Winamp 5.5 beta initial thoughts

This morning I posted a brief link to a WIRED magazine article on Winamp’s upcoming 10th anniversary (or rather, birthday) as a music and media player. It’s hard to believe that Winamp is already 10 years old. I remember using it in version 1 when it was literally just a music player (no videos, no skins, and $10 shareware license) and nothing else. It had that dark-gray interface with the green letters and numbers and this “awesome” spectrum analyzer”.

I even recall using Winamp’s awful red, black, and gray website back in the day to search for skins and plugins — anything that would make the default look go away (over time however, I grew to love the default skin). In a very real sense, Winamp was the application that got me onto customization websites like Customize.org, Skinz.org, Deskmod.com, Screenphuck.net, and eventually DeviantART.com (among others). I went to these sites primarily for new Winamp skins. I was bored and that was basically all I used to the net for back in the day if I don’t count email and chat.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I stopped using Winamp somewhere around the version 3 release because I got an iPod and at the time Winamp had no way of managing my iPod. The only program able to do this easily was iTunes and so I started using iTunes (I kept a running copy of Winamp 2.9x on my computer though because at times it was still easier to use Winamp to play music).

Even though I use iTunes primarily nowadays, it is far from being my ideal media player. In fact, I hate using iTunes. I only still use it because it connects seamlessly with my iPod without forcing me to fiddle with stupid plugins that may or may not work. Other than that, I pretty much hate everything about iTunes — the speed at which it launches, the clumsy “search”, no enqueue feature, no “jumping” without breaking your back pushing buttons, huge application size, no “stop after current” function…the list goes on but you get the idea. I don’t like iTunes.

So when I saw the link for the beta version of Winamp 5.5 I jumped on it so that I could test it out. I miss using Winamp, and after reading the WIRED article, this beta version sounding like the Winamp comeback I’ve been waiting for.

As it turns out, Winamp 5.5 (beta) is pretty great!

Like in previous versions of Winamp, you have the ability to choose between several different window configurations. It can be as tiny as the windowshade mode or as big as the view pictured above.

In this version of Winamp, I liked how each new track switch triggered a fade in/out of a tiny window at the bottom near the taskbar (iTunes doesn’t have this, but the latest version of WMP does).

And it’s good to know that even though Winamp is constantly changing, their credits tab in the About Winamp window is still just as ugly as previous versions (if this were any other program I’d complain, but since it’s Winamp it’s kind of funny). :)

So here are my initial thoughts:

• I love the new “Winamp Bento” skin that comes default with v5.5. You can change the general colors of the skin much like you could with the ugly v3 skin.
• It connected to my iPod without any fuss whatsoever. Super happy. :)
• The Media Library is similar to iTunes when browsing the iPod. Double-clicking on an artist name will bring all of the artist’s songs into the playlist. Shift-Enter on a song or artist to enqueue that particular song or artist into the playlist without overwriting the playlist.
• Ahhh…I’ve missed AVS.
• Lowering the volume with my scroll wheel is like paradise. Whee!
• JUMP TO FILE.
• ZXCVB hot keys - enough said.

It’s still a very early look at Winamp 5.5 beta, but so far I’m quite pleased. If the final version is as good as this (hopefully better), then I’d gladly switch over. I’m gonna keep using it for a bit longer to see if anything pops up that would be alarming.

If you’re willing to put up with crashes and such associated with most beta programs, then give Winamp 5.5 beta a try for yourself. Or if you’re still reminiscing of good days with Winamp, you can get an older version of Winamp at OldVersion.com.