Advertisement

Article

Fans ask AOL to make Winamp open source so it can live on

Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

  • Updated:

Winamp is due to be shut down on December 20th, but it has legions of fans, and they don’t want to see the end of their favorite media player.

A website, Save Winamp has been set up, linking to an online petition which so far has around 20,000 signatures. The organisers are asking AOL to make Winamp open source, so it can be further developed by the community who love it.

Fans ask AOL to make Winamp open source so it can live on

The Save Winamp website features two videos, from YouTuber Jonathan Paula explaining why it’s so great, and a brief history of the app. The Brief History of Winamp is interesting, as it concludes the app has become bloated, meaning many people look elsewhere for a lightweight media player.

Making Winamp open source would mean premium features could be opened up for free. Currently you can upgrade Winamp for $19.95, which gives you unrestricted CD burning, MP3 encoding and native video support for popular formats including H.264 encoded video. Despite premium features, and not being as nimble or simple as it once was, Winamp is still hugely popular. It’s consistently in the top 10 most downloaded audio apps on Softonic.

AOL are not saying what, if anything, they plan to od with Winamp after December 20th. There are rumors that it could be sold to Microsoft, but it would be an unusual move, as Microsoft already have their own Windows Media Player. AOL wouldn’t gain anything from allowing Winamp to go open source, but it would generate a lot of goodwill.

Sign the Save Winamp petition.

RELATED STORIES

Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

Latest from Jonathan Riggall

You may also like

  1. watchOS 10 is here officially: new apps, watch faces, metrics, and much more

    watchOS 10 is here officially: new apps, watch faces, metrics, and much more

    Read more
  2. iOS 17 officially arrives: AirDrop, Stickers, StandBy, Safari, and much more

    iOS 17 officially arrives: AirDrop, Stickers, StandBy, Safari, and much more

    Read more
  3. China accuses the United States of having infiltrated Huawei since 2009

    China accuses the United States of having infiltrated Huawei since 2009

    Read more
  4. They told us it was the future, but the reality is that Apple’s FineWoven accessories are terrifying

    They told us it was the future, but the reality is that Apple’s FineWoven accessories are terrifying

    Read more
  5. DALL-E 3 brings AI image generation to ChatGPT

    DALL-E 3 brings AI image generation to ChatGPT

    Read more
  6. Game of Thrones creator joins authors in legal battle with AI titans

    Game of Thrones creator joins authors in legal battle with AI titans

    Read more