A few years back, I wrote a review of Winamp 5.03, which I was quite happy with. As of version 5.03, Winamp was one of a handful of popular applications that was not extraordinarly obnoxious and only moderately bloated. I am installing a more recent version of Winamp, 5.23, and thought I would update my old review. I should start by mentioning that I am installing 5.23 because version 5.22 keeps prompting me to update. I installed 5.22 about three weeks ago.

Changes

For the first time I can remember with Winamp, there are a number of additional things added to the Install Options. In addition to the various icons and music associations, the default install will now deliver an "eMusic Icon and Offer of 50 Free MP3s!" as well as "Get Active Security Monitor - it's FREE!" AOL acquired Winamp a while back. I was wondering how long it would take them to make it suck. It appears that they have started. Here's a nice bit from the EULA about the eMusic icon:

IMPORTANT NOTE: IF YOU OPT TO INSTALL THE EMUSIC PROMOTIONAL ICON, YOU CONSENT TO THE DOWNLOAD AND INSTALLATION OF ONE OR MORE ICONS ON YOUR COMPUTER'S DESKTOP THAT LINK TO INFORMATION ABOUT THE ICONS, SOFTWARE OR EMUSIC SERVICE AND/OR A REGISTRATION PAGE FOR EMUSIC'S INTERNET BASED MUSIC SUBSCRIPTION BASED SERVICE AND/OR OTHERWISE PROVIDE PERIODIC REMINDERS TO YOU IN THE FORM OF "POP-UP" NOTICES ON YOUR COMPUTER'S DESKTOP.

The EULA is also 5213 words long, or 10 single-spaced pages. This does not include the privacy policy and other documents included by reference.

The "Choose Install Location" is fairly standard, but "Space required: 23.4MB" is a sad change from the elegant little application Winamp used to be.

I do not remember different user setting for different Windows users, which appears to be a new feature. I won't use it, but I could see how it could be useful - particularly as it appears to allow different portable device settings.

The registration page, fortunately, has both "Yes, send me Winamp announcements (Recommended)" and "Yes, allow anonymous usage statistics" unchecked by default. It also has a "Do not ask again until next install" option.

The actual program does not seem to have changed much. The Media Library has become increasingly difficult. In addition to the "Play" and "Enqueue" options, there is a "MusicMagic Mix button. It allows me to "make instant mixes of compatible tracks from [my] entire library." I worried that this font cannot contain my excitement at this new feature. Now, to update the ratings:

Ease of Use

I have decreased this by half a point due to the obnoxious default settings and the ridiculous EULA.

Flexibility

Nothing has particularly changed here. I was annoyed with the browser before. Attempting to browse through "AOL Videos", I got a number of scripting errors, so nothing has changed on this front.

Intrusiveness

On one hand, I haven't been asked to buy Winamp Pro yet, which is an improvement. On the other hand, I got a number of "update now" notices. The anonymous usage statistics and occasional mailings are now "recommended."

Price

I have also reduced "price" by a full point. The amount of advertising, particularly for AOL related products, has increased substantially. Finally, the release and popularity of iTunes has raised the expectation for what "free" software should be able to do.

Overall

This is a decrease of half a point. I will continue to use Winamp - but I feel I should qualify my endorsement.