Winamp 5.8 Beta leaks online

[PeterK.]

Almost every computer magazine/blog is jumping on that train right now! Soon the term "Beta" will vanish from the articles and all of them will praise the release of the brand new Winamp 5.8 version! Hallelujah!

I am still curious how it happened though. Did someone hack Radionomy's server and steal it? Did someone hack DJ Egg's computer and steal the beta? Was it a "hero" among the testers, who gave us what we have been demanding for such a long time? And was it a "heroic" act at all? Or just theft?

[DJ-Garybaldy]

I'm not even going to entertain this so called "Beta" JIC it manages to F**K my PC up... always weary of software that isn't from an official release statement.

[PeterK.]

I'm not even going to entertain this so called "Beta" JIC it manages to F**K my PC up... always weary of software that isn't from an official release statement.

Meanwhile you cannot access the download page. It takes ages to load it and the download process does not complete. At least my Firefox complains. Hence I even cannot make my own opinion about this release. Still running old, good 5.666.

[musicf8]

I am still curious how it happened though. Did someone hack Radionomy's server and steal it? Did someone hack DJ Egg's computer and steal the beta? Was it a "hero" among the testers, who gave us what we have been demanding for such a long time? And was it a "heroic" act at all? Or just theft?

Twitter account was hacked recently, they could have gotten the location and login info from a DM

[PeterK.]

Twitter account was hacked recently...

I am aware of this but still doubt "those" hackers were after Winamp in the first place.

[musicf8]

I am aware of this but still doubt "those" hackers were after Winamp in the first place.

well, yeah, I doubt they were specifically after winamp, but if you hack an account, why wouldn't you skim through all the messages, find something like an unreleased beta, and post it.

[MrSinatra]

assuming this is legit, and no malware was snuck into it, i approve and applaud the kind soul who very bravely posted this so we, the people who love winamp, can benefit from it.

i just hope the source code is next.

jic the page this was on goes down, i assume this is whats in the Winamp 5.8 about dialog:

Check out the full changelog below:

New: Windows Audio (WASAPI) Output plug-in (w.i.p.)
Improved: Added an option to completely disable Winamp's video support
Improved: Added an auto-fullscreen option to video prefs
Improved: Added /ENUMPLAYLISTS to the command-line support
Improved: Windows 8.1 and 10 compatibility
Improved: [in_mod] OpenMPT-based Module Player (replaces old MikMod player)
Improved: [ml_playlists] Added browse path & edit title functions in Ctrl+E editor
Improved: [Bento] Updated scrollbars and buttons and other tweaks (thanks Martin)
Improved: [Bento & Modern skins] Added a Playlist Search feature (thanks Victor)
Fixed: New URLs not being remembered after using Reset history in Open URL dialog
Fixed: Various memory leaks
Fixed: [gen_tray] Not showing correct current icon pack in preferences
Fixed: [in_avi] Divide-by-zero crash with badly formed files (thanks ITDefensor)
Fixed: [in_mp3] Crashing with some ID3v2 tags
Fixed: [ml_wire] Slow loading issue
Fixed: [ssdp] Crash on load if jnetlib was not correctly initialized
Misc: Minimum required OS is now Win XP sp3 (Windows 7 or higher recommended)
Misc: More general tweaks, improvements, fixes and optimizations
Misc: Moved shared DLLs to Winamp\Shared folder
Misc: MP3 Encoder must now be downloaded manually (to Shared folder)
Removed: All former "Pro" licensed functions (Winamp is now 100% freeware again)
Removed: gen_jumpex & UnicodeTaskbarFix (making way for native implementations)
Removed: [in_wm] DRM support
Replaced: CD playback and ripping now using native Windows API (instead of Sonic)
Replaced: MP3 Decoder now mpg123 based (instead of Fraunhofer)
Replaced: AAC Decoder now using Media Foundation (Vista and higher)
Replaced: H.264 Decoder now using Media Foundation (Vista and higher)
Replaced: MPEG-4 Pt.2 Decoder now using Media Foundation (Vista and higher)
Updated: [in_vorbis] libogg 1.3.2 & libvorbis 1.3.5 (aoTuV b6.03)
Updated: [libyajl] libyajl v2.1.0
Updated: [OpenSSL] OpenSSL v1.0.1i
Updated: [png] libpng v1.5.24

just the new mp3 decoder is alone a big deal, the Q of course being is it better?

other apps like EAC and mp3tag can do metadata lookups and autotagging... so the Q is can a plugin be made to add that stuff back to winamp? (i believe the now defunct inhouse version was itself a plugin that worked with Gracenote for text tags, and allmusic.com for pics)

[PeterK.]

...i just hope the source code is next.

Would you dare to keep a stolen source code on your PC? Or even release it online? Five minutes later there is a S.W.A.T. team in your apartment. No doubt!

This is not the approach we should be seeking here pal.

[MrSinatra]

i have no access to betas or the source code, beyond what is publicly available.

i merely advocate their public availability, and there is nothing wrong with that, pal.

[PeterK.]

... and no malware was snuck into it ...

Apparently it is clean.

[exdeon]

I downloaded it. I liked it.

[gaekwad2]

just the new mp3 decoder is alone a big deal, the Q of course being is it better?

No, just free software.

The last Winamp mp3 decoder that wasn't technically perfect (in terms of sound quality, iirc there were some occasional stability/security fixes later on) was Nitrane.

[exdeon]

Winamp Stopped Error?

What should I do?

[musicf8]

Switch back to 5.666

[PeterK.]

Switch back to 5.666

Do not bother, exdeon is a bot. It made five posts within seven minutes today.