In some news that really whips the llama's ass, Winamp — one of the most popular MP3 players of all time — has returned.
Following 2018 reports that a new version of the software was in development, developers released the latest build of the software (Winamp 5.9 RC1 Build 9999) in late July [via Bleeping Computer].
A changelog reads that this build is "the culmination of 4 years' work since the 5.8 release. Two dev teams, and a pandemic-induced hiatus period in between."
"To the end-user, it might not seem like there's a whole heap of changes, but the largest and hardest part was actually migrating the entire project from [Visual Studio 2008] to [Visual Studio 2019] and getting it all to build successfully," it continues. This now clears the way for further features to be added to Winamp, "whether fixing/replacing old ones or adding new."
The latest version of Winamp now requires Windows 7 SP1 or later, dropping support for Windows XP and Vista operating systems.
In a time before the dominance of streaming services, Winamp — with its many customizable skins and animated visualizers — was a favourite program of digital music listeners and MP3 collectors. After AOL acquired developer Nullsoft in 1999, Winamp was shut down in 2013, and was soon sold to Belgian digital audio company Radionomy in early 2014.
Early versions of Winamp were known to come with a DEMO.MP3 file of the slogan, "Winamp, it really whips the llama's ass," inspired by the late American singer-songwriter Wesley Willis.
Following 2018 reports that a new version of the software was in development, developers released the latest build of the software (Winamp 5.9 RC1 Build 9999) in late July [via Bleeping Computer].
A changelog reads that this build is "the culmination of 4 years' work since the 5.8 release. Two dev teams, and a pandemic-induced hiatus period in between."
"To the end-user, it might not seem like there's a whole heap of changes, but the largest and hardest part was actually migrating the entire project from [Visual Studio 2008] to [Visual Studio 2019] and getting it all to build successfully," it continues. This now clears the way for further features to be added to Winamp, "whether fixing/replacing old ones or adding new."
The latest version of Winamp now requires Windows 7 SP1 or later, dropping support for Windows XP and Vista operating systems.
In a time before the dominance of streaming services, Winamp — with its many customizable skins and animated visualizers — was a favourite program of digital music listeners and MP3 collectors. After AOL acquired developer Nullsoft in 1999, Winamp was shut down in 2013, and was soon sold to Belgian digital audio company Radionomy in early 2014.
Early versions of Winamp were known to come with a DEMO.MP3 file of the slogan, "Winamp, it really whips the llama's ass," inspired by the late American singer-songwriter Wesley Willis.
