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#1 |
Major Dude
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 940
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Petition to ask for Winamp to go open source
Winamp is no more as of 20th December 2013.
Voice your request that Winamp the greatest media player ever built be allowed to go open source. Winamp must not be left to die. Give it to the people who love it and use it every day. Please sign below with a comment! AND SIGN THE ONLINE FORM HERE https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitio...n-source#share "There can be power in numbers..." |
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#2 |
Senior Member
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--~~~~signed!!!
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#3 |
Member
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 52
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Signed!
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#4 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 3
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~ Signed!
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#5 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 10
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I'm in
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#6 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Minneapolis
Posts: 234
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Why don't you use a petition website that can properly manage and handle delivery of the signatures... not to mention this website is closing in 1 month.
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#7 |
Late skinner & Moderator
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Argentina
Posts: 1,629
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Exactly
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#8 |
Major Dude
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 940
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great idea and done. Will amend the orig post
https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitio...n-source#share |
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#9 |
Late skinner & Moderator
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Argentina
Posts: 1,629
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Will give it a spin on Skin Consortium´s Twitter in a couple of days
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#10 |
Major Dude
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 940
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on ya Victhor. The more talk out there the better
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#11 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 19
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Signed.
If Winamp will not be open source, I will personally start an open source winamp clone project.. after checking legal issues of course.. |
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#12 |
Member
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Signed it as well.
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#13 |
Major Dude
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 940
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Can anyone suggest the best email and or name contact for AOL as the petition updates can also be sent to them. Thanks
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#14 |
Junior Member
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 11
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Signed!!!
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#15 |
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 27,873
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all i'll say is open sourcing would not be the magical bullet that you're all thinking it would be and if people like Xaser for example are already going to contemplate yet another Winamp clone (haven't we been there before) it's just going to cause more fractioning of things then i personally think is good.
5.66 is a solid basis to work from for if needed making new plug-ins for features and with a fixed Winamp base, things aren't going to change which is more likely to happen if it were to be open sourced and then you have a mass of different 'bases' to work with. |
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#16 |
Major Dude
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 940
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can you elaborate why Dr? Do you have thoughts as to best way or what may happen. Is there a chance Winamp may be bought out for example?
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#17 |
Moderator Alumni
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Next Door
Posts: 8,941
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Open source Winamp would be a novelty at best. Don't get me wrong, Winamp is pretty awesome but Winamp interest has been on the decline for several years. Not sure how open source improves that situation.
-Jay | Radio Toolbox.com |
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#18 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 5
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"Magic Bullet" isn't the correct term to use when discussing what people want from this. All people want is their Winamp. In this case there would be a community to build upon and keep the project alive, and maybe even remove bloat, which is the reason I stopped using it to begin with.
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#19 |
Major Dude
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 940
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To me with no coding experience whatsoever, the main benefit of going open source is that the software is updateable.
Yes it could open a pandoras box with many variations but as long as they are all avail to the public then we have a choice. No? On the plus side it could also open Winamp to new developers who have wanted things done for many years but possibly given up in frustration of not being heard. |
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#20 | |
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 27,873
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am basing my view on what's happened with previous things being open sourced where the bits needed got ripped out and used in other projects and the original just died.
so if Winamp were to be open sourced (as there's clearly parts that could not be or would be so crippled you'd have to make a new plug-in anyway), it wouldn't really be Winamp as you know it. hence why i think using what there is now (irrespective of it being closed source) is the best thing to do to work from so it's more transnational than a rash re-code and all of the fun that comes from doing that. a lot of things could be done back when the 5.04 shut-down happened and that was with a lot less APIs available so i'm being practical that using 5.66 as a basis (without code access) can do what's needed i believe with update packs, etc. Quote:
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#21 |
Major Dude
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 940
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so...you're thoughts Dr on what may happen now...
Is this it? Is it possible that an offer could be made? |
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#22 | |
Late skinner & Moderator
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Argentina
Posts: 1,629
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Quote:
In fact, looks like Winamp´s near future is all about plugins.. hopefully this will get some more devs to make things for winamp (in a plugin shape of course). 2 things can be done about it: 01- I can help you make your site "nicer" trough some design (individual icons, color categorization, etc). NOT NOW, I´m finishing some client´s delayed request (today more delayed than ever), but Argentinian summer is near and then I´ll have plenty of time (1 month from now). So, I´m available if you like to. 02 - I´ll save all official documentation about plugin / skins making (if needed, what do you think?), soon it will be very useful to have a proper Tutorial PDF / page stating the main steps and tricks to develop (plugins mostly). |
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#23 |
Major Dude
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 940
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yes soon all this valuable info will be gone forever!
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#24 |
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 27,873
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surprisingly a lot is on archive.org already...
so like what's on the wiki already... |
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#25 | |
Late skinner & Moderator
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Argentina
Posts: 1,629
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Quote:
Is there anything you think should be worth saving (besides the installer)? (PS: archive.org! I totally forgot that for this.. -use it just to dl concerts hehe-) |
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#26 |
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 27,873
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am just pointing out places to look at for information, etc though i've already got a list of things that i've been compiling (and still am) that could / should be archived in some form. so for a number of things, immediate backup isn't going to be needed because of things like archive.org.
