.Zer0. Interview Late last month I was able to take a bit of time to chat with .Zer0., author of XP Format and Eminence for WindowBlinds over IM.  We chatted about his two very popular skins, how he got started in skinning, what he has coming up next for us, and of course an obligatory Monty Python reference.  As was announced last week, .Zer0. is the first one to be featured in our Skinner of the Month series. [Zoomba]First off, I just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying your skin, Eminence.  I'm a minimalist when it comes to my desktop, so your skin is perfect for me. [.Zer0.] Thanks.  Care to see what I'm currently working on? Definitely! A "concept skin" under development I really like the lighter look you have going in the first screen.   Tell me, how long now have you been skinning? Four months.  But I've been doing graphic design for two years. Wow, so XP Format was your first attempt at a skin? Well, XP Format was my first [posted] skin.  There was one right before that, but I didn't finish it, nor would I consider it a true skin.  More of a get-to-learn SkinStudio thing. Was the original skin the same style of Eminence and XP Format? Um, more Vista-ish.  I think I was going to call it Vista XPed. How hard was it to get the hang of SkinStudio? I found/find SkinStudio a bit hard to navigate.  It's buggy sometimes when slicing images. Were there any particular resources you used to learn the program and overcome some of its oddities? I used a lot of other popular skins and disected them to see how they worked.  That was the major way I learned.  I already knew about transparencies and things like that from doing web design.  So I kind of transitioned into skinning from web design. Was the transition a hard or easy since you already had some experience designing user interface elements? The concept was easy, but learning to use the new software was frustrating at times.  RJSmith2007's first layout design   Eminence looks a lot like XP Format in form and style.  How many elements from Format were moved over into Eminence? A lot of the gloss was moved over and maybe the window button glyphs. Was there anything on Eminence that didn't turn out as well as you had hoped? Well, Eminence started out as a light and happy skin.  But most of the things I wanted came out.  The shellstyle hasn't worked out yet.  Animations are needed, and I would like to work with the taskbar. A light and happy skin?  Why the change? I was just messing with the skin and thought it [the dark coloring] looked better than the white. What's your favorite WindowBlind out there at the moment? I like Thallos, Royale Vista and many others.  I probably change my skin every other day.  Do you have any particular skinners that you prefer? I like kol's style most of the time, and JJ Ying's some of the time.  Dobee has some nice skins lately, but kol has been my favorite for a while.  The inner parts of his Thallos inspired Eminence. What is the average air speed velocity of an unladen swallow? 8 meters per second You looked that up on Google, didn't you? Yeah I did... http://www.style.org/unladenswallow/  You obviously have an eye for aesthetics, and you said you've done web design.  Do you plan to pursue a degree and/or career in some area of visual design? I would like to do software programming or interface design. Coding huh?  Have you considered combining your art skills and interest in programming to try your hand at building DesktopX widgets? I have, I just don't know the coding structure, so there is the learning curve again. Last question.  If you could change one thing about WinCustomize.com, what would it be? The theme.  I don't like the baby blue. Thanks to .Zer0. for agreeing to take the time and answer questions to kick off our Skinner of the Month series.  Be sure to check out his Eminence and XP Format WindowBlinds and keep an eye out for his upcoming skin later this summer. Expect to see a new skinner highlighted each and every month.  If you're a skinner (WindowBlinds, icons, ObjectDock themes, DesktopX etc...) and would like to have your work featured, or if you know someone in the community who you feel deserves more attention, drop me a line at mikec [ at ] stardock.com with the subject "SotM Suggestion"

RomanDA's DekstopX Tutorials:
My goal is to make a set of tutorials for DekstopX.  If you have ideas on what you would like to see, please email me at DXTutorials@RomanDA.org

Time/Date & more  - PART 1:
I have been asked about a dozen times how to get this or that date info into an object.  So I will try and cover that here.
This is not my typical tutorial, this will be a STEP-BY-STEP Creation of a widget, not just some code.

DOWNLOAD THE ZIP FILE FOR THIS TUTORIAL FIRST!

DekstopX can use JavaScript or VBScript as its language, I am a LOT more familiar with VBScript then JS so that is what I use.
As always, I'm sure there are other, if not better ways to do this, but this is my way.

The Players:
	Here are the objects we will be setting up:  (forgive me Danniloc as some of this was from our conversation - the graphics are mind but look like the one your working on):
	BASE Object: This will have the text objects a children as well as run the script. MonthName Month object will show the current month Date Date object will show today's date Year Year object will show the current year DayOfWeek Day Of Week object will show the current day of the week in text form "Monday" "Tuesday" etc. Time Time object will show the current time.

