End of Winamp - What remains and what is lost

[Victhor]

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IMPORTANT:
This thread is kept as it developed originally, but the "news" are old, in case you've just get here, WINAMP WAS SAVED, now it's under the hands of Radionomy. This thread is kept alive due to his "historical" value.
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Lets try to clear up the confussion, because some people are not fully understanding what the banner really means



WINAMP 5.66 WILL KEEP RUNNING ON YOUR PC AS IT DID LAST YEARS (actually, BETTER, and it probably will for at least YEARS more).
NOBODY SAYS YOU SHOULD STOP USING WINAMP ON 20/12/2013!
AND YES, YOU STILL CAN INSTALL DESKTOP WINAMP AFTER THAT DATE IF YOU HAVE THE INSTALLER.

It means that playing music, managing your library, updating tags (now even in mass form directly from the Playlist editor!) or managing your iPod / Android / Mp5 player can still be done like if nothing ever happened.


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So, what remains (and can still be created / fixed):

+ Possible new fixes (in various forms)
+ Gracenote database recognition (with no lifetime guarantee)
+ Crash reporter in Winamp 5.66 (in case of emergency)
+ New Plugins and plugins updates (will be uploaded in other sites)
+ Skins (newer and updates if needed)
+ SDK updates (50% chances to stay)
+ Ability to install Winamp in newer machines

What is lost

- Online services (like Now playing, MoodAgent, etc). The good thing about it is that now people can use / create custom services to use with it, like Broser Pro or Reader already does in cPro skins.
- Nullsoft TV (Idem, if you have the links you´re good, get some here)
- Winamp.com
- Winamp.com Forums (there is: winampforum.com, not official of course, but it nicely replicates the old one)
- Winamp.com skins (luckily, there´s DeviantArt / 1001skins)
- Winamp.com plugins (later it will be uploaded somewhere)
- Winamp Android app (See this thread for more info / precautions)
- Winamp MAC application
- Support for Windows 8 (although community will do its best to help)
- Winamp Cloud (already dead, never got out of beta)

The good news (yes! there are!)

# People can now create Online services
# Winamp can still be improved by plugins. Tutorials are all over internet and there will still be some devs to ask to in case of emergency.
# There can still be "life" for Winamp after this, if enough Plugin developers join again, A LOT OF IMPROVEMENTS CAN STILL BE DONE. Now more than ever, the power to make Winamp even better is in Community´s hands.
# DrO, the main dev of Winamp 5.666 (among other things..) will keep on working on his plugins, plus some others, so let´s help them in what we can and don´t forget that, as usual they only do it for the love to Winamp, no money was ever gained from this.. so keep that in mind when requesting / asking.
# Last but not least, personal thinking.. if AOL is not interested any more in Winamp, then now more than ever is more likely that someone could buy it and start to do things like it should`ve been done years ago.. or set it free to the community. Maybe this is not an end, maybe it is just changing air...

UPDATE:

- SHOUTCast access and services should be fine for some time, apparently has been a lot of confussion lately, but nothing officially has been said about it going down. "Winamp.com and associated web services" does not include ShoutCast.
It woudn´t make much sense for AOL to let this unclear as ShoutCast has an enormous user base, so if they didn´t post some warning at shoutcast.com is because there is no need.

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IMPORTANT:
This thread is just a hand-made summary of various comments & conclusions people are managing to get around.
NOTHING in this list is officially confirmed other than the upper red rectangle. As usual, AOL / Nullsoft never said anything publicly about it. To be 100% of something, wait until 21/12..

______________________________________________________________________________________________







::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
IMPORTANT:
This thread is kept as it developed originally, but the "news" are old, in case you've just get here, WINAMP WAS SAVED, now it's under the hands of Radionomy. This thread is kept alive due to his "historical" value.
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[djpete]

great summary

[dLoc]

Good post, lets hope it comes like this...

[REY619]

Please keep shoutcast at least. I have been using it to broadcast stuff for years. Nothing else comes even close.

[Dr.Flay]

The winamp sites are now being harvested, and at this moment can be viewed being captured
http://archivebot.at.ninjawedding.org:4567/

Moves here will have ripples in other communities.
I have for a long time relied on the XMPlay support site for new and updated Winamp plugins, so have already been able to cope with the long-abandoned official site.

