I used this for years, from version 1.9 all the way to 5.x when I moved onto other software.
EDIT: Here is the full press release.
Press Release- Inside information May 16, 2024 – 08:30 CEST Winamp has announced that it is opening up its source code to enable collaborative development of its legendary player for Windows. Winamp has announced that on 24 September 2024, the application’s source code will be open to developers worldwide. Winamp will open up its code for the player used on Windows, enabling the entire community to participate in its development. This is an invitation to global collaboration, where developers worldwide can contribute their expertise, ideas, and passion to help this iconic software evolve. Winamp has become much more than just a music player. It embodies a unique digital culture, aesthetic, and user experience. With this initiative to open the source code, Winamp is taking the next step in its history, allowing its users to contribute directly to improving the product. “This is a decision that will delight millions of users around the world. Our focus will be on new mobile players and other platforms. We will be releasing a new mobile player at the beginning of July. Still, we don’t want to forget the tens of millions of users who use the software on Windows and will benefit from thousands of developers’ experience and creativity. Winamp will remain the owner of the software and will decide on the innovations made in the official version,” explains Alexandre Saboundjian, CEO of Winamp. Interested developers can now make themselves known at the following address: about.winamp.com/free-llama
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The release doesn’t say it’s going FOSS. It doesn’t specify, but it hints that it’ll be “Source Available”. Stuff like:
Winamp will remain the owner of the software and will decide on the innovations made in the official version.
Could mean FOSS but they keep the trademark.
Sure, but that’s unlikely, given the wording. “Owner of the software” is fairly clear and trademark and software are very different.
The open-source licenses that I’ve used don’t require surrendering copyright.
The open-source licenses that I’ve used don’t require surrendering copyright.
The creator doesn’t “surrender” their copyright, but someone can fork it and then have ownership of their version. “Winamp will remain the owner of the software” indicates you won’t have ownership of a fork.
Again, it doesn’t clearly state whether it will be “FOSS” or “Source Available”, but if they were planning to go FOSS, you’d expect them to say something to make that clear. Leaving it vague seems like a strategy to get attention while not actually lying.
I was replying to this exchange:
Could mean FOSS but they keep the trademark.
Sure, but that’s unlikely, given the wording. “Owner of the software” is fairly clear
The article’s text said, “Winamp will remain the owner of the software”. That does not, in fact, preclude giving it a FOSS license, nor does retaining a related trademark. GP was correct. They can make it FOSS and keep the trademark and copyright. I don’t see any reason to think it unlikely.
The creator doesn’t “surrender” their copyright, but someone can fork it and then have ownership of their version
Forking someone’s copyrighted work does not change ownership of the rights in any jurisdiction that I know of. If you meant “ownership” in a difference sense, like maybe control over a derivative project’s direction, then I think choosing a different word would have made your meaning more clear.
The article’s text said, “Winamp will remain the owner of the software.” That does not, in fact, preclude giving it a FOSS license, nor does retaining a related trademark. GP was correct. They can make it FOSS and keep the trademark and copyright. I don’t see any reason to think it unlikely.
It’s possible. However, at no point in the post is that discussed, so it’s pretty wild speculation.
Forking someone’s copyrighted work does not change ownership of the rights in any jurisdiction that I know of. If you meant “ownership” in a difference sense, like maybe control over a derivative project’s direction, then I think choosing a different word would have made your meaning more clear.
AFAIK, it doesn’t “change” ownership, but it creates a new property with new ownership. That new ownership may be bound by he terms of the original license, but the original owner has no further control.
Original owner cam have control with GPL, that is control that someone else does not make it proprietary. This relies on copyright. Many open licenses have attribution requirement, which means derivative works should credit whoever contributed to it. So it is indeed ownership but pte declared that anyone can use the code. They still have ownership but not the proprietary kind of ownership
Note that it speaks of the “official version” in the next sentence, which seems to me like there will be inofficial versions which requires a more permissive license
But we’ll see
Note that it speaks of the “official version” in the next sentence, which seems to me like there will be inofficial versions which requires a more permissive license
It doesn’t necessarily require a permissive license. For example, Winamp could be willing to license the code for non-official versions or for integration into other projects, but at a fee and with limitations set by Winamp. As I’ve said in other comments, the press release is vague, and I think that’s likely to be intentional ambiguity.
They said “the official version”.
Indeed, but as I’ve been saying in other comments, that doesn’t mean the license will be FOSS. The press release is vague, and I think that’s likely to be intentional ambiguity.
some contributor agreement does force people to surrender their copyright. MongoDB is probably the most infamous example.
I’ve played open source games that assign ownership of the code to one person, but they operate like an open source project and anyone can use the source however they wish. It depends on how that owner chooses to license the code.
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Yep, the press release says opening the source code. It also says they’re inviting developers to contribute.
It also doesn’t include any wording that would indicate it’s FOSS. It doesn’t say anything about being able to fork, instead using phrases like, “participate in its development”, “allowing its users to contribute directly to improving the product”, and “will benefit from thousands of developers’ experience and creativity”.