Creating the Objects:
	For those of you that have never used DX this is not hard, I will walk you through creating the above object. LOAD DekstopX and go into the CREATE mode: * if you do not have DekstopX (builder) you will need to download it.
BASE OBJECT:
	Create the BASE object by
		RIGHT-CLICK on the DekstopX Icon in the system tray. Select "New object" <-- See this for more info
		The Object Properties Dialog will show up. Click the "States" Tab
		Click the "Browse" Button.
		Select the "Frame-Green.png" File from the 6-DateWidget.zip file here. Select "Open" Click "OK" in the "Object Properties" Dialog box.
		You should now see your FRAME or BASE object.
		RIGHT CLICK on this object and select "Properties".
		In the Object Properties dialog, select the "Summary" tab   In here we will change the following: Object ID: BASE Group: DateWidget Widget: DateWidget If you want you can add your name to the "Author" Section.   When done editing these, click the "OK" Button.

OTHER OBJECTS:
	We will follow the same above steps to create the TEXT objects but there will be a few minor change. I'm not going to re-post all the same images, see above if you get lost. DayOfWeek Object
		RIGHT-CLICK on the DekstopX Icon in the system tray. Select "New object"
		Select the "States" Tab In there select "TEXT" not "IMAGE" from the Appearance Tab. Type in "Monday" in the provided text area Select Alignment: CENTER Click on Font and select a font you like, I like Tahoma, you can pick whatever you want, be advised the size, and font will make some of the next screen shots look strange, for now pick Tahoma and 12 and bold,  you can come back later and change it. Select OK on the Font Dialog. Select the Color Button, select a dark color something that will look good on the white background (or gray), I'm picking a dark gray. Select OK in the Color dialog box
		In the Object Properties dialog, select the "Summary" tab In here we will change the following: Left: 0 Top: 20 Width: 150 Height: (image default) Object ID: DayOfWeek Parent/Owner: BASE Child: YES Group: DateWidget Widget: DateWidget   When done editing these, click the "OK" Button.
		This should be your new widget Congrats, its beginning to look like something.
	MonthName Object
	Follow the exact same steps from above except this time you will put in: "August" in the text area, and the following in the Summary Tab:
		In the Object Properties dialog, select the "Summary" tab In here we will change the following: Left: 0 Top: 44 Width: 150 Height: (image default) Object ID: MonthName Parent/Owner: BASE Child: YES Group: DateWidget Widget: DateWidget   When done editing these, click the "OK" Button.
		Your new object should look like this now.
	Date Object
	Follow the exact same steps from above except this time you will put in: "16" in the text area Make the font 14 not 12 and change the following in the Summary Tab:
		In the Object Properties dialog, select the "Summary" tab In here we will change the following: Left: 0 Top: 66 Width: 150 Height: (image default) Object ID: Date Parent/Owner: BASE Child: YES Group: DateWidget Widget: DateWidget   When done editing these, click the "OK" Button.
		Your new object should look like this now.
	Year Object
	Follow the exact same steps from above except this time you will put in: "2006" in the text area Make the font 12 not 14 and change the following in the Summary Tab:
		In the Object Properties dialog, select the "Summary" tab In here we will change the following: Left: 0 Top: 92 Width: 150 Height: (image default) Object ID: Year Parent/Owner: BASE Child: YES Group: DateWidget Widget: DateWidget   When done editing these, click the "OK" Button.
		Your new object should look like this now. See we are getting there. IF you have done everything correct up to this point, you should be able to "DRAG" this around, and everything should move as 1. If something moves that shouldn't you will need to RIGHT-CLICK on that object, hit Properties, then make sure that the Group and Widget are both "DateWidget".  then check it again.
	Time Object
	Follow the exact same steps from above except this time you will put in: "10:16 am" in the text area Make the font 12 and change the following in the Summary Tab:
		In the Object Properties dialog, select the "Summary" tab In here we will change the following: Left: 0 Top: 140 Width: 150 Height: (image default) Object ID: Time Parent/Owner: BASE Child: YES Group: DateWidget Widget: DateWidget   When done editing these, click the "OK" Button.
		We are now done creating objects. Your widget does nothing at this point except show the text we put into it. Its time to start making this thing WORK.

Please look at Part 2 for the continuation of this tutorial, and PLEASE let me know if you find these useful.