I see this simply as a new chapter for Winamp.
Finally we can have the clean lean audio machine Nullsoft intended.
No fluff and web-plugins that never work.
Maybe finally we can have a forum where I can finally post without them mysteriously disappearing (I'm back on 1 post yet again).

The flaming-Llama will rise from the ashes.

[Victhor]

Excellent news Dr Flay! I myself was planning to see how that could be done this weekend. I'm looking your link right now and still look a little awkward to me, thanks for the info (on the previous post edit) and the heads up.

PS: little question, that work can be done in team? I mean, can I start upload other parts of the site and the system will warn others trying to do the same?

[DrO]

Originally Posted by Dr.Flay

I have for a long time relied on the XMPlay support site for new and updated Winamp plugins, so have already been able to cope with the long-abandoned official site.

there weren't updates on winamp.com because no one was making / submitting plug-ins to it.

Originally Posted by Dr.Flay

Finally we can have the clean lean audio machine Nullsoft intended.
No fluff and web-plugins that never work.

all of which can already be done by not installing things you don't want to have.

[Victhor]

Originally Posted by REY619

Please keep shoutcast at least. I have been using it to broadcast stuff for years. Nothing else comes even close.

With Icecast you should be able to do the same, start looking at it, it's said that it is as good as Shoutcast!

[Tohno_Neil]

嗯嗯……winamp,keep go on...

[byblo]

Removing the winamp forums is like killing its community :s (yes, i know people can open new forums ect but its never the same, and never will replace everything that will be lost on the previous one)
I hope this won't happens, and seems the most important to be saved.

Anyway, I'm still using winamp (and its shitload of useful plugins) and really hope the owners will made the project open source, if they really decided to abandon it.

The adventure cannot die here... (hey DrO, i'm still having hope for the in_zip update btw :P)

[Daly]

Yesterday I spent trying to clean up the mess iTunes had made of my music library. I tried various products, including Winamp, which I have kept on my system primarily for Shoutcast.

Of the different products I tried, only Winamp was able to weed out duplicate files and return my library to reasonable order. I found a lighter coloured theme, and decided I would use Winamp.

Later in the evening I was shocked to learn that AOL is shutting Winamp down. Yet, as another poster said, Winamp will keep working. I hope AOL will release Winamp code, or turn it into an open source project.

[garetjax]

I am working on 1001skins.com as a fully viable solution for housing, skins, plugins, templates and etc. 1001skins has always been specifically about Winamp. I have already begun downloading the latest installers for winamp to make available from 1001skins...unless there is a problem doing so.

Additionally, while I do not have any plugins yet...I will add the feature to enable support for uploading them within the next few days.

I haven't yet created a forum but, have looked at a solution to do so. A lot of my work has gone into revamping the system and updating the original source code.

As for archival and etc. of content on the site, there is no such plan on 1001skins. If you post it will be there. At present, 1001skins.com has been happily living in coexistence with winamp.com for 12 Years; it will continue to do so.

However, I am only one person and have a load of work to do on the 1001skins.com site, so I am unsure if I will have all the features necessarily completed by Dec 20, 2013 deadline.

If your a developer (html, asp.net c#, jquery\json\bootstrap, sql) and want to help...please contact me via my email garrjo(at)gmail.com or webmaster@1001skins.com (though I prefer the former).



Note: If your a moderator/admin/etc and want to do the same on 1001skins when I do have the forums installed...(soon) shoot me an email and I can set you up as a moderator there.

[Victhor]

Garet! Great to hear an update on the state of things. About the forum´s thing, maybe you should wait a bit..

[stbi]

Will the ShoutCast Radio Directory Survive?

A lot of 3rd party programs and Android Apps like XiiaLive are using it.

[Dr.Flay]

Well it looks like the Web Archive has finished harvesting. "No jobs pending"

Originally Posted by DrO

there weren't updates on winamp.com because no one was making / submitting plug-ins to it.

then shame on you (as a plugin developer)

Several of the plugin author I know would not upload to Winamp because without a working comments, no user feedback could happen.
To all intents and purposes the plugin site being concidered dead by developers, left it dead for users.

Originally Posted by DrO

all of which can already be done by not installing things you don't want to have.

Indeed, very true, but I still look forward to a default install bristling with nerd-tastic extras instead of shopping options.
An ASIO plugin would be better than any "tune-of-the-day" or "mood agent" plugin.

Take me with a pinch-of-salt guys. I do not expect perfection, and I know everything is a compromise.

