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Winamp shutting down on December 20th, 2013

winamp.com

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Re: Winamp shutting down on December 20th, 2013

#311

Brings up a great question: What are the alternatives to Winamp? (No iTunes please)

Clementine is a great multi-platform open-source clone of Amarok 1.4.x. A little different from the old Winamp/XMMS "tape deck" feel, but very responsive and light with many modern features.

Clementine is great, but I sometimes wish they could implement some scripting/plugin mechanism somehow .

Re: Winamp shutting down on December 20th, 2013

#312
Winamp is a great music player. It is still the best for some file formats. Via it's plugins it can play more exotic audio file formats than any other player. Some players support s3m and it, but play only half of some files: Winamp plays it all. There are great plugins for nsf, spc, psf and usf sound files (sound files form NES, SNES, PS1 and N64 games). I wish there would be a real alternative (for Linux). Does anyone know a good player for these file formats? Audacious is good for s3m, it and nsf, but spc, psf and usf?

Re: Winamp shutting down on December 20th, 2013

#313
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for reminding me to set up OwnCloud [1]. :) [1] http://owncloud.org

I prefer Seafile, owncloud didn't work properly. As in, failed at syncing files.

Noted, I'll try that too. Thank you!

Re: Winamp shutting down on December 20th, 2013

#315
post #36

Was using Winamp 5 for the past year but recently switched back to v2.95, which is allegedly the best version out there. Although it's 10 years old (!!), it's still the best music player available: lightweight, fast, responsive, and kept simple . I had hopes for the Windows 7 Media Player. But it turned out to be a dreadful experience. Me: Can't I pause that song by hitting space? WMP: No, there are no keyboard short…

There's Winamp Lite for you. I don't miss anything from the pre-3 times.

Re: Winamp shutting down on December 20th, 2013

#316
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main reason I use Winamp is because it has global keyboard shortcuts for controlling playback. I'm not sure if any other media players have that, if anyone knows of one that does I would love to know.

AHK ( http://www.autohotkey.com/ ) -- Global keybindings for any app you want.

Out of curiosity: I use AHK to do basic testing automation for a windows application that I have literally zero ability to control programatically (to achieve actually good automated testing). Anyone have a better option for this kind of use case?

Re: Winamp shutting down on December 20th, 2013

#317
post #36

Was using Winamp 5 for the past year but recently switched back to v2.95, which is allegedly the best version out there. Although it's 10 years old (!!), it's still the best music player available: lightweight, fast, responsive, and kept simple . I had hopes for the Windows 7 Media Player. But it turned out to be a dreadful experience. Me: Can't I pause that song by hitting space? WMP: No, there are no keyboard short…

Did you ever try Foobar 2k - its arguably a better replacement for Winamp on windows

Does it fade out songs when you pause them?

If so, where can I download it and where can I donate to whoever wrote it?

Re: Winamp shutting down on December 20th, 2013

#318
I remember using Winamp back in the day. At one point in time, it was the only mp3 player out there that didn't absolutely suck. It was pretty amazing how usenet and winamp opened up a whole world of music you just couldn't buy anywhere at the time. Truly a leap forwards in distribution! It's too bad the music industry reacted with such paranoia that they arguably still haven't adequately monetized it.

A couple of years ago I used OSX for about 6 months. One of the more minor reasons I was relieved to uninstall it was that I never found a music player I really liked. Let's face it, iTunes is crap even on the OS it was meant for!

On Windows, look no further than Foobar2000. It's not a super-sexy looking player (although it can be if you put some work into it), but it is eminently functional. It does practically anything you can want (with extensions), has an easy to figure out but powerful interface, and is audiophile-grade. This lives on my HTPC, which interfaces with my stereo, so it's what I'm primarily used to. Love it! There's one extension (foo_httpcontrol) you can add that allows you to control your stereo from any networked device (there are a few android apps designed to work through this interface), which is handy for flipping through music while reading in your comfy chair or sitting on the porcelain throne!

On Linux, Amarok. Sexier apps come and are abandoned to become bug-infested swamps of suck, but Amarok has been going strong for a very long time. I often try newer music apps, but Amarok is the default on KDE for a reason.

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