Enjoy, RomanDA AKA: David A. Roman http://romanda.wincustomize.com http://www.romanda.org DXTutorials@RomanDA.org

RomanDA's DesktopX Tutorials:
My goal is to make a set of tutorials for DesktopX. If you have ideas on what you would like to see, please email me at DXTutorials@RomanDA.org

Slip Sliding Away
	After working on the GalCivII Widget Bar [ LINK ], I was using a lot of code that kept the "sliders" locked to the left side of the screen. I was challenged to make it so they could "slide" to the top or bottom, or even to the other side of the screen. After spending most of my Saturday afternoon trying to work this out, and its not 100% perfect, there are some issues, I was able to make it work. The actual code was not really that bad, but it was a little convoluted.
DOWNLOAD THE TEST WIDGET HERE

STEP 1: Setup DRAG
	First lets setup the sub "ON_DRAG" so that we can pull the x/y & cursor positions.

'--- Function to handle the DRAG Sub Object_OnDrag(x, y, newX, newY) '--- Store the Currrent X/Y location of the object BEFORE its moved (or NOT MOVED!) OrigL = object.Left OrigT = object.Top '--- Set this to False so that it will move the item's x/y by default nomove = False '--- Set the text in the interior object (its only so we can see what is going on, '--- you would NOT use this in a REAL widget. '--- This shows the x/y pos and the newx/newy pos so you can watch it change as you drag things '--- Just for testing desktopx.Object("Test").Text = "x,y: " & x & "," & y & VBCrLf & "NewX,NewY: " & newX & "," & newY

STEP 2: Determine the Edges of the Screen
	It took me a long time to work out the following SIMPLE code.

	If this is your normal screen in my case ill use 1600x1200 just to have something to use for reference.
	In this case I'm using the width of the Widget and height of the Widget for this "border". oTop is the Height of the object oLeft is the Width of the object oBot is the Height of the screen minus the object height oRight is the Width of the screen minus the object width '--- Set the Top/Left/Bot/Right margins for us to be able to tell oTop = object.Height oLeft = object.Width oBot = system.ScreenHeight-(oTop) oRight = system.ScreenWidth-(oLeft)

STEP 3: Setting the Screen Position

Now that we have the height/width areas designated, we need to setup a "test" to see where the cursor is. In this case I used TOP/BOT/LEFT/RIGHT, you could re-arrange these to change what supersedes things. What I mean is if you drag the object near the TOP it would override the LEFT border, as the cursor can only be in 1 "area" at a time. Im sure there is a way to make this work a little better, but this works for now. '--- By using these "areas" we set the current POSITION of the object on the screen If System.CursorY <= oTop Then ScreenPoz = "TOP" If System.CursorY => oBot Then ScreenPoz = "BOT" If System.CursorX <= oLeft Then ScreenPoz = "LEFT" If System.CursorX => oRight Then ScreenPoz = "RIGHT" '--- We add the Position to the test text string, again just to show what area of the screen your in. '--- again this is just for testing purposes. desktopx.Object("Test").Text = desktopx.Object("Test").Text & VBCrLf & ScreenPoz

