The enduring Winamp media participant has fulfilled a promise made in Could and launched its full supply code on GitHub, inviting builders to collaborate on the mission.
Winamp is a media participant launched in 1997 by Nullsoft, which gained huge reputation within the following years, coinciding with the rise of MP3s music recordsdata. The participant featured a easy but highly effective customizable interface, broad audio file format help, visualization add-ons and pores and skin system, and the flexibility to stream web radio or podcasts.
After Nullsoft’s acquisition by AOL, its improvement slowed, and in 2013, Winamp was discontinued.
In 2014, new proprietor Radionomy took over the mission meaning to resume improvement. Nonetheless, it didn’t convey Winamp to its former glory, with the market having moved on to music streaming companies.
On Could 2024, Winamp’s workforce introduced it could launch the supply code for the media participant on September 24, nearly three many years after its preliminary launch.
Yesterday, the Winamp supply code, construct instruments, and related libraries for the Home windows app have been revealed on GitHub, permitting anybody to supply bug fixes and new options to the enduring media participant.
Nonetheless, its license prohibits the distribution of modified software program created by means of the discharge of this supply code.
Inviting collaboration
Releasing the Winamp supply code to the neighborhood signifies that different builders at the moment are free to contribute to the event of the media participant.
“Winamp is a multimedia player launched in 1997, iconic for its flexibility and wide compatibility with audio formats,” reads the GitHub web page.
“Its development slowed down, but now, its source code was opened to the community, allowing developers to improve and modernize the player to meet current user needs. It really whips the llama’s ass.”
Winamp is an previous software program mission (it makes use of DirectX 9 SDK), so updating its codebase to newer applied sciences will take a while and work.
The enduring standing of the mission and the nostalgia it induces in so many customers with fond reminiscences of the early days of digital music ensures it will likely be embraced warmly.
Unsurprisingly, the Winamp GitHub repository internet hosting the supply code and instruments already has 2,500 stars and 600 forks on the time of writing, lower than 24 hours after the code was made public.
Replace 9/25/24: Article up to date because it incorrectly acknowledged the supply code was open supply and could possibly be used for different initiatives.