- cross-posted to:
- programming@programming.dev
- hackernews
- cross-posted to:
- programming@programming.dev
- hackernews
At first I was… wow, no shit! Open source Winamp!
But then I went through the Github issues (because, 6 hours since first commit and already 5 issues open?). As someone else put it, “This has got to be the most embarrassing open-sourcing i’ve seen to date.”. The licensing is a mess, the coverup is a dumpster fire. By tomorrow this is going to be as viral as Twitter’s “open sourcing” of its recommendation algorithm they did last year. Not sure if I should make coffee or popcorn in the morning.
Yeah it’s not open source at all. This is source-available.
Also, they uploaded the source to Shoutcast’s proprietary stuff: https://github.com/WinampDesktop/winamp/issues/11
And some copyrighted shit from Dolby. Granted, header files only.
The latter hints that it’s an error and not a mistake, and maybe it’ll get fixed, and maybe even with a better license.
That said, there are a few “winamps” I can install right now (audacious, qmmp, xmms if I bother to compile it and gtk-1.2, bmp if I bother to compile it).
Something like milkdrop I’d love, but … nah.
And nah, getting back to MPD with an ed-like “client” (script with mpc) that jumps to the right entry and position by number, by name regex, by “:”-separated time format.
27 years of tech debt will do that to you ;)
Crikey - it was only added a few hours ago and it’s already all kicking off on their GitHub’s Issues page.
That license is an absolute clusterfuck. It was embarrassing to even read it.
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If they don’t want the Winamp name and/or logo used in forks, they can just add a branding guideline that tells people to rename any forked product and to not distribute any graphical or audio elements associated with Winamp.
for linux; qmmp has a winamp skin that works beautifully.
That brings back memories
Edit: actually i was thinking of xmms
Such a neat piece of software, I remember streaming internet radio (somafm) and trying out different skins on my windows xp laptop back in the early 2000’s and just feeling like the cyberpunk future had arrived. Milkdrop was my gateway drug. Fun seeing it make a comeback, I hope it develops a healthy community and we get some good software out of it. Internet drama be damned.
I hope it develops a healthy community and we get some good software out of it.
Thing is, their license denies that outright.
- No Distribution of Modified Versions: You may not distribute modified versions of the software, whether in source or binary form.
- No Forking: You may not create, maintain, or distribute a forked version of the software.
- Official Distribution: Only the maintainers of the official repository are allowed to distribute the software and its modifications.
Of course, this license is in direct violation of GitHub’s ToS, which states that by hosting publicly on GitHub you accept that anyone can see and fork your code.
So one could just ignore their license and fork it anyway? Since it’s on GitHub?
You would still not be allowed to to redistribute it though. Others would not be able to build your code and distribute binaries either. Just the act of creating a fork is not enough to create a viable project.
I remember streaming internet radio (somafm) and trying out different skins on my windows xp laptop back in the early 2000’s and just feeling like the cyberpunk future had arrived.
SomaFM is still around.
It looks like Qmmp can use WinAMP skins.
Apparently archive.org has a library of WinAMP skins.
Milkdrop was my gateway drug.
That was reimplemented as projectM, and there’s apparently a Qmmp plugin.
You are incredible, thank you so much for sharing!
Kind of disappointed that it’s not a permissive license but still glad that it’s at least somewhat available to the community.
Edit: I’ve just noticed that there’s an active QMMP project. That would be an even better option.
With that licensing, I think it might be better for anyone wanting to contribute time and effort to be looking to resurrect XMMS or XMMS2* instead. Heck, they even supported Winamp skins.
* There were apparently two unrelated projects called XMMS2. Take your pick.
Why resurrect XMMS when Audacious is an active fork?
TIL.
I still rock XMMS almost every day. It simply does the job I want it to do and it’s so lightweight it might run on a toaster.
If you want something more modern, qmmp should be great.
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Not open source. See the license.
Justin Frankel must be spinning
in his grave.Open source, not free software.
See, I would argue (and I think the OSI agrees), restrictions on distribution or access would count as not open source due to restraining how it can be accessed, examined, and run; but shared source. And that can fuck right off
Frankly, I’m baffled to see such negativity here and in the github comments.
Sure, winamp could have handled this better and just referred to the release as “source available” instead of “open source”. Then again, calling it “open source” is not that far fetched and is likely only going to annoy those who want to find fault in any case.
It’s almost like “open source” has become a religion unto itself, with fanatic zealots defining what is and what isn’t acceptable - I kindly ask you to stop that bullshit, we have enough of these already.
Having source available is infinitely better than not having it, so let’s keep that in mind. Obviously, this doesn’t mean that people cannot give constructive criticism on how to improve the situation, but most of the shit on display here make my eyes roll hard enough to cause strain: https://github.com/WinampDesktop/winamp/issues/6