WinMX

In my opinion this is the best program for downloading files, especially with the new version which seems a lot less buggy and easier to use. Direct Connect would probably be my second choice.

But my question is... WinMX being the best program out there, how do they make any money? Direct Connect, Kazaa, and others have ads but WinMX doesn't. Are they just hoping to get a large userbase before they cash in?

Same with WinAmp. Best player out there. It's free. No ads. wtf.

Same with WinAmp. Best player out there. It's free. No ads. wtf.

Last I checked, Winamp tosses an AOL icon on the desktop during install. And basicially Winamp was something AOL bought to use against Microsoft and Windows Media Player. Expect AOL to actually do something with all the companies they have bought here shortly, and all of these new things will be aimed at MS. I'm seeing more and more of Netscape again (both as a web portal and as a browser), and AOL has dumped IE out of it's client on Mac OS X, and instead integrated the Geckko engine from Mozilla.

I like freeamp (now znif) better it's much more simple. I just want an mp3 player not a home entertainment system.

I just want an mp3 player not a home entertainment system.

I would argue that WMP7+ and Winamp 3 are the home entertainment systems you speak of. I'm using Winamp 2.8x and absolutely love it. I don't see how it could get much simpler, and the new crossfading plugin that's the default is wonderful.


Personally, I despise WinMX. I'm sure you like it because it works for you, but I could never get a single connection with it. Blech. Piece of junk.

I know, you'll laugh at me, but I use the adware-free iMesh. So far it's had everything I've been looking for.

Direct Connect is okay, but on the most part you're depending on the good will of other people on the internet, and you know how well that can turn out.

I had that problem with one version of it. It was the release before last. I had an early version worked fine, upgraded, and to get any kind of connection I had to take down all of my firewalls, which I am not so inclined to do. Finally they cam out with a new version that fixed all that, and I think the new version works great

I would argue that WMP7+ and Winamp 3 are the home entertainment systems you speak of. I'm using Winamp 2.8x ...

Have you looked at WinAMP 3.0 yet? It's seriously moving towards ``home entertainment system'' territory. I hate it.

Yeah I've had versions were it was so slow it would take me 2 minutes just to type in the name of a song, and I almost gave up on WinMX several times. But the new version is lightning fast and I downloaded like 70 songs last night. You should give it another shot. And I think when there is a new version out, it won't let you connect until you upgrade.

And I have WinAMP as my 'entertainment system', but I also have a simple mp3 player that does nothing but that. I attached a copy of it if anyone is interested. It's written in tcl, so you might need activestate tcl to use it, i don't know, tell me if it works.

The funny thing is, they broke WPNP with the new version, so now lopster (lopster.sourceforge.net) doesn't work.

Sigh.

Yes.. I also hate Winamp 3..

On my not-so-up-to-date 500mhz, winamp 3 skipped like a motha and took forever to load from the desktop. *blech*

Although I do like the feature that you can have multiple playlists loaded at once, and just click on the one that you want to listen to and start playing the songs in it.

Anyone know if this is possible somehow with winamp 2.x?

I agree that WinMX is probably the best option for mp3-sharing at this point. I am able to find far more AND higher quality songs with it than *cough* Kazaa *cough*. And since the network administrator on our campus blocked the Kazaa port, I had no choice but to try it.

Anyone know if there is a file-sharing program that will actually list what program the mp3's were encoded with? (before downloading them, obviously.)

I didn't like Winamp3 either. I thought it was a lot slower, and the UI is crappy IMHO.

There is a program called MEXP at:

http://www.mexp.dk

It has a user interface similar to that of Winamp3.

Tom

image if aol is secrectly planning to make an AOL OS with all of the companys they bought and make a whole suite of stuff with ads galore.. haha

An interesting thing is that the WinAMP guy wrote a program to block the ads in AIM after WinAMP was purchased by AOL.

if aol is secrectly planning to make an AOL OS

I thought Windows XP already was "AOL OS". At least that's what I've been calling it ever since I first saw it.

How so?

Calvin

I think XP is the AOL OS as well. The UI is overly pretty for the sake of looking futuristic (my opinion) without any improvement with respect to usability. I have my XP installation set up so it looks just like 9x/NT4/2000. Good WiFi support and Movie Maker are what made me switch from 2000. Not the AOL-like UI.

