Getting back into skinning
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 by Draginol | Discussion: OS Customization
This Fall I’m starting to get back into skinning. For the past 8 months or so, I’ve been the interim Project Manager on Elemental: War of Magic to get that game ready for release – which I failed spectacularly at. Sometimes, the answer is not to “work harder”. But I digress.
The problem I’m seeing with skinning is business vs. passion. That is, Windows XP users still represent a near majority of the people using our skinning programs. The problem is, Windows XP is dead as a technology base. I don’t want to even support it any longer. I want us to make cutting edge technology using WPF and Silverlight and other things that can show what is possible.
A lot of the new Windows technologies have been under used which is a real shame because there’s some great stuff there.
My main worry right now is that WPF is not being well supported by Microsoft and I don’t want us to get into a tech that Microsoft is going to abandon (GDI+, cough cough).
See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/13/microsoft_defends_silverlight/ for my concerns.
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Reply #22 Sunday, October 10, 2010 9:30 PM
I've only been here at WC for a short while but I have dug deep into the galleries and have seen much of your earlier work. Seeing what you can come up with now should be very interesting. Make as much stuff as you want, I'll be reserving space on my HDD for my "Frogboy Collection" 
Reply #23 Monday, October 11, 2010 6:51 AM
I haven't dished out for Windows 7 yet...why? Because it costs 80% more (based on a direct exchange rate) than in the US. If someone wants to help me in some way...well I'd switch and then...and THEN I'd be uber pleased to switch to DesktopX based on whatever beautiful engine Windows 7 might provide. The object model as it was is pretty darn good, and the scripting options are still actually very open and flexible. If you could leverage some of the WPF image presentation and manipulation features that'd be cool! Take us out into new waters! New horizons! Endless possibilities! More Calenda...more something!
Vista entrenched me further into XP for gadget development. I preferred to find ways around XPs limitations than drown in an unknown, very restrictive territory. XP just let me plug away at my own 'stuff' knowing where I stood.
DesktopX gave me a way to interface more directly with my computer experience and gave me power to 'make it and do it the way I wanted' without having to learn a fully fledged programming language. Find more ways to break the 'presentation' barrier and get us access to *all* the bits we want to see and touch and play with. Windowblinds, Deskscapes, etc gives us a lot of see and feel, DesktopX I think is still a key to the touch and play.
Reply #26 Monday, October 11, 2010 9:11 AM
And this means ? Anything getting better regarding the desastrous state of Object Desktop ? Or is this just another of Your countless 'Oh, I will do something.' threads again ? Sorry Brad, but You have lost my personal trust over the last 1-2 years completely...
Then go away, c242. I really could care less what you think. In fact, let me show you the door.
Is that how stardock treats long time customers? Be ashamed. A littel self-criticism would be better.
Reply #27 Monday, October 11, 2010 5:09 PM
DesktopX gave me a way to interface more directly with my computer experience and gave me power to 'make it and do it the way I wanted' without having to learn a fully fledged programming language. Find more ways to break the 'presentation' barrier and get us access to *all* the bits we want to see and touch and play with. Windowblinds, Deskscapes, etc gives us a lot of see and feel, DesktopX I think is still a key to the touch and play.
Amen!
Reply #28 Monday, October 11, 2010 5:51 PM
Amen.
Altho, it beats making pizza's 
Reply #29 Monday, October 11, 2010 7:03 PM
Quoting Skarnivorous,
reply 23
DesktopX gave me a way to interface more directly with my computer experience and gave me power to 'make it and do it the way I wanted' without having to learn a fully fledged programming language. Find more ways to break the 'presentation' barrier and get us access to *all* the bits we want to see and touch and play with. Windowblinds, Deskscapes, etc gives us a lot of see and feel, DesktopX I think is still a key to the touch and play.
Amen!
Amen again....
Reply #30 Friday, October 22, 2010 7:07 AM
This is a good thing.
I still have that little neon fish... Fishy I think.
Sitting here thinking of the blinds I still have on older systems, made by you.
Aerosoft is still one of my favorites.
Reply #31 Friday, October 22, 2010 10:07 AM
I can vouch for that, John!
Love eating pizza.....hated working at a pizza restaurant
Reply #32 Friday, October 22, 2010 10:55 AM
damn, I just took a look at Brad's pages. I hope he's seriously considering doing some more.
Reply #33 Friday, October 22, 2010 11:33 AM
I'm guessing he means getting back into the skinning side of Stardock. As in new apps, or updated old apps. At least I hope that's what he means. We need a new focus.
In order to use WPF and Silverlight, we need apps that will support those.
Brad is talking like a coder, not a skinner.
Reply #34 Friday, October 22, 2010 2:05 PM
In order to use WPF and Silverlight, we need apps that will support those.
Brad is talking like a coder, not a skinner.
gosh, even though I figured it out at the beginning the title is "getting back into skinning".
so, silverlight appears to be more of a developer's tool for presentation and control. something that WC might use as an interface with the public but I'm just not getting why my little heart needs to get a flutter/twitter from my side of the fence.
would someone please explain to me why having to download silverlight to use this site would be a benefit for me?
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Reply #21 Sunday, October 10, 2010 9:27 PM
I know a lot of people are still running Windows XP but one of the things that made skinning for me less fun was having to make stuff that would work on many different versions of Windows. At some point, it stops being a hobby/fun and turns into "real work".
I'm liking Windows 7 but I don't think Microsoft is really thinking about the user experience much anymore (look at the state of IE9. Yikes).
WPF is interesting but it's not easy to customize it, you'd be back making apps that themselves can be skinned.
On the other hand, a WPF based shell might be interesting.