I've been down this road with Trillian and the loss of developer network.
It can take a long time, and indeed they have yet to organise a new plugin site.
As ever it has fallen to the loyal community members and OCD geeks, to muck-in and sort sh*t out.

There is a healthy plugin collection now available via the Trillian developer wiki (not ideal, but available).
This has given a side-benefit of having all the plugins tested and re-appraised for compatibility.
This would be a wise (but laborious task), as the new repository can be filled incrementally.

I am involved with other community projects that require many GBs of hosting and mirroring, and have seen many other projects let-down by having their eggs in 1 basket.
There are many options to enable people to host, mirror or distribute files for free.
The Coral CDN is a good choice for all, as it removes the bandwidth issue of GB per month.
It also keeps your site live for 12 hours beyond failure and adds DDoS protection.

I have collected various resources aimed at home users and site owners, for mirroring and/or delivering files.
http://my.opera.com/dr-flay/blog/file-hosting
Poke around and inspire yourselves to ignore the norm.
Community-based distributed dynamic "cloud-storage" is the future, unless you want to rely on ad-infested or subscription-based download sites (the probable future of downloads).

Opera have also announced closure of their community sites and email service, and the echoes of the death of Geocities returns.
I am also in the process of finding a suitable home for the Unreal group I run there, and am not looking forward to the transition.

[garetjax]

I am working on setting up allowing upload of plugins into 1001skins. Though, there will definitely have to be some effort on migrating them...though, if someone were to say post a dropbox share to me of say thousands of them...I could then import them directly into 1001skins.

As for forums....1001skins will have forums...though, 1001skins is built on asp.net c# 4.5 on a VPS Dedicated Server... :P.

As for security...yea, I have that.

[Obucinac]

If AOL is not interested in WinAmp anymore, the only reasonable step would be to release it as open source, so that community can continue maintaining it. Whats the point in throwing out 15 years of work and community? Any plans like this? Damn, I am using this software from 1998th, and I have enough knowledge to maintain it (working as Android system developer, with heavy background in native multimedia framework, codecs, streaming, etc...).

[pivor]

Cool that there are people that will take care of winamp, thank you guys.
But if forums goes offline, where i should go then? Is there another place for winamp community?

[ryerman]

Some members have migrated here:
http://winampforum.com/index.php
Time will tell whether or not that site becomes the "new" community.

[Zypher76]

Thank you, Victhor, for explanation and thanks everybody who believes in Winamp's future!

Migrating to new community is awesome! - thanks to ryerman

Once again! Good program will never die!

[DrO]

Originally Posted by garetjax

As for forums....1001skins will have forums...

rather than having something else, we can do a specific section on the one that's already been setup and if you're going to do plug-in hosting as well, then as there's specific plug-in dev sections on what has been setup, that'd be a good way to have things being more relevant. obviously cannot make you use it, but trying to avoid a mass of fragmentation of little forums and none then working.

[onestar]

Okay, this is probably a dumb question (and if someone else asked this, sorry. TLR)

I see there's a download for Winamp Full 5.66, but what about Winamp Pro 5.66? Will there be a Pro version? Does the Full replace the Pro?

Inquiring minds want to know (I want to know!)

Thanks, folks.

[DrO]

see http://forums.winamp.com/showpost.ph...70&postcount=2

[garetjax]

Updates for 1001skins:
- Forums : http://www.1001skins.com/forums/
- Search : http://www.1001skins.com/
- Skin Previews : Nearly Complete
- Upload : Built and in Testing
- Plugins : 0 Currently But Allowed
- Member Registration : Completed (Forums w/ Facebook, Twitter and OpenAuth)
- Skin Count : Currently 33,789 (more on pended)

More Coming...

[Victhor]

Originally Posted by ryerman

Some members have migrated here:
http://winampforum.com/index.php
Time will tell whether or not that site becomes the "new" community.

Pointed in the main post, hopefully we can avoid fragmentation (of users) redirecting as much a we can in that direction.
1001skins forums are too much like Skin Consortium´s forum, orientated toward something specific. The way I see it, maybe in the future "skins & plugins" chatter will go trough 1001skins and "general support & whining" trough winampforum.com..

[garetjax]

Fragmentation is going to happen unless there is a majority consensus on a primary location to point the userbase to...mostly, where do the users go...A user searching for a skin, plugin or etc will be looking for sites that represent that need and then will look to the highest SEO trafficked sites for the search. In this sense Winamp.com was always at the top of the ranking pool. However, once it is gone indexing will realign with only two top contenders.