STEP 4: Dragging things around
	We now have our 4 screen "areas"; TOP/LEFT/BOT/RIGHT We can now use a SELECT CASE in order to handle the 4 states and an "ELSE". In order to keep the "LOOK" of this widget, we will ROTATE the object to keep the "rail" aimed at the edge of the screen. '--- Select CASE on the ScreenPosition Select Case ScreenPoz '--- LEFT Position process Case "LEFT" '--- Set the Rotation for the object to 0 (in this case 0 is left) object.Rotation = 0 '--- FORCE the LEFT position to 0 '--- this keeps the object's LEFT POSITION LOCKED to 0 Object.Left =0 '--- if the Y (up and down) position is less then 0 '--- it will stop the top at 0 '--- this keeps you from scrolling the object up past the top of the screen. '--- It sets the noMove to True (stops the script from moving the position) If newY <= 0 Then Object.Top = 0 nomove = True End If '--- set TEMP to the screen height minus the object height '--- This sets the MAX Y position to stop you from '--- moving the object OFF the screen '--- It also sets the noMove to True temp = system.ScreenHeight-object.Height If newY => temp Then Object.Top = temp nomove = True End If '--- if noMove <> True then go ahead and move the object's top to the newY position. If nomove = False Then Object.Top = newY
STEP 5/6/7: Things keep dragging on and on.
	We now have our 4 screen "areas"; TOP/LEFT/BOT/RIGHT We can now use a SELECT CASE in order to handle the 4 states and an "ELSE". In order to keep the "LOOK" of this widget, we will ROTATE the object to keep the "rail" aimed at the edge of the screen. '--- RIGHT Position process Case "RIGHT" '--- Set the Rotation for the object to 180 (in this case 180 is right) object.Rotation = 180 '--- FORCE the LEFT position to Screenwidth - object.width '--- this makes the object LOCK to the right side of the screen Object.Left =system.ScreenWidth-object.Width '--- Move the inside text to a position to keep it from being '--- off the edge of the object. '--- This would also be used to move things you had inside the widget. desktopx.Object("Test").top = 25 desktopx.Object("Test").left = 22 '--- if the Y (up and down) position is less then 0 '--- it will stop the top at 0 '--- this keeps you from scrolling the object up past the top of the screen. '--- It sets the noMove to True (stops the script from moving the position) If newY <= 0 Then Object.Top = 0 nomove = True End If '--- set TEMP to the screen height minus the object height '--- This sets the MAX Y position to stop you from '--- moving the object OFF the screen '--- It also sets the noMove to True temp = system.ScreenHeight-object.Height If newY => temp Then Object.Top = temp nomove = True End If '--- if noMove <> True then go ahead and move the object's top to the newY position. If nomove = False Then Object.Top = newY '--- TOP Position process Case "TOP" '--- Set the Rotation for the object to 90 (in this case 90 is DOWN) object.Rotation = 90 '--- FORCE the TOP position to 9 (this could change on your widget) '--- the 9 is because its being Rotated and its not a perfect square '--- this makes the object LOCK to the top of the screen object.top = 9 '--- Move the inside text to a position to keep it from being '--- off the edge of the object. '--- This would also be used to move things you had inside the widget. desktopx.Object("Test").top = 20 desktopx.Object("Test").left = 28 '--- if the X (left/right) position is less then 0 '--- it will stop the left at 0 '--- this keeps you from scrolling the object left past the edge of the screen. '--- It sets the noMove to True (stops the script from moving the position) If newX <= 0 Then Object.Left = 0 nomove = True End If '--- set TEMP to the screen width minus the object width '--- This sets the MAX X position to stop you from '--- moving the object OFF the screen '--- It also sets the noMove to True temp = system.ScreenWidth-object.Width If newX => temp Then Object.Left = temp nomove = True End If '--- if noMove <> True then go ahead and move the object's top to the newY position. If nomove = False Then Object.Left = newX '--- BOTTOM Position process Case "BOT" '--- Set the Rotation for the object to -90 (in this case -90 is UP) object.Rotation = -90 '--- FORCE the TOP position to the screen height minus the object height minus 9 (this could change on your widget) '--- the 9 is because its being Rotated and its not a perfect square '--- this makes the object LOCK to the bottom of the screen object.top = system.ScreenHeight-object.Height-9 '--- Move the inside text to a position to keep it from being '--- off the edge of the object. '--- This would also be used to move things you had inside the widget. desktopx.Object("Test").top = 20 desktopx.Object("Test").left = 22 '--- if the X (left/right) position is less then 0 '--- it will stop the left at 0 '--- this keeps you from scrolling the object left past the edge of the screen. '--- It sets the noMove to True (stops the script from moving the position) If newX <= 0 Then Object.Left = 0 nomove = True End If '--- set TEMP to the screen width minus the object width '--- This sets the MAX X position to stop you from '--- moving the object OFF the screen '--- It also sets the noMove to True temp = system.ScreenWidth-object.Width If newX => temp Then Object.Left = temp nomove = True End If '--- if noMove <> True then go ahead and move the object's top to the newY position. If nomove = False Then Object.Left = newX '--- If the cursor is outside of the Top/Left/Bot/Right areas '--- DON'T MOVE IT!! '--- This uses the original top/left that we saved at the beginning of the sub. '--- If you don't use this the object can move all over. Case Else object.Left = OrigL object.Top = OrigT '--- End the CASE Select End Select '--- End the Sub End Sub

This is just PART of what would be needed to be able to move an entire widget around the screen.

You would also want to setup some sort of code to save the position, also you would want to setup something to store the default top/left/right/bot position.

Also, if you have items inside the widget (IE A CLOCK or a CALENDAR or a WEATHER OBJECT) you would have to have code for every object in there to move it around.