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#27 | |
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 3
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Quote:
Even if open-source Winamp fails to take off 5.66 will still be here. However If a new Windows version breaks it and the source is not released then Game over, Winamp is gone forever. |
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#28 |
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 27,873
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is good to see the novelty forum names coming out
![]() that's a very fair point and OS changes breaking things are no more different than what's been seen before but a lot of the time (though not easily) issues can be fixed externally or even shims introduced by the OS to help. hence why anything beyond a few years is tricky to say how it'd work, but in a few years time (and i suspect now from the announcement) there's a lot less Winamp users than there were at the start of the day. i understand why people think open sourcing is the way to go and i'm not trying to knock it, it's just that there's a need to be realistic about things and especially when it comes to licensing for certain formats / features. |
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#29 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 2
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Signed
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#30 |
16-Bit Moderator
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 4,341
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I guess you guys miss some facts. Even if the source would be available, the new player probably couldn't be labeled as 'Winamp' and would then end in yet another clone.
Also who pays the license fees for MP3/AAC decoding/encoding, the Gracenote CDDB/Auto Tagger? Mainly Winamp clones would make profit, the companies who are trying to make their player more popular, like they already did with supporting the large range of Winamp plugins. making MilkDrop open source had no effect in the past either, there wasn't any single custom build, even after people asked for the source code again and again for many years. Do what the player made so popular for so many years, create 3rd party plugins, skins etc. That's the reason why Winamp was so popular during all these years and that's the main difference between Winamp and other players. Winamp was dead after 5.04 for a long time too, but 3rd parties were keeping it alive. My Winamp Info Report | My Winamp Backup Log | My WACUP Info Report Own Projects: | Winamp Tray Control Icon Pack v3.5.3 | Winamp Backup Tool v3.6.0 | >> Winamp Info Tool v6.1.0 << | German Translations: | Offizielle Deutsche Winamp Sprachdatei v5.66 | Offizielle Deutsche Winamp Sprachdatei Plus Version 5.666 Useful Winamp Plug-ins: | SNESAmp | 64th Note | NotSo FatSo | Highly Experimental PSF Player | Yar Matey! Playlist Copier v1.12 | |
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#31 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 1
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Signed!
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#32 | |
Major Dude
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 940
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Quote:
Otherwise the player is really stuck in concrete forever. You still have the choice to use the final build also if that's what you want and are happy with. But to me 5 yrs down the track or maybe even less, mods are going to need to be carried out on the player. |
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#33 |
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 27,873
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but there's nothing to say modifications cannot be made down the road without code access - not ideal but binary patching can be done from decompiling and other fun things... yes it's a lot more involved, or even a wrapper program to handle / fix things (just like i've done with plug-ins). so it's not as limited as is being said and in a sick way, i quite like the idea of binary patching things again...
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#34 |
Major Dude
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 940
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well thats a little promising then.
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#35 |
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 27,873
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source code would be simpler but it's been shown it's possible to do such things with existing closed source plug-ins, so it can be scaled up (just involves more effort).
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#36 |
Major Dude
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 940
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and maybe one day we will find out why Winamp did not continue to grow as it should have. I know there is a bucketful of politics involved but to us outsiders it just doesn't make sense that the best player out there (even today) has had to be shelved like this. So much potential just thrown away.
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#37 | |
16-Bit Moderator
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 4,341
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Quote:
![]() My Winamp Info Report | My Winamp Backup Log | My WACUP Info Report Own Projects: | Winamp Tray Control Icon Pack v3.5.3 | Winamp Backup Tool v3.6.0 | >> Winamp Info Tool v6.1.0 << | German Translations: | Offizielle Deutsche Winamp Sprachdatei v5.66 | Offizielle Deutsche Winamp Sprachdatei Plus Version 5.666 Useful Winamp Plug-ins: | SNESAmp | 64th Note | NotSo FatSo | Highly Experimental PSF Player | Yar Matey! Playlist Copier v1.12 | |
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#38 |
f(caffeine){
return wasabi; } (Forum King) Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Sweden
Posts: 3,984
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I know alot of stuff cannot be open sourced, mainly plugins, but the player itself should be possible to open source.
I've always wanted the full Wasabi and Maki codebases opensourced, after Winamp3 got buried prematurely. The attempt at getting an open source Wasabi.player going was nice but one big reason it failed was that too many important parts (core and Maki for example) were simply not available as open source and rewriting them was too massive to happen. If that can be avoided now by having access to the relevant codebase, then a healthy player can be maintained or be rebuilt and the closed source plugins can still function or be replaced with 3rd party ones (that are already available in the wild for that matter). Personally, I _still_ want a wasabi.player after all these years, built entirely on the Wasabi and Maki codebase. But that's a pipedream by now. :P Oh, and signed. ![]() |
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#39 |
Forum King
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Thoron fields and Duranium shadows. Posts: Crap mostly
Posts: 8,002
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I realised today I've been using Winamp since I was 14, and I still use it daily now.
Though I hold out little hope, I've signed. Member most in need of SpellCheck Lifetime Achievement Award I'm a Twitch Streamer these days, it's weird. |
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#40 | |
Moderator Alumni
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Next Door
Posts: 8,941
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Quote:
-Jay | Radio Toolbox.com |
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