4 ms·

The fact that you can re-skin it at runtime with such a wide variety of skins and load such a variety of plugins puts modern software to shame.

by yazzku 2y ago

renegade-otter 2y ago
Dockable UI, fast, stable, form and function. Really a masterclass in software design to this day.
pjbk 2y ago
I think those of us who use the REAPER DAW and its customizable themes are the main beneficiaries of that functionality.
dale_glass 2y ago
You can reskin a lot of modern software, it just went out of fashion.
- yazzku 2y ago
  Modern software won't run on a 30 year-old Win95 computer like Winamp did. CSS inside browser-based applications does not count as skinning; that's just an abomination.
bredren 2y ago
It was really cool. Skinning was pretty easy to do. The packaging format was a zip archive with a renamed extension. You could do a lot with a little photoshop skills and trial and error. So many people used it that skins would get a lot of distribution, too.
RevEng 2y ago
That's one of the biggest reasons I still use it. Other music players have strictly fixed UIs that often focus on organizing a music library rather than actually playing your music. I'm quite happy organizing my music using the file system.
mesh 2y ago
I owe my entire career to the fact that Winamp added the ability to re-skin. I had just graduated graduate school for international economics, and was working for a government contractor who only hired me because I had a masters (they could charge the government more). Because of this, I literally had nothing to do and would just sit in the office. I eventually figured out an excuse to get my employer to buy Photoshop for me and I started learning it on company time. When Winamp came out with the update to add skins, I ended up making one of the very first skins (meshAMP) which became really popularly. https://archive.org/details/winampskins_meshAmp https://archive.org/details/winampskins_meshAmp (I am cringing looking at it now) This led to contract job with STB (to design interfaces for a TV Tuner card they had) and eventually 3DFX (paid in 3d video cards), and eventually a career change and a job as a graphic designer. Except, I was not a good designer, so I quickly learned to program (ASP.net and then JAVA), which led to Macromedia Flash, which led to Macromedia Generator, which eventually led to a job offer from Macromedia (now Adobe), where I still am (sadly, sans Flash). Anyways, thank your WinAMP!
- nextaccountic 2y ago
  Did you create Macromedia Flash? Or otherwise worked on it Anyway your winamp skin is cool
  - mesh 2y ago
    I worked with the team and had input on the Player, but my job was in community / evangelism.
- rocky1138 2y ago
  I've felt for a long time that hacker News was dead, then I read your post and it made me warm inside

The fact that you can re-skin it at runtime with such a wide variety of skins and load such a variety of plugins puts modern software to shame.

by yazzku 2y ago

The fact that you can re-skin it at runtime with such a wide variety of skins and load such a variety of plugins puts modern software to shame.

renegade-otter 2y ago

Dockable UI, fast, stable, form and function. Really a masterclass in software design to this day.

pjbk 2y ago

I think those of us who use the REAPER DAW and its customizable themes are the main beneficiaries of that functionality.

dale_glass 2y ago

You can reskin a lot of modern software, it just went out of fashion.

yazzku 2y ago
Modern software won't run on a 30 year-old Win95 computer like Winamp did. CSS inside browser-based applications does not count as skinning; that's just an abomination.

bredren 2y ago

It was really cool. Skinning was pretty easy to do. The packaging format was a zip archive with a renamed extension. You could do a lot with a little photoshop skills and trial and error. So many people used it that skins would get a lot of distribution, too.

RevEng 2y ago

That's one of the biggest reasons I still use it. Other music players have strictly fixed UIs that often focus on organizing a music library rather than actually playing your music. I'm quite happy organizing my music using the file system.

mesh 2y ago

I owe my entire career to the fact that Winamp added the ability to re-skin. I had just graduated graduate school for international economics, and was working for a government contractor who only hired me because I had a masters (they could charge the government more). Because of this, I literally had nothing to do and would just sit in the office. I eventually figured out an excuse to get my employer to buy Photoshop for me and I started learning it on company time. When Winamp came out with the update to add skins, I ended up making one of the very first skins (meshAMP) which became really popularly. https://archive.org/details/winampskins_meshAmp https://archive.org/details/winampskins_meshAmp (I am cringing looking at it now) This led to contract job with STB (to design interfaces for a TV Tuner card they had) and eventually 3DFX (paid in 3d video cards), and eventually a career change and a job as a graphic designer. Except, I was not a good designer, so I quickly learned to program (ASP.net and then JAVA), which led to Macromedia Flash, which led to Macromedia Generator, which eventually led to a job offer from Macromedia (now Adobe), where I still am (sadly, sans Flash). Anyways, thank your WinAMP!

nextaccountic 2y ago
Did you create Macromedia Flash? Or otherwise worked on it Anyway your winamp skin is cool
- mesh 2y ago
  I worked with the team and had input on the Player, but my job was in community / evangelism.
rocky1138 2y ago
I've felt for a long time that hacker News was dead, then I read your post and it made me warm inside