Winamp guru leaves Nullsoft after v5 release

LAST DECEMBER AOL quietly -as usual- released version 5 of its Winamp player. Now that this version is out in the wild -and without any major exciting products on the horizon, I speculate, lead developer Justin Frankel decided it was time to move on and resigned from AOL's Nullsoft subsidiary.

The Winamp team also suffered a major blow last December when AOL's axe fell over two core programmers, one of them Brennan, who maintained the unofficial - and never released - port of the Winamp player to Linux. Luckily for everyone his work is still available, frozen in time, but is a great, useable port of Winamp for Linux nonetheless.

In an interview with news site C|Net Frankel described his relation with his former employer as "a pretty big love/hate relationship for me", and his dissatisfaction by saying "the love ultimately comes down to working with your friends on interesting things that you've poured a lot of time into. The hate is dealing with the process and the pitfalls of corporate America.".

Maybe it would be wise for AOL to remove the casualties from its staff roster?

The relationship wasn't easy: back in June 2003, we reported that Frankel threatened to leave, seeking "a less restrictive environment".

AOL - The Best Orphan Software Ever
Winamp 5, currently at version 5.01, is offered in two versions, the usual "freeware" version, which on v5 can rip songs from audio CDs to AAC format files and burn mp3s to audio cds at slow speed, and the "pro" ($14.95 registration price) commercial version which also adds the ability to rip directly to mp3 format and supports high-speed CD burning.

I have been testing this latest incarnation of the freeware Winamp 5 player since around Christmas and I can vouch for its quality and speed, bringing the best of the "classic" version 2 player with the best features of the much maligned Winamp 3, but this time without the fat. I can hence say with some confidence that Winamp v5 is, in my view, the best Winamp ever. What a great time not to have the lead innovator behind Winamp go.

In related news, the AOL communicator team - comprised mostly of survivors from the great Netscape and Mozilla team layoffs back in August 2003- also suffered loses last December due to the "cost cutting axe grinding" madness at the online behemoth. Among one of them was one of the lead programmers working on the Mac OS-X port of AOL Communicator. So far I've been unable to confirm if there is anyone still working on the Aol Communicator product. The contacts I used to have no longer reply to my mails, and other messages I send just bounce back.

It is just a pity that AOL seems to have entered now a stage of "soul-searching", where the focus on quarter profits completely destroys any idea of having a long-term strategy [Perhaps their strategy is not to have a strategy?]. Its PR spinners also send confusing messages, like a claim not too long ago calling the Mountain View offices - formerly known as Netscape - "critical" to the company's software strategies. What software strategy?. In my view, the company doesn't seem to be sure if it wants to be a software company or not.

This occurs at the same time that its software created in its San Francisco (Nullsoft) and Mountain View labs reached maturity, and when these products could be well received by consumers and corporations outside the AOL subscriber base.

In other words, AOL Communicator, based on Mozilla Mail, can certainly kick Microsoft's products rear end as far as security and standards compliance is concerned, and it's very hard for me to imagine why the company isn't actually selling this email client - with support - to consumers and corporations, even licensing and co-branding it to other ISPs. Why isn't AOL acting like any other software company having these assets would, and offering these products for bundling to PC manufacturers, ISPs, and corporations?

Currently, AOL in a strange position.... with great "orphan" products developed by its shrinking Nullsoft and former Mozilla programmers, and many of these innovative developers now gone, looking for greener pastures. Of course you can get back to profits if you just focus on the short-term profits and grind the axe at your complete R&D staff, while you continue advertising and selling these orphan products that have been already created (just notice the big ads on AOL Communicator on throughout the online service). The question is for how long. µ

L'INQS
June 2003: Winamp author to leave AOL's Nullsoft subsidiary