Flirtation with Windows Media Player over; Welcome home Winamp

Microsoft have done quite the job on the Media Player accompanying Windows XP. On the surface it's clever indexing of artists, genres, and albums seemed like enough to blow long-time favorite Winamp out of the water. And it did do just that -- up until today, when I finally grew decisively impatient with the sneaky codec trips to Microsoft's servers, the 5+ second delays when visiting a media library with 8 gigs of MP3s, and the frequent crashes.

So Windows Media Player is out and Winamp is back in -- and it feels good. Having an instant response on pressing "Next Song" on my 8 gig playlist brings a lot of satisfaction. Not having to be exposed to Microsoft's recommendations on music and movies everytime I want to hear a particular song is equally nice.

Now if only the Winamp guys would flip the switch to the afterburner on their version 3 development and deliver a music library like Microsoft's, I'd be content.