Goodbye Winamp and Nullsoft

AOL announced Winamp.com would be shut down on December 20, 2013. That marks an end to the 15 years old mp3 player software by Nullsoft.

Nullsoft started by Justin Frankel with Winamp software. I respect the company which started as a small company with 1 popular software and grown into a multi-million company. Nullsoft was acquired by AOL in year 1999.

Justin Frankel created Gnutella after Nullsoft acquired by AOL. Gnutell is a peer-to-peer software to share files (which include mp3 media files). AOL order Nullsoft to taken down the software, because AOL think Gnutella will harmed AOL's music business.

Winamp and Nullsoft was created at the right time and sold to AOL at the right time. A group of creative software developers with a big company backup sounds like a good match. Policies and bureaucratic kill both of them.

Winamp is not able to re-create itself within AOL. There are rules to be follow straightly. Justin resign in year 2004. Winamp does not make it's way and lost to others (eg. iTunes).

Nullsoft and Winamp certainly has made a (small?) page in software history. I salute to Winamp, Nullsoft and Justin Frankel.

Reference:
Winamp from time to time
http://www.ibtimes.com/winamp-rip-celebrating-life-nullsofts-revolutionary-mp3-player-1480600

Ars Technica has a good coverage
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/06/winamp-how-greatest-mp3-player-undid-itself/3/