Good Luck, and happy DXing,

Enjoy, RomanDA AKA: David A. Roman http://romanda.wincustomize.com http://www.romanda.org DXTutorials@RomanDA.org

It's Friday!  Huzzah!  To celebrate the end of the week, here's a bit of a recap for you as to what's been happening in the world of skinning since Sunday.  This is just a quick run-down of stats, stories and major happenings just in case you missed anything. Submissions Ever wonder how many submissions get added to the library every week?  Here are the numbers for a few of our more popular categories: BootSkins: 18 CursorXP: 8 DesktopX Widgets: 3 Logons: 15 Misc. Icons: 21 ObjectBar: 8 ObjectDock Icons: 20 Rainlendar: 3 SysMetrix: 5 WindowBlinds: 2 WinMedia: 2 News The goal is to get at least three news articles up per week on WinCustomize, but some of them stand-out more than others.  Here are a few of the larger stories posted to the front page this week: Pick of the Week - The first in a new weekly series that asks the moderators to pick their favorite new items from the prior week. WWW Turns 15 - Fifteen years ago this week, Tim Berners-Lee announced to the world his hypertext project, the World Wide Web. WinCustomize Content Announcement - The first details on some of the exciting new content that'll be rolling out to WinCustomize in the coming weeks/months. IBM PC Turns 25 - Another historic birthday in the world of IT this week.  The trusty IBM PC, the granddaddy of what most of you are using right this moment, was released to the world a quarter of a century ago. Other misc news includes the Department of Homeland Security telling you to patch Windows.  DeviantArt launches v5 of their site and Apple gets everyone worked up over their WWDC keynote speech. Next Week So that's what happened this week.  Check back in next week for our first Skinner of the Month, a new contest for WinCustomize, and some news on the return of a large multi-site skinning competition!

Recently, I was called upon to set up my aunt’s new PC. She’s pretty out of it when it comes to anything technical, so you can imagine the pain I felt. Anyway, I was explaining to her that she will need to create an e-mail account, and that the name she chooses, will need to be something unique and creative. This, however, turned into a spectacle all of its own. Finally, I provided an example of a name…mine. This was the best idea I could have come up with in months. I mean, I nearly fell to my knees in hysteria when I heard what she said about my handle.



"KiloKrash, what the hell kinda name is that! You better not be doing any cocaine! You think I’m stupid, but I know these code words you kids use. Kilo means a kilo of coke, Krash means you’re crashing because you overdosed. How could you give me that name as an example, you should be ashamed."



After I collected myself, I explained to her that KiloKrash could be linked to many things. I however, used ‘Kilobyte’ and ‘PC Crash’ to create my handle...no NOT cocaine. Let’s see, add the crash, subtract the byte, replace the C with a K and Voila!



Now to my point of this post…How is it you came about choosing your handle? Is there an interesting story behind it? Please speak, share with the community your reasoning for your decision.



Cheers,



KK

I can’t understand it. Why is Macintosh so disliked by so many? I used to use the Mac a couple of years ago at one of my jobs. The boss liked Macs and only bought Macintosh. As a PC user at the time and having never used the Mac, I didn’t really feel intimidated by it.

It took me a couple of days to get the hang of it and I actually liked it! There was no big deal to it. After having used it for over three years (my time at that position) I actually loved it!

At my next position it was back to PCs again. Once again, it was no problem to get back with the flow of using it.

I came across some comments recently on a blog site and I can’t believe how much the each person either really hated or really loved Macintosh. I mean the things those people wrote, they got personal!

Is it really that serious? Can’t there just be some people who really, really love the Mac and some really, really love the PC? You know what? I blame that commercial that’s on right now. It’s their fault there’s all this ‘be hating’ around now. That or it just picked at a boil that was always under the surface and have opened up a really ripe wound!

These are some of the comments I read on the NY Times. It was an article that wasn’t even so much about PCs or Macs it was a totally different topic. I won’t post the article itself since it had nothing to do with what I’m talking about here, although it (the article) was interesting, that is for another blog at another time.


__________________-

“Mac users always fail to realize how few they are. It is a pain and expensive to create a parallel system for so few people. Don’t believe the product placement in movies, only 6% of our website’s visitors for example come from mac users (almost 3% use lineux for comaprison).
It would be like demanding MTV translate its site into spanish NOW, but at least there are a lot of people who speak Spanish.
You wanted an expensive white computer, and now you have it. Just don’t expect the rest of the world to jump.
Andrew
www.boomchicago.nl
— Posted by Andrew Moskos”





“macs suck
— Posted by Dom”




“Macs have an influential presence online which makes that 4% feels like 75%.
lonelygirl15 sounds like a show already.
— Posted by Ajit”


“# 1: Trying to mock Mac users by pointing out how few of them there are doesn’t work. In fact, that’s the key to Apple’s cult-like appeal. If everyone really started buying Macs, hardcore Mac users would be emotionally devastated. And if there are so few of them, why waste your breath baiting them, anyway?
— Posted by ted”



“Ted,
As a Mac user, I have to admit you’re right. If everyone’s computers ran an operating system as intuitive, beautiful, and straightforward as OS X, I’d be seriously upset at having lost my elite status.
Now if only we can get Microsoft to redesign the iPod, maybe I’ll switch back.
— Posted by Nick vdK”

