dynamic effects, ++), and could even be used to broadcast streams with the proper plugins IIRC. For my part, having an updated version of Winamp would be great. I've got a big music library sitting around, never really became friends with foobar, and Plex and Apple Music struggles with some of the formats I've got.