Winamp for Android Open Source?

[kustodian]

I don't know what does the Winamp team have planned for the future of Winamp for Android, but have you thought about making Winamp for Android open source? I'm sure it would increase it's popularity immensely and it's development would speed up by a lot.

If your idea is to increase the popularity of desktop Winamp, making the Android app better would help the desktop app by a lot, and making it open source should increase the popularity as well as the development.

[tekkitan]

Seeing as Winamp is now part of AOL Music, I don't think open source will happen unfortunately.

[DrO]

there have been a number of parts of the main Winamp client open sourced (AVS, Milkdrop, etc) but there has been little advantage of doing it so i'd doubt there's much interest in trying to do it again (they were the testers for seeing what response would happen as there was also a high demand for them and basically nothing happened). plus the app has only been worked on for a few months so give them the chance to work on things.

additionally open sourcing things is not a magical thing that just makes things better as without resources from developers then it'd still be in the same scenario plus more resources can often mean a slower development cycle.

just give them the time to work on it as it's impossible to release something which is perfect / ideal straight away (and even if your posts aren't acknowledged, there is a fair chance they are being read / noted).

tekkitan: if we were in 1999 then that might have been a valid point but we're over 10 years after that purchase happened so it's really a null point now.

-daz

[tekkitan]

tekkitan: if we were in 1999 then that might have been a valid point but we're over 10 years after that purchase happened so it's really a null point now.

-daz

I thought it was a valid point since usually large companies don't open source software, especially if they plan to sell it (at least, I assume Winamp on Android will cost something?)

[kustodian]

there have been a number of parts of the main Winamp client open sourced (AVS, Milkdrop, etc) but there has been little advantage of doing it so i'd doubt there's much interest in trying to do it again (they were the testers for seeing what response would happen as there was also a high demand for them and basically nothing happened). plus the app has only been worked on for a few months so give them the chance to work on things.

additionally open sourcing things is not a magical thing that just makes things better as without resources from developers then it'd still be in the same scenario plus more resources can often mean a slower development cycle.
Who mentioned magic anywhere, and of course it would still need the attention of the developers, as any project does. But, if it's open source, the developers would have the help of the community, and they could get a lot of things done faster, especially bug fixes. Since I'm a programer, I know I would be the first one to try to fix some bugs if it was OS.

just give them the time to work on it as it's impossible to release something which is perfect / ideal straight away (and even if your posts aren't acknowledged, there is a fair chance they are being read / noted).

tekkitan: if we were in 1999 then that might have been a valid point but we're over 10 years after that purchase happened so it's really a null point now.

-daz
I didn't say anything about it not being perfect, nor I suspected that from a new app. I'm not a sort of person who just whines, as you can see I'm trying to give the developers as much feedback as possible so they can fix bugs easier, and to make the player as best as it can be.


I thought it was a valid point since usually large companies don't open source software, especially if they plan to sell it (at least, I assume Winamp on Android will cost something?)
This is not true, there are some big companies that make their software open source, Google anyone? There are other of course.

[tekkitan]

This is not true, there are some big companies that make their software open source, Google anyone? There are other of course.

That is why I didn't say all ;-)

[MrSinatra]

i agree that using visualisations as a test for open source is not really indicative of much, but DrO has a point that when they have open sourced plugins and so on in the past, they got very little response to make it worth the effort.

having said that, i believe that making anything open source has benefits. for one, if you are going to be helped codewise, the only way thats possible at all to start with, is if the opportunity is there for someone to help. it isn't when closed.

SBS is open source, and while they don't have tons of devs advancing the core app, they do get community based bug fixes and enh, and some of these are quite complex and useful. they also have some plugins that really tightly integrate with the main app.

they don't replace a paid group of devs, but they augment it very well. and DrO, they didn't have to get in the "good graces" of the Devs first, as you have to get code access, they simply had it to start with. i think it explains why there is more 3rd party dev involvement over there on a smaller app, than here on winamp, which is a much bigger app by comparison (smaller/bigger meaning marketsharewise)

also, if something is opensource, when the author loses interest, someone else can take it over. at least the POTENTIAL is there. also, it serves as example code, or allows you to tweak already existing code to fill a need rather than write from scratch.

jmo.

[kustodian]

I'm also quite sure that there are more people interested in Android Winamp, than AVS plugin, which would also give it more potential contributors than AVS have/had :)