A solution to create a 'forums' only solution in my mind is a bad idea...altogether...as you are by that fragmenting your users, developers and etc. anyway.

I'd be happy to host a 'forum(s) for free' on 1001skins if that mean dissuading fragmentation...of any flavor/language/etc; I'd rather have a complete solution than a solution that is tailored to only one set of situations.

[Victhor]

It´s not easy.. what you say is true, a "forum only" solution isn´t ideal, but I think it is targeted to old users, I myself never even bookmarked Winamp.com (only went there when uploaded new skins). Eventually it should have a front page, it´s true, with (possibly) a Winamp 5.66 installer and.. I don´t know, whatever can fit there, maybe news about winamp (now that it´s all over the news, unlike past years..) and probably skins / plugins. But that is an uncertain thing to do right now, if Winamp gets buyed and resurrected (IF..) maybe there is no need for another forum..

[Xaser]

- Winamp.com skins (not critical, there´s DeviantArt / 1001skins)
- Winamp.com plugins (saving working plugins IS NEEDED, later it can be uploaded somewhere)

This has just been dealt with. I have dumped all 2971 skins (1600mb) and 1049 Plugins (512mb) on my harddrive (Files, HTML doc and Pictures).

Worringly there were also some Virus warnings with these files, so be careful:

DeFX095
gen_joy.exe
flxtplug.exe
gen_mando_spanish.exe
Screen_Lock_Detector.exe
Sensaura_JAMMA.exe
wided100.exe
AMP_Timer.exe

Find a List of all successfully / insuccessfully dumped Skins and Plugins here:

WINAMP PLUGINS:
http://pastebin.com/yrNSJq1L

WINAMP SKINS:
http://pastebin.com/uBgmUWdg

And please let me know where to upload all these.

Regards,
Xaser

[DrO]

i will say that a lot of those plug-ins don't work properly with recent Winamp / Windows releases and really should be filtered out or at least clearly marked to determine what is actually 'safe' to use than just doing as was the case with the site of having everything up there and no supported client version field, etc.

[Xaser]

Well that would need to be done manually, and I highly doubt that someone has the spare time to test all 1000 plugins.

I'd recommend uploading them all and rating them all as untested until a user actually comes along and tries it out and then reports back.

[DrO]

i know it's a shed-load of work as i've been pushing to have it done for the last two years (or at least give me the time to do it). i'm just trying to make it clear that irrespective of having gotten them, there's a lot of crap in there which really should be allowed to die or clearly marked as not working well.

[garetjax]

I will upload the plugins to 1001 soon;

[Xaser]

I don't know where you got your dump from, I actually had to write a program to get all the files needed directly from winamp.com (so not via some shady dumping service)

If you need me to upload them, please send me a PM.

[Victhor]

Originally Posted by garetjax

I will upload the plugins to 1001 soon;

Do you need help for testing?

[garetjax]

Always Victhor

-UI Testing
-Download Testing
-Search Testing
-Forums Testing
-Theme Testing
-Registration Testing
-FaceBook Integration Testing
-Twitter Integration Testing
-Membership Testing


and the list goes on and on and on...lol.

[Victhor]

Side note; Main post is updated, more complete and clear. It will be useful for confused newbies, please forward them here if you see them asking around.

[joebloggscity]

come on all, start registering and helping out:

http://winampforum.com/index.php

[rvrbnk]

Originally Posted by Victhor

Pointed in the main post, hopefully we can avoid fragmentation (of users) redirecting as much a we can in that direction.
1001skins forums are too much like Skin Consortium´s forum, orientated toward something specific. The way I see it, maybe in the future "skins & plugins" chatter will go trough 1001skins and "general support & whining" trough winampforum.com..

I've had some success in getting through to AOL. If Microsoft's interest is real, the contact won't mean anything, but we'll see where it leads.

JRiver could easily start a forum that you and DrO and whoever you designate could run. We could do that next week.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by rvrbnk

JRiver could easily start a forum that you and DrO and whoever you designate could run. We could do that next week.

DrO and a Winamp user have already started a replacement forum (in case one will be needed). Check the 5th bullet in the 1st post above under "What is lost" and in joebloggscity's post #37.

[winfan]

Say some good words about winamp for future...
http://thxwinamp.com