Jari Ketola
28 Jun 2003 2:30
Although technically quite advanced and versatile, Nullsoft's Winamp 3 never gained the popularity of it's predecessor, Winamp 2. Winamp 3 was supposed to be as quick as the earlier version, but instead turned out to be quite bloated and slow. Many Winamp 2 users never switched to version 3. Some sticked to the old version while many started using eg. Microsoft's Windows Media Player.
AOL, the online giant which acquired Nullsoft in 1999, has discontinued supporting Winamp 3 Wasabi-plugins. According to the plan announced in March, Winamp 2 and Winamp 3 will merge in Winamp 5 (2+3=5), due out this summer.
It is obviously in AOL's intrest to produce an in-house multimedia application capable of providing an alternative to Windows Media Player, Apple Quicktime, and RealNetworks' RealOne.
Source:
News.com