“Mac users are very influential, much bigger than whatg they represent online. Only a single digit porcentage of people using Macs (4%) does not mean they are not important or influential. As an example, 45% of Wired Magazine users, a magazine read by influential people interested on advances in technology, life and culture, are Mac users (by the way, Jews are 0.5% of the world population but they account for more than 20% of Noble prizes).
— Posted by Max
“Andrew Moskos” is only partly right: Mac users are numerically a minority, but like “Ajit” notes, we have a disproportionate influence on the culture. We cluster into info. and other related media jobs, which control the mental world of all you PC hacks. Kind of like gay people. Oh, yes, I remember, the word is “elites”: few but strong!
— Posted by Tdawwg”



“August 3rd,
2006
4:36 pm
Mac Users may only be 6% on your site, but we are also better educated, make and spend more money and dominate the artistic and media-driven world. Once you go Mac you never go back.
— Posted by Mark Flora”

When I started writing this article, I thought I might be a voice in the wilderness.  Since beta 2, I have been privately telling some of my confidants that Vista's development was not on track for their release schedule. 

By profession I'm a software developer. Specifically a Project Manager.  None of my projects are remotely as large as Windows Vista but it doesn't take someone with that kind of experience to recognize that Windows Vista is not where it needs to be in order to ship in good shape at the end of the year.

My friend Robert McLaws and I have been going over this for months. My argument with beta 2 was straight forward -- Whistler (May 2001) was something you could actually run, Vista beta 2 was not.  In fact, even now, August 2006, running a very recent external build (5472 but not 5484 -or later- because Microsoft's internal ISV program is ridiculous but that's a whole different issue), it's not something I could run as my primary OS. As he writes, he had given Microsoft the benefit of the doubt but it's become clear that Vista is not likely to be solid by the time it's supposed to go gold.  Paul Thurrott is also pondering Vista's ship date he's more ambivalent.

I'm not ambivalent: Vista is not ready. I've been beta testing OSes for going on two decades. I use them as both a developer and user. We helped design the OS/2 Warp 4 desktop with IBM. Windows Vista is not ready. And this is the first OS I've tested since OS/2 2.0 back in 1991 that I felt was not ready for it's proposed release date. I don't say "It's not ready" lightly. And no one is going to accuse me of being some "inexperience kid barely old enough to drink alcohol."

I think Windows Vista not only should be delayed a little, but probably should be delayed a lot. And I say that even though a delay in Vista is going to cost our company a lot of money because we've betted so heavily on Windows Vista coming out 1st quarter 2007.  The fall distributor/retail trade shows are heating up and we have a line of Windows Vista focused products we want to show that we would have to put off if Vista gets delayed.  But even with that, I think Microsoft should push Vista back not just a quarter but possibly all the way back to August 2007. 

The problems that have been reported publicly are problems that mostly affect end-users.  But they go deeper than that. A lot of the underlying plumbing is not ready for prime time. Compatibility is not anywhere near where it should be. And just day to day usage of it is not acceptable.

The Basics

Let's start with the basics -- Windows Vista is a fundamentally sound OS concept. It is a matter of finishing it that is the issue.  Take whatever you think the greatest piece of software in history is and imagine how things might have gone differently had they shipped it two months sooner.

What will happen if they ship Windows Vista if it comes out in 1Q2007? I predict it will be a disaster. Driver compatibility, rough edges in software working, weird and unpolished UI design, etc.  The acronymn UAC will come to haunt Microsoft and they will rue the day they didn't wait just a few more months to get driver compatibility together. Let me outline more below.

Compatibility

Windows Vista is just not reliably compatible with existing software and devices.  This comes in two forms of compatibility.  The first form is where Microsoft needs to make tweaks and changes to get existing software and hardware to run seamlessly. The second involves third-parties making the necessary updates to their software.

That printer utility that you like so much, that cell phone USB connection that lets your laptop get Internet access, the handy transfer applet on your digital camera, the proprietary software that you use to do video, the program you use to get shows from your DVR to your computer, the shareware utility that manages your contacts over your LAN, that fingerprint reader for your new laptop, may all need to be updated.

Many of the changes will need to be done by the third parties. But how can third-parties update this when the underlying infrastructure is still in flux? How can they get updated when the OS itself is only now becoming reliable to use?  Some of these things take time.  We're not talking the week to fix the endless security pop-ups that beta 2 had.  We're talking time to figure out a very new system.

