Nullsoft No More

There's an interesting, MSN-sponsored piece on the demise of Justin Frankel's Nullsoft in today's Slate.

My favorite quote from Paul Boutin's article?

With Nullsoft gone and Frankel spending his time building a special-effects computer for his electric guitar, the old Winamp/Gnutella gang probably won't get back together for one more hit. Conventional wisdom says Frankel is more likely to join the millionaire has-beens who dot the hills in my San Francisco neighborhood or become a trophy hire at a tech startup, like contemporaries Fanning, Marc Andreessen, and Linus Torvalds.

Choice it may be, but all it can prompt from me is a soft and resigned chuckle. When asked what my career goals are, my most common response is "retirement." And, speaking from personal experience, I know how very, very old playing the enemy within an organization becomes. Its a good thing our kind are easily recycled. Besides, for every Mister Roberts, there is always an Ensign Pulver.

Consider this firecracker: Winamp may be your father's media player / ripper / burner, but, as an innovation, and as a cultural artifact, its contemporary importance cannot be over-estimated. "Digital asset management" is increasingly interpreted to be an individual right, inalienable or at least in need or protection, and our concepts of property are increasingly in flux -- mostly thanks to Winamp and the tools that followed in its wake. Really, Fankel's original application deserves to be in a museum of some sort, but, without much of a material reality, it really can;t be enshrined under glass.

Wait a minute; that's not much of a shame or so inappropriate after all.

Posted by joe on November 16, 2004 7:46 AM