I've never used AOL, ever, so I had no idea I was actually using AOL by using XP. ;-)

Calvin

I've never used AOL, ever

You're very lucky. I can't stand the people that have broadband and pay $12/month to keep the AOL interface and email address. A few of my co-workers and my brother are among those people. What morons!

Morons indeed. They simply don't realize that AOL is useless. There's nothing on there that isn't on the "normal" internet. Learn to do a freakin' Google search you mindless zombies.

I liked the recent PC Magazine article of user ratings. In the section on ISP's, AOL had the very lowest customer satisfaction ratings, across the board, yet AOL has the largest user base. This means that their users are also masochistic zombies.

The UI is overly pretty for the sake of looking futuristic (my opinion) without any improvement with respect to usability.

For me, it's even more than that. It's the way that they bury important functions under ten layers of obfuscation. I think they do it to simplify the UI for beginner users. That's clearly an AOL-ism.

The number of clicks it takes me to reach any useful system setting has always gone up with each release of Windows, and in XP it went up exponentially.

Oh, and then there's this problem:

http://www.theregus.com/content/4/26272.html

Which is essentially another AOL-ism (allow remote techs too much control) gone sour.

According to some of my friends, they have very active ... ummm ... alternative sexuality forums.

Well I have broadband, and I have had an AOL account for the past few years for one, and only one reason... Wherever I travel in the world, there's a very good chance that there'll be a local AOL pop. A friend went on a two year round-the world backpacking trek, including places like Tibet, and there he was in Kathmandu (ironically on 9/11 last year watching the news in Chinese and asking me what was going on via AIM) connected via good old 'moronic' AOL.

- Gary

I love it, America On Line in Kathmandu.

I suppose that's a good reason, but aren't there cheaper alternatives out there? with a more simple ISP you could connect and use another IM client, or just download AIM.

I can't remember, did AOL take down that "Express" version of AIM? The one where you could use it off their site?

Anyway, I really shouldn't speak badly of AOL. Their users are the reason I get to enjoy AIM for free.

The point is that they have POPs everywhere. Trying to find another ISP with that kind of coverage would be difficult. Otherwise, you'd have to either call long-distance, which would be quite pricy from Kathmandu, or set up a new ISP account everywhere you visited.

And the Java client is still there at http://toc.oscar.aol.com/, and it does something neat when you go to it. If you've viewing a web page and type in the URL, it goes to the new page, opens a new window with the AIM client, then goes back to the page you were originally on, so you don't have to bother opening a new window.

The funny thing is, they broke WPNP with the new version,

And have since admitted it. And the weird thing is at least as of last night, that bastion of insanity, Slashdot, hadn't even grossly misrepresented the problem yet!

WinMX 2.6 was also broken by the change.

hey guys...might wanna check out a program i recently found called dbPoweramp. its got all kinds of options...at first i didn't really like it...it takes some getting used to. but it has a lot of options...i finally got it the way i want. the file browser is awesome too. a lot of great options...check it out at http://www.dbpoweramp.com

they also have a converter that i haven't really used. it doesnt look that great...but you can download plugins to make it convert almost any file.

oh yeah...its pretty ugly...and the skins suck...i only liked one. i recommend "little black number"
http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?s=74eae0e66fbcc57a6b09c5d902b012c2&threadid=125

I've spent the last couple days playing around with Winamp 3. I still hate it.

-I was excited about having a video player in there. I could DJ a party and set up a projector to play music videos and visualizations. cool, right? Well the visualizations and videos need different windows, so it would be awkward to switch between them in the middle of a party.
-crossfading doesn't work between audio and video tracks, creating a very abrupt transition
-crossfading in general sounds like crap
-I don't like the resizeable winamp window. It feels like it's too...I don't know. it's weird
-it's slooooow. loading 3 takes about 5 seconds longer than 2.81. doesn't sound like a lot, but it is

My biggest complaint? The visualizations! They're CRAP!!! The resolution of all the AVS stuff is horrible. At full screen it's just one big blur. absolutely horrible. Whereas Geiss for 2.81 is still awesome.

Uninstalling Winamp 3