On the flip side, there are things that are endlessly frustrating to developers to see Microsoft screw around making Office 2007 have a fancy (and extremely custom) interface that works fine in Vista while their own skinned applications get broken.  There's a lot of programs out there with custom interfaces that behave very flakey under Vista.  Developers will need Microsoft to either fix that or make sure developers have enough time to update their apps. But things keep changing under the hood so much that just when developers think they have something working, it gets broken again -- and supposedly "release candidate" 1 is due out soon.

Usability

Because so much work has gone towards improving usability in Windows Vista -- a cleaner, more elegant environment, it is not surprising that there are also lots of bugs to work out. And those bugs are still there. 

There's so many major betas coming together that I feel like I'm being taken down by thousands of tiny pinpricks. A weird IE7 issue here, a strange start menu issue there, a bizarre error dialog there.  It's frustrating and it adds to the first issue - if we're wasting hours fighting with the OS to open a file that it thinks I no longer should have access to for some strange reason, then I'm not writing the code I need to write in order to get my stuff to run on Vista because Microsoft broke it. 

Performance

Memory usage and performance has improved greatly in recent builds. Kudos to Microsoft. But it's still no where near where it should be.  There are still tons of processes on boot up that really shouldn't be on in a default boot. One can almost envision some internal Microsoft political power struggle over who gets to have their thingy on at boot and the guys who are winning are not winning because of need but because of internal clout. At least, that how it feels at times.

Then you get to the performance of the system if you're not running Aero (or as we call it, not running the DWM). All the 2D hardware acceleration that has been slowly put into versions of Windows NT since 3.5 has been jettisoned.  In Vista, as it stands, if you're not running with the DWM then you ain't getting nothin. It's going to be slow and painful.

It's like they spent a decade getting 2D performance good and then in Vista they tossed it all out and started from scratch. Now 2D is done in software even though all existing apps use GDI -- and Avalon (WPF) -- is not fully hardware accelerated either. We'll get to that.

Development

This is where things get really ugly.  As a developer, Windows Vista is supposed to deliver.  I'm most worried about Windows Presentation Foundation. The replacement to GDI is mostly not hardware accelerated which means that things run very slowly.

Maybe the video card makers need to update their drivers. I don't know. But I do know that it's incredibly difficult to know what can and can't be done. Disecting Flip3D to what calls it's using seems silly. It's using Milcore anyway. In fact, at this point, developers are just bypassing WPF and going right to Milcore which is not how it's supposed to work.

But not all Dwm calls are hardware accelerated it seems.  Dure, DwmRegisterThumbnail and the like are hardware accelerated because Flip3D makes a good video demo but at this stage, if RC1 is only weeks ago, we should have a list of APIs that are hardware accelerated.

Let me give you an example -- last year Microsoft got rid of WinLogon as we know it. Lots of programs use that to launch themselves.  It's August 2006, there's no replacement. How's that finger print reader going to work? Dunno. How are those programs that need to launch before the shell comes up going to work? Dunno. And like I said, this is just an example.

The thing is, the sand is shifting so much when it shouldn't be at this stage. New builds come out and break new things. Teams at Microsoft are rushing their brains out to get things checked in which means mistakes are going to happen.

Time enough to win

Microsoft wants to please its enterprise customers who are "subscribing" to get Microsoft updates.  But no one is going to be pleased with a Windows Vista that isn't ready to go.  This version of Windows has so much promise. It just needs enough time.

Like Robert McLaws, I think Microsoft should do a beta 3.  I think it should plan on doing it in October.  With enough work and if things really progress well enough, they could get it out by March or April of next year (though I still think August 2007 is a better bet).

We've had Windows XP for 5 years now. Another few months won't make that much of a difference in the bigger scheme of things.  But if the OS comes out and it's a disaster, Microsoft will find OEMs offering users the choice between Vista and XP and a bad reputation could cost Microsoft far more than the few extra months would.

Updates:
Robert Mclaws has informed me of a blog that outlines the replacement to Gina (the winlogon stuff). SO okay, Microsoft has finally recently gotten around to documenting a replacement to Winlogon...on..a...blog. See here.

For over 11 years, Object Desktop has been delivering future technologies to users long before they show up for the mainstream. If you want to know what's going to be in the OS someday, get Object Desktop.

Going back to 1994/1995, the earliest days of Object Desktop for IBM's OS/2 gives hints on things to come to the mainstream years later.

Take a look at these screenshots:

Look at Object Navigator. Designed before there was a Windows Explorer (anyone remember File Manager?) it boasted things that people today take for granted.  Look at the ZIP files -- they're folders and are treated like any other folders and were totally seamless to the user.  Again, remember the time frame 1994/1995.

