We’ve all heard the sad news that Winamp, that media player that rocked our desktops years before the likes of Media Monkey, iTunes, Jet Audio and the like became mainstream, is on its deathbed. Apparently AOL, the company that bought out Winamp maker Nullsoft, is killing the formerly popular MP3 player on PCs without a reason. They’ve not bothered to explain why it is shutting down but hey, as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t hurt to let it go. Winamp and that very iconic Ilama logo served us well back in the day and its time to let it go than hold on to it while it is less relevant today. However, not many share that opinion as me, there are over 8,000 souls out there that are up in arms and vividly not happy with those news. They want Winamp to either be made opensource or continue being supported instead of being killed off completely.
As of the time of writing this article, that petition has 8,295 people supporting it and it will surely grow going forward. However if the past of other companies of AOL’s stature like Google is anything to go by, that’s just wishful thinking that won’t be heard by anyone. Google Reader went despite many signing online petitions to keep it alive.
Also there could be something else the petitioners may want to consider: reports that Microsoft is considering a bid for Winamp and sister app Shoutcast. Whether Microsoft is interested in the app because it wants to keep it alive and alter it in some way that will make it appealing to the masses today or just for one or two patents that it finds relevant is still something we don’t know.
The petition reads in part:
Winamp is the best media player ever built. It can’t be left to die. It must live on.
If AOL allows it to go open source it WILL live on forever and be in the hands of people who love it and use it every day.AOL, Keep Winamp alive or let it go open source.
You can check the petition (and sign it if you’re that clingy nostalgic) here.
