# Winamp

60 Hacker News commenters recommended Winamp and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend Winamp for its fast, simple, customizable interface, and old versions still run on Windows 11; the main caveat is that it feels dated.

## Why people recommend it

- Still runs on Windows 11 (8 comments): "which works great with WinAmp (even the old versions from the 90s still run fine in Windows 11)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46467870)) "my MP3 collection and WinAmp from high school continue to work without issue" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48451207)) "WinAmp has been dead for centuries but it's still a perfectly valid player" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49117032))
- Simple, easy interface (5 comments): "about as easy to use without a license as WinRAR, so you can trial it indefinitely" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48097614)) "It works great, does what I need, and I've never had a problem with it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47486389)) "Yet they pulled off one of the most usable media player." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45927410))
- Strong nostalgia and personal memories (5 comments): "all the programs I have fond memories of are written with it (foobar2000, winamp, Everything, etc)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46673332)) "My first experience of listening to serious music from computer." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48098888)) "Definitely have preferred Winamp throughout my life." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47699270))
- Customizable skins and plugins (4 comments): "all versions of WinAmp + skins still work great in 2026 even on Win11" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47705236)) "the amount of personalization you had with your desktop environment" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48762670)) "One thing I loved about WinAmp was its ability to use audio plugins" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766183))

## What people warn about

- Feels dated (2 comments): "even more general and dated than the Winamp genre list" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47386345)) "hasn't aged so well, sadly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50045533))
- Slow with heavy file I/O (2 comments): "Winamp was perfectly fine by itself as I recall it. But as soon as you did anything else that involved any kind of IO, there would be skips and stutters." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50130837)) "because it was, as you said, slow (er)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47812314))
- Users drifted to other tools (2 comments): "Winamp was pretty cool. ... I kind of gave up on winamp, mostly because my use cases shifted." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47499631)) "I've tried tons of solutions over the years like sooperlooper, ableton live, reaper, winamp" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48901077))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [iTunes](https://hackerapproved.com/p/itunes.md): 55 recommend
- [foobar2000](https://hackerapproved.com/p/foobar2000.md): 54 recommend
- [Plexamp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/plexamp.md): 31 recommend
- [Audacious music player](https://hackerapproved.com/p/audacious.md): 17 recommend
- [Symfonium](https://hackerapproved.com/p/symfonium.md): 11 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Winamp", https://hackerapproved.com/p/winamp/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).