Dec
16
2003Confusion and Creation at Nullsoft
16
2003
Winamp, that venerable audio player, has been going through quite a bit of turmoil lately. As Microsoft turned their simple Media Player into an ugly bloated mess, Winamp 2 arrived on the scene as a wonderfully small and streamlined piece of software for playing your MP3’s. However, it lacked certain functionality that came to be expected of a media player, such as CD ripping, CD burning, and cataloging/jukeboxing. So, developers Nullsoft embarked upon an ambitious project to build the Überplayer, entitled Winamp 3.0. Not content just to tack on the new features to Winamp 2, some enterprising developers decided to actually create a whole new programming language in which to build it (dubbed “Wasabi“). The end result was a bloated piece of software, which people liked none too much, including AOL (which bought out Nullsoft a while back). The primary “Wasabi” developers were recently canned.
Development on Winamp 2 continued even while the bow was being wrapped around the Winamp 3 package, hence the curious phrase on the Winamp homepage: “Winamp 3: Almost as new as Winamp 2.” Now, seemingly out of nowhere, with no mention on Winamp.com, except buried in their forums, Nullsoft pulled a Leisure Suit Larry and released Winamp 5 - in both free and paid(!) versions. It looks like a promising piece of software but, well, the recently released iTunes for Windows is going to be mighty tough opponent to beat. I think Winamp’s days are numbered, but it was great while it lasted and I’m sure Nullsoft will be around in some form or another to foment their trademark chaos.