Reviving one of my all-time favorite pieces of software news from this September: Winamp, the iconic media player, made a major switch, and its Windows version is now open source. This little move is being intended to bring the lost interest back to this sensational piece of software that has served its purpose of cultivation among music lovers starting from the year 1999.
As multimedia players go, Winamp became famous due to its skinnable interface, and lightweight feel as well as support for a wide array of audio file formats. Even though it has become less popular than in the days of the typical streaming services, the product still bears a certain sentimental value for some of the users.
They must change to an open-source system, and that is the reason Winamp will be accessible for the general population. This makes it possible for cases to be updated, enhanced and accorded present day aspects by developers as well as enthusiasts. This, in turn, can result in a revival and modernization of the Winamp personal player while allowing users in the open-source community to participate in the development of new features, fixes for existing issues, and overall improvements to the software and its functionality.
The decision to go open source is justified considering changing tendencies in the software industry, where open-source project helps to create new, better and collaborative solutions. The audience would be able to help guide Winamp through the continuous advancement of media technology, through contribution to the source code which will be available for public use.
For the users it signaled an intent for further exciting development. Additional capability to create own plugins and skins, and more importantly ability to hook up with the newer generation of music sharing services could enable Winamp to be an apt player today’s media players. However, this action can protect the traditions of Winamp and make it available and operable for higher generations.