Sounds like they are saying that Winamp wants developers they dont need to pay :D
When they say “inviting the developers to contribute”, it sounds to me that they are looking for developers to work on Winamp without having to pay them. The article is filled with strange wordings.
I’m assuming that they don’t have enough revenue to continue paying developers, so they’re trying to find free labour and this is the last gasp attempt to keep WinAmp alive.
Notice they avoid using the exact term “open source” in this press release. I’m ~90% sure it’ll turn out to be under some proprietary source-available license.
I had the same though. No way they would choose that wording otherwise. they will probably just make it available, also make people who contribute sign their copyright away.
They’ve already talked about adding NFTs to it. Winamp is dead and this is it’s corpse being paraded around like Weekend at Bernie’s.
I stopped paying any attention to them when they started talking about NFTs. This is cool news.
Winamp still whips the Llamas ass.
Came here just to say something similar.
“Going FOSS really whips the llamas ass!”
Not sure if you’re able to edit the title, but this doesn’t look like FOSS, just open source.
doesn’t look like FOSS, just open source.
Open-source software is FOSS by definition. Did you mean source-available?
If you ask the FSF, open source is a bigger set than free software, mostly to do with restrictions on the uses of the code
And FOSS is an umbrella term encompassing both Free software and Open-Source software.
I’m glad to see people taking interest in the meanings behind these terms. We all benefit from understanding them better.
Doesn’t FOSS refer to software this is both free and open source? Not a union of free software and open source software? My understanding is that if a piece of software is not both open and free then it is not FOSS.
EDIT:
From the wiki page:
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software that is available under a license that grants the right to use, modify, and distribute the software, modified or not, to everyone free of charge. The public availability of the source code is, therefore, a necessary but not sufficient condition. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term for free software and open-source software.
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software
Doesn’t FOSS refer to software this is both free and open source?
Not exclusively, no. It’s an umbrella term.
You maybe replied before seeing my edit, but I actually quoted that article in the edit.
Indeed. I clicked reply before your edit. Here is the key part of the quote you selected:
FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term for free software and open-source software.
That means Free software qualifies and FOSS, and Open-Source software qualifies as FOSS. It’s a broader category, not a narrower one.
god i hate words
Did you mean source-available?
I guess? Always thought there was some pedantic Stallman-esque argument for the differentiation between FOSS and OSS, independent of the Open Source vs Source Available distinction.
Corrected. 👍
There is nothing here saying it will be FOSS or open-source, just source-available.
“This invites developers worldwide to contribute”
You can contribute to things that don’t have open source licenses, it’s just probably a dumb idea.
We’ll just have to wait and see what they mean I suppose
sure, and while we wait, claiming that they are releasing it as open-source is speculation, so lets not do that.
*FOSS
Very excited by this. Hopefully they go all the way and GPL it. There hasn’t been any mp3 player I’ve enjoyed using as much as Winamp.
Not a programmer but does that mean we will finally see Winamp come to Linux?
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It really whips the penguins ass
XMMS, Beep, Audacious or whatever were always good enough.
Linuxamp
Maybe Linamp, Lamp, or Gamp would be better? Kamp for a KDE version if the name isn’t already used.
Lamp is already the name of s Webservice Stack (Linux, Apache Webserver, MySQL, PHP)
GNUamp
GNU/LinuxAMP (two components of a system)
Glamp
Why would you winamp, when you can glamp?
Boom. Done. Let’s do it.
They probably just want to cut down dev costs by outsourcing to
unpaid internsvolunteersIf you need a quick Winamp fix -> https://webamp.org/
I remember I used to use Winamp then Sonique then Foobar 2000 and that’s when I switched to Linux.
And now there’s a foobar2000 on Linux
Unless it can support the plugins already there (which I doubt… mono doesn’t mean we can straight up run DLLs, right?), I’d have to hope it stumbles into an incredible ecosystem. Thanks for the find, I’ll be looking out for it. We finally might have one people’d be content using. Now I’m wondering if/when I finally get enough motivation to start making a coverflow or a lyrics-scroll plugin, should I develop for Amarok or Fooyin?
We also used to have Guarapirangua and DeaDBeeF. G ran out of steam, and D decided to fuck over Russian-language users cuz “they country war so they people bad!”, angering many plugin developers besides making me morally uncontent with what future decisions they’d make.
should I develop for Amarok or Fooyin?
Fooyin would be my bet. The development is much much more active than Amarok and is a ground up new program, not a codebase from decades ago.
Sounds familiar.
I still use Winamp 5.5 or something, before it became bloated. Still kicks the same ass. Llama’s
I stopped on 5.666 just because
Assuming there’s no weird catch, this is amazing. I love winamp
I’d love to see it ported to Linux and for Spotify to release a fork of it again.
With many people going from windows to Linux, they would have instantaneous users on nostalgia alone
That screenshot alone brings back so, so many memories.
Been with Winamp ever since my first 486DX all the way up to my first 4k screen when it became unusable due to size/scaling issues.
I’m really keeping my fingers crossed for this one to succeed.
They trip all over themselves just to seemingly not use the phrase “open source” huh?