The icon labels are easy to ignore but this was one of the many innovations that users often miss or taken for granted.  Similarly, Windows Vista will have a "sidebar" with "gadgets" on it.  Apple users argue that the Sidebar is taking from them. One can pull up a screenshot of System 7 (the version of the Mac OS from the same period) and try to find something as similar as Control Center which allowed users to plug in their own functionality. 

Not that Microsoft borrowed from Control Center. Stardock always considered it an obvious feature.

One feature we haven't been able to do on Windows -- yet that we did on OS/2 was Object Package. Object Package allowed a user to package a program or an entire desktop and take it to another machine with all the necessary classes and "registry" settings automatically applied.

It took awhile for Keyboard LaunchPad to make it to Windows but it did. This is another example of how seamless the ZIP handling was and how flexible Control Center could be.

Over the years many features first seen in Object Desktop found their way into the OS.  .ZIP integration, GUI Skinning, even a "Control Center" like bar.  And each new OS provides Stardock with new opportunities and new technologies to help create the next version of Object Desktop such as Object Desktop 2007:

...10 years later...

Now you have total control over the icon size on the desktop, can create your own labels, the right-click desktop menu can now be configured, minimized windows can be turned into interactive-tiles on the desktop, users can create their own gadgets and widgets, virtual desktops are faster, more powerful and able to be seamlessly integrated into the Start bar on Windows. The UI is easier to skin and can look a lot better. And by moving to Windows, with its much larger market, Stardock was able to lower the price from $89.95 to $49.95.

Users can build their own desktops from scratch, disposing entirely of what comes with Windows if they so choose.

Updates don't come yearly. Instead, they come in real-time. Users can continually download new updates to the different programs as Stardock makes them.

And even as the visuals improve, so too does the utility. Object Desktop is more than a pretty face, it provides the tools and enhancements to Windows needed so that users can make Windows work the way they want to.

And even as cutting-edge as this all looks today, someday, some of these features may seem like old hat as new features and programs that haven't even been imagined are developed.

If one looks at programs from 1994/1995 in other software arenas, they can compare how much has changed and how much has stayed the same.  Object Desktop continues to evolve and influence the market in ways far greater than its developer size would normally imply.

 

No, not the machines.  I still think they are over priced.  But their service.  We made another 2 trips out there yesterday (to the Apple Store).  But now I know how to make a reservation before going.

The first trip (and the second) was for my Son's iPod.  For some reason it wiped all his songs and then would not let him re-add them.  So we took it in and I let him do all the talking.  And the tech wiped it (the songs are still on the computer) and we went home.  And all seemed to be well.  But at about the same point of adding songs as before, it wiped them again! 

Ok, so I dont know iPods.  but I do know computers.  And this is a problem with the computer, not the software.  But what?  Like I know?  So we went out again.  And again I let my son do the talking (he will make a good tech one day as he had the exact error message written down).  So the (new one this time) clerk says "What is the problem?".  My son starts to explain and then he starts to say "Ok, we will reformat the iPod and....." and I cut him off with a wave of my hand and pointed to my son.  Who then went on to give him the Paul Harvey version - i.e. the rest of the story (as in it did it twice).

Zip, bing, and 10 minutes later, we walked out with a new unit.  No ifs ands or complaints!  Now that impressed me!  So far (and this is 24 hours later), all seems to be well with his iPod.  And I am impressed with their expertise and (somewhat) with their service.  As long as you have a reservation, you can get excellant service and competant service.

Now that I know how to do that on line, it is not so bad.  And the help cant be beat.

On a side note, not related to my travails, I did see them help a Mac customer.  When the "Genius" (that is what they are called, it is not a snide remark) could not help her as it was a problem with 3rd party software, they found another "Genius" that had experience with that package.  It was obvious the user was clueless (and probably a PEBKAC error) but they never were condescending or nasty.  Always professional.

I may not be buying a Mac soon (I figure in about a year), I am buying stock.  I am impressed!

I've been here a while and have ran into the same problem a couple of times on the forums...how can you tell when someone is funnin' and when someone is actually being serious? How does one relay sarcasm in a text only format?
I believe I have found an answer and want all of you folks to know that 98.7% of my posts will, from this point forward, contain the following picture



If you run into a forum post of mine that does not contain this picture after the date of this post, then you can acertain that I want you to take all the verbage contained in the post seriously...however, if the picture is present in the post, then know that any and every word of the post can be disregarded as a feeble attempt at humor or sarcasm. I am happy to provide this service and if you wish, you may borrow my picture for use in your own posts at anytime. Now, there we go, problem solved and all is right in the world again...carry on Skinning people!