A new golden age for skinning?

Published on August 20, 2002 By Frogboy In WinCustomize News

I've been into customizing my computer since Windows 3.0. Back then I was hacking my video drivers to change the buttons on the title bar.

It would not be an idle boast to say that when it comes to skinning, I've been there from the start. And with that in mind, I really think we're entering into a new golden age for skinning.

For those of you who haven't been looking through what's been getting created this summer, check out some of the top authors.

Carlitus in particular represents everything that is good about our community. First, his immense talent in creating DesktopX objects and icons that go beyond virtually anything ever seen anywhere is just incredible. Secondly, he's helpful. He doesn't just share his hard work with the world, asking for nothing in return, he also helps other users. He's an active participant in message boards and raises awareness on issues that affect other skinners and users. Thirdly, he demonstrates the international appeal of skinning. He's in Spain.

To many young people, the International nature of the Intenret is something we take for granted. But 20 years ago, the idea that people from countries like Spain, UK, Germany, Italy, Russia, Poland, Brazil, etc. would all be working together to create things to share with the world would have been unthinkable.

Pixtudio, for instance, is a collaboration of a skin author from Brazil and another one in Canada along with help from other skinners from around the world.

The program SkinStudio, while designed largely in the United States, is developed almost entirely in Poland. 20 years ago, Poland was part of the "East bloc" of communist countries. Now people from there and many other places that were once off limits are part of a global community that cooperates so seamlessly that when we talk about things on these very websites we take it for granted that the people we're talking to are from all over the place.

But it's the quality combined with quantity combined with variety of things that really convinces me that we're in a new golden age. Top skinners like Mormegil, DavidK, Alexandrie, Treetog, Mercury, Aleksyndr, who have been around for a long while are still creating immensely excellent things. And newer people like the aforementioned Carlitus, JamesT, starone, Adni, APB, Kalatuu, MikeB, C242, and many others. And these are just from glancing at the top authors lists for today (which tends to change from day tod ay).

The current poll seems to indicate that most people into customization are running Windows XP or Windows 2000 which are much more suited to customization than previous versions of Windows. Which is why I think that the golden age is taking place now - Windows XP installations are reaching critical mass right at a time when the software for customization is finally getting to be more useful.

Some users on our support forums have been noting that after years of being "screenshotware" that the newer versions of DesktopX and ObjectBar are finally moving into something that they feel comfortable using all the time without downsides. WindowBlinds reached that point awhile ago and the explosion in new skins and new users shows that (you should see what we have coming in upcoming WB3.x and WB4, we'll look back at today's version of WB as "crap" in comparison

).

The skin sites have continued to increase in popularity. WinCustomize is ranked in the top 5,000 websites world wide and our friends at deviantART are roughly equally as popular. The other skin sites are also gaining in popularity for the most part demonstrating that overall, skinning is becoming an increasily popular phenomenon.

So my friends, it seems to me that we're entering into a new golden age for skinning. What do you think?

Comments (Page 1)

mormegil

on Aug 20, 2002

It is nice to here someone not expounding about the good old days. I see skinning and customization growing and I am glad I am not the only one.

Attila

on Aug 20, 2002

Interesting article.

"The skin sites have continued to increase in popularity. WinCustomize is ranked in the top 5,000 websites world wide and our friends at deviantART are roughly equally as popular."

Just curious as to where I can find these stats.

gorman

on Aug 20, 2002

Alexa.com, although I've never put much faith into their rankings. You can see my doubt just by looking at the top 500 list, clearly some of the sites listed there aren't as popular as those ranked lower. A good example would be Sonique vs. Winamp. While it's fairly common knowledge the Winamp site gets more traffic than Sonique's, Alexa seems to think otherwise. Nothing against Sonique of course, but I know for a fact Winamp gets more traffic to their site. That said, it is fun to type in various sites to see the results, just don't put too much faith in the numbers.

A more accurate way, yet more generalized, is Google's page ranking. If you have the Google toolbar it'll show you the ranking for every site, just like it does within their search results.

