Editing Winamp (section)

=== Winamp3 ===
The next major Winamp version, Winamp3 (so spelled to include ''mp3'' in the name and to mark its separation from the Winamp 2 codebase), was released on August 9, 2002. It was a complete rewrite of version 2, newly based on the [[Wasabi (software)|Wasabi]] application framework, which offered additional functionality and flexibility. Winamp3 was developed parallel to Winamp 2, but "many users found it consumed too many system resources and was unstable (or even lacked some valued functionality, such as the ability to count or find the total duration of [[Song|tracks]] in a [[playlist]])".<ref name="AutoMZ-20"/><ref name="AutoMZ-21"/> Winamp3 had no [[backward compatibility]] with Winamp 2 plugins, and the [[SHOUTcast]] sourcing plugin was not supported. No Winamp3 version of SHOUTcast was ever released.

In response to users reverting to Winamp 2, Nullsoft continued the development of Winamp 2 to versions 2.9 and 2.91 in 2003,<ref name="AutoMZ-22"/> even alluding to it humorously.<ref name="AutoMZ-23"/> The [[beta version]]s 2.92 and 2.95 were released with the inclusion of some of the functionality of the upcoming Winamp 5. During this period the [[Wasabi (software)|Wasabi]] cross-platform [[Application software|application]] framework and [[Skin (computing)|skinnable]] [[GUI]] toolkit was derived from parts of the Winamp3 source code. For [[Linux]], Nullsoft released an [[alpha version]] of Winamp3 on October 9, 2001, but has not updated it despite continued user interest.<ref name="AutoMZ-24"/>

During this time Winamp faced stiff competition from [[Apple Inc.|Apple]]'s [[iTunes]].<ref name="arstechnica.com"/>