In the end there, there's no real way to have 100% accurate numbers, but both of these sites offer some insight.

bakerstreet

on Aug 21, 2002

This is a great time for skinning, but the boom we are seeing is Lycos, AOL, MS and the other corporate elements online bringing out their newest flagship skinnables, generating interest. The usual modus operandi is not advancing the amount of 'choice' for the consumer, but dictating all the possible choices, and using marketing and legal strategies to steer us to a win-win situation for them. If MS, AOL, or one of the other oft-litigious entites try and stake out proprietary areas of UI customization, the people squeezed out will be the originators, as has been seen in *every* commercialized artform... movies, tv, music, theater, you name it.

I have been watching the whole RIAA, MPAA, Tradmark/Copyright/Patent monstrosity closely, because I fear it will come knocking at our own doors soon. If MS decides that they want its skinning system will be the preferred one (like they do with every other technology they 'borrow') they will surely make it as proprietary as possible and then use all legal means to snuff the competition. Will Windowblinds be accused of being a hacking, or a code-subversive (call-intercepting) program if it seems to be a better alternative to windows styles?

The competition need not be from us, either. If corporate developers duke it out over formats, the scurry for patents could hamper development of new apps by amateurs for ages to come. This is one area where no one has pulled a serious patent stunt yet, and I expect it. It would be no more idiotic to claim you own a patent on skinning than it has been to claim a patent on links, jpegs, and the multitude of other extortion attempts we have seen of late. They don't work in the long run, but they are darn good as a 'daisy-cutter', clearing out all the small interests and leaving only the formidably-funded, well-represented corporate megaliths.

I hope that this whole thing kind of blows over personally. I feel that either interest will wax and wane, or the boom will stay and bad things will happen. Even if there is room for everyone, MS and the rest will do their best to crowd out as many alternatives as possible. I want to see new and better apps from individuals and small businesses in the future. I have my fingers crossed.

Frogboy

on Aug 21, 2002

I don't think you can use Alexa as a way to get an exact ranking. But I'd say it's a reasonable way to gauge a given site's overall popularity.

Regarding Sonique, remember, Alexa works by DOMAIN. Sonique is off the Lycos domain so it tells us nothing about Sonique's popularity, only that Lycos is around the 25th most popular site on the net. By contrast, Winamp.com has its own domain. So with it you can seee that dA and WC are both extremely popular. In fact, all the skin sites are very popular (anything in the top 100,000 is considered to have a significant level of traffic).

Frogboy

on Aug 21, 2002

It's hard to say how things will go. So far, MS has been very helpful and supportive. Our most significant corporate opportunities so far came to us because MICROSOFT referred them to us. (i.e. companies that wanted to skin their computers and such).

I think as long as Linux and MacOS remain potential threats, we're fairly safe from being smothered. Small companies giving users the ability to personalize their computers -- their Windows PC's is important to them I think.

joetheblow

on Aug 21, 2002

I am sure if it becomes super popular and stable, MS and other will want to patent there designs or ways of skinning on there programs. Basically not allowing other programs to skin it or getting lawyers to sue companies for skinning there products.

While I do believe it will become popular, I do not believe it will become a market that is so big that MS and other will use there power to overrun. I think it will become a large niche market run buy small businesses and large media outlets for advertising and entertainent.

Eventually companies will want there "brand" on display or on thier network computers. Customizing will, IMHO, become a standard mode in the future mostly becuase of the ability of the user to be more productive at work.

I personally like it because it is fun and the features help me with work (like always on top and folding the window into a smaller space) with coding, controling the space on my desktop, and veiwing things while I am working on another screen.

I see the large potential of this customization and I am sure there will be a few business's that will pop up out of this for custome designs for individuals and companies looking for a style for theme (but do not have the time to make it for themselves). I am also sure that there will be companies who will want to control it as well.

craeonics

on Aug 21, 2002

If this were a golden age, I would see more and more new ideas. I don't see any new ideas, so therefore this is not a golden age.

Quantity != quality, you know.

(by the way, the middle bit of your article has nothing to do with skinning in a specific time frame, but only goes on about the virtues of the Net. If you were Ken and this were Tek, I'd send this back for a rewrite (which Ken would promptly ignore anyway))

Frogboy

on Aug 21, 2002

. This ain't tek though.

I think you have a case of nostalgia there. The quality of the skins of 1999-2000 can't remotely compare to the quality of today.

If you don't see the innovation and new things going on, then my answer to that is that you're probably not trying out new software very much.

Let me just give you a handful of NEW things in August 2002 just from us:

1) WindowFX 2 beta is nearly here with skinnable shadows.

2) Said beta has a fully scriptable way of handling state transitions. That is, when I minimize/max a window, I can have any type of animation I want to creat emade.

3) ObjectBar 1.3 allows users to have hot keys for any bar or item. So if I want to have Ctrl-Alt-K bring up my MP3 player and Ctrl-Alt-V bring up Visual Studio and Ctrl-Alt-N bring up display properties I can do that.

4) ObjectBar 1.3 now lets you put in ActiveX controls right into bars! So I could embed a spreadsheet object or a media player movie window or whatever right into my bar.

5) The WinCustomize skin browser will be out shortly (v1.0) allowing people to apply skins and themes and icons and etc. right from the database directly. No having to download the thing and figure out how to install the skin and then go to th eprogrma and apply it.

6) WindowFX 2 beta now allows you to put LIGHT SOURCES of ANY COLOR anywhere on your screen and it will change the color of the border of your window based on the position and distance of that window to the light source.

These are just a few things off the top of my head since I worked with them this afternoon.

Plus there are other things in development such as the MCP which will provide an open standard for skin software developers to use it rather than create system hooks so that instead of your half dozen customizeable apps using their own system hooks (which can slow down the system to a degree) only one is used.

We're also working on a way to allow developers to access Direct3D APIS right from the 2D desktop so that all sorts of different effects can be used.

I am not at liberty to mention all the cool things going into WindowBlinds 4.0 for next year except to say that it's going to be incredibly cool.

WB 3.4 came out at the tail end of last month so you can see what was new there at: http://www.windowblinds.net/wb3/wb34.html

So these are just some things that have occurred in just the past month that are off the top of my head. If I did some digging I could make a much bigger list.

So if there was time past golden age that you feel compares, feel free to bring it up and provide a comparison. I see lots of new ideas and more than just new ideas, the realistic execution of them.

Dragger201

on Aug 22, 2002

If you don't see the innovation and new things going on,

When the subject came up on another site, much the same comment was made about how "skinning has hit it's peak".....
Hardly a day goes by that I am not astounded by something new......
As for Micrripoff, they always are "so helpful" in the beginning of any new "trend".....until they get a handle on it, then they will screw anyone and everyone in an effort to lock it up. Just ask any company that has ever tried doing "partnershp" developments with them.....

craeonics

on Aug 22, 2002

While it might be greatand exciting steps from a technological point of view, the impact is far negligeable compared to, for instance, the first windowskinner, of VDE/early DesktopX and such.

That's the real innovation, all the rest is merely polishing it.

"1) WindowFX 2 beta is nearly here with skinnable shadows."

A logical step. Not very groundbreaking. Cooler would be if WindowBlinds would have alpha support, so you could stick your shadows in those skins and have even more goodness.

"2) Said beta has a fully scriptable way of handling state transitions. That is, when I minimize/max a window, I can have any type of animation I want to creat emade."

Good, very good, though a small step into the vaste range of possibilities scripting has.

"3) ObjectBar 1.3 allows users to have hot keys for any bar or item. So if I want to have Ctrl-Alt-K bring up my MP3 player and Ctrl-Alt-V bring up Visual Studio and Ctrl-Alt-N bring up display properties I can do that."

Good, but there are dozens of apps out there that can do that.

"4) ObjectBar 1.3 now lets you put in ActiveX controls right into bars! So I could embed a spreadsheet object or a media player movie window or whatever right into my bar."

A bit like that app (whose name I've forgotten). Again a cool addition, but not original.

"5) The WinCustomize skin browser will be out shortly (v1.0) allowing people to apply skins and themes and icons and etc. right from the database directly. No having to download the thing and figure out how to install the skin and then go to th eprogrma and apply it."

Yay, but that has never troubled me. Yeah yeah, ego-reasoning. Might be good for Joe "average user" Blow.

"6) WindowFX 2 beta now allows you to put LIGHT SOURCES of ANY COLOR anywhere on your screen and it will change the color of the border of your window based on the position and distance of that window to the light source."

...which is something WindowBlinds could do a long long time ago.

True, I tend not to take too much notice of developments anymore these days. But that's only because so much is 'been there, done that'. I don't see much material that makes me enthousiastic these days.

Frogboy

on Aug 22, 2002

1) WindowBlinds can include skinned shadows to be used.

3) In 1999 what were these apps?

4) Quite original. Comparing bandit to ObjectBar is very unfair. Bandit is a great program but it just subclasses a program into the Start bar. It can't do ActiveX controls. You couldn't, for instance, embed an MSN chat window. Plus, there was nothing like this in 1999-2000 (even Band it is new).

6) WindowBlinds couldn't do this beyond a really simple test mode that didn't really work.

You asserted we're not in a golden age because things in teh past were much more original and new. But this past doesn't seem to have ever existed that can compare to today in terms of the amount and rate of innovation.

I'd be interested to know what you *specifically* consider to have been innovative from the 1999-2000 period in the skinning world.

I would argue that it's mainly a matter of percpetion, that back then, the whole customization thing was brand new to you and hence going from nothing to something is a bigger change to you than going from something to even more something.

Mukul Varma

on Aug 23, 2002

I believe its high time we stopped flaming Microsoft for what is quite natural in a competetive market. One should not forget that had it not been for Gates, none of the million of users would be skinning their dekstops. Its a shame that while Microsoft brought PC into the common man's living room, so called geeks cried for Open Source. Everything comes with a price tag. Agreed, MS asks us to pay for everything that has an MS logo, but then how many of us use licensed software of WindowsXP, OfficeXP, Photoshop, 3DMax etc. When you are not purchasing it why cry about the high price in the first place?
Come on guys, give me something like Visual Basic or MS Word. They'll surely let us enjoy free skins as long as it secures and strengthens Windows as the numero uno OS. Be real. The same people who crucify Windows as unstable and slow go back to their room and boot their PC in Windows. Either they should switch to antique-looking Linux, or should write thier own OS in PERL or C or whatever, or should rather sensibly try and learn form others to tweak Windows to suit them. If Sun thinks JAVA is great they should probably come out with thier own OS. I wonder why MS is kicked and cursed while Mac too is proprietary stuff? I guess you guys would be forced to think of me as a Microsoft employee or so, but friends, even I use a pirated copy of WindowsXP. But I'm sensible enough to think either ways. They are not that bad either.
I'd rather rest my fingers here.

God Bless You All,

(Love to all those who keep this site up and running without charging poor guys like me who can't even afford to suscribe to a- dollar-a-month subscription of playboy!)

[email protected]

Frogboy

on Aug 23, 2002

Were you in a cave during the anti-trust hearings? Microsoft achieved a monopoly in the OS markets through illegal business practices.

They didn't become #1 by making the best products and services or by offering them at the best prices. They leveraged a monopoly handed to them by IBM into near complete domination of the software industry.

Tell me, who is the #2 software developer on Windows these days?

In a healthy market, there are many competitors in there (cars, TVs, phones, etc.). In the desktop software world, Microsoft owns it.

OBVIOUSLY this is good for Microsoft. Is it good for consumers?

Carlitus

on Aug 23, 2002

sorry for interrupt this discussion. Thanks to Frogboy to mention me and other new skinners. It's no time to say which are the best new-skinners, but i appreciate this kind of articles.
But.... wath do you are debating? the innovation of skinning programs, the service of Wincustomize and other skin sites, the quality and innovation of us the 'new skinners'?
-I not agree some Object Desktop programs, but it's true that this lot of programs are innovated more than others (i'm skinning by one year, but using skin programs more time ago).
-About Wincustomize..... i not agree some aspects of this site, but i paid recently for their services. I'm using their bandwith with my icons/objects, and i received some offers thanks to Wincustomize visitors. And i will support THEM, because i don't wish to see another Skinz.org loss.
-About our quality i will not judge this, but there's some great masters (such Mormegil), great professionals (as Adni and APB), people that expends all of their free time (as JamesT). There's also a lot of excellent wallpapers here. I'm happy only when i see these works, and i'm also happy when my icons/objects are looked. I never thought -when i was downloading lots of skins in skinz.org-, that i can be part of this movement.
My personal thanks to the more experimented people as Frogboy, Alexandrie, Dangeruss, Treetog, that are supporting me and all of the new skinners, and to the users that are commenting all about skinning.

About innovation, i listened by people on my job (graphic design): 'you can't never innovate, all things are invented before' mmmm i will comment this quote the next year, when my (and your) desktop will be very different as now!!!!!

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