BLOG: Dashboard vs. Konfabulator, Gaming, ObjectDock Plus and more!
Thursday, July 1, 2004 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
I'm back from vacation. It was great to go to the gulf of Mexico with the wife and kids. We had a blast. Coming home was a bit of a pain due to weather and my summer cold came back to haunt me. My right ear is totally plugged up. Lots of crazy stuff happened last week. Apple announced MacOS 10.4 code-named "Tiger" with a feature called Dashboard. Dashboard is similar to DesktopX (which, btw, predates Konfabulator) but it is really a knock-off of a Mac program called Konfabulator. Not that the Apple-does-no-wrong zealots will admit to it. In their mind, Konfabulator is just a derivative of Apple's long defunct desktop accessories or even Active Desktop on Windows. Whatever. In the Apple zealots world, only Apple innovates. Next time Apple users bitch that Windows users are "stealing" some idea, remind them of Dashboard.
Also last week Microsoft made a new visual style for Windows XP Media Center edition called Royale. We updated SkinStudio 4.3 yesterday so that it can convert this visual style seamlessly to WindowBlinds format. I don't know why anyone would run it, it looks hideous in my opinion. It's basically a gradiated version of Luna. Meanwhile, with the GUI Olympics now complete and the prize patrol about to begin, the visual styles, skins, and icon packages are being migrated over to WinCustomize.com. Go here to get the WindowBlinds skins.
With the GUI Olympics skins added in, the WindowBlinds library at WinCustomize.com has grown to 2,990. It'll probably hit 3,000 within the week which is quite a milestone. Many good WindowBlinds skins are also at deviantART.
Meanwhile, work continues forward on ObjectDock Plus. We're running an internal beta of it. It has a lot of really cool features such as tabs, system tray support, really good auto hiding, plugins, etc. What I think makes it stand out is the usability features. Pity those won't show up in a screenshot. Regular ObjectDock remains (and will continue to remain) free. ObjectDock Plus will be like CursorXP in that it isn't part of Object Desktop but will be a stand alone program.
Getting back to DesktopX for a minute, version 2.2 is nearly done. DesktopX 2.2 is going to lose a feature though IconX. We've determined that one of the coolest features of DesktopX should really be its own program. So IconX will become its own program (part of Object Desktop still). Current DesktopX registered users will get a free license of IconX of course.
On the games side, Galactic Civilizations: Altarian Prophecy (the expansion pack to GalCiv) is doing really well. Stardock has also signed a bunch of games to go onto Drengin.net which will soon be rechristened. Will have more on that soon. The games side of things is really going to get interesting in the next few months as the technology back end for Object Desktop and WinCustomize gets applied to games. I don't know how many of you are gamers but for me, I get frustrated when a game isn't available at the store. After a few months, most games disappear from the shelves and many good titles never see the light of day on the shelves. That's where we're going with electronic distribution. We want to make it so that people can just press a button and download the game. And from then on be able to redownload as many times as needed. No DRM, no copy protection nonsense, no wrappers. Stardock Central 2 would handle the "activation" once and off you go. For me, that's the key, I lose CDs and I don't want to have to back up huge games to DVDs or something. I want to know that if I buy a game that 3 years from now if I format my drive and I lose the game that I can download Stardock Central and get all my games back in a few clicks. I don't know how many copies of Total Annihilation I have but I've bought several over the years because I've damaged CDs, lost them, misplaced serial #s, etc. That's something Drengin.net will address and I think will open the door for mainstreaming electronic distribution (just a note: there are places that will let you purchase and download a game but they come in wrappers and once you have it, it's yours, I'm pretty sure if you lose it you're up the creek, there's no sort of account management). The big thing about Drengin.net isn't just that you can purchase games one by one but rather that you can pay a fixed price and get everything. So for $100 you would get a dozen, two dozen, whatever games.
Well that's all for now! More soon.
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Reply #2 Thursday, July 1, 2004 7:08 PM
Reply #3 Thursday, July 1, 2004 8:07 PM
uM... yeah, whatever. I will leave it at that.. but prepare yourself for a bashing from the masses Mr. McWilliams..
Reply #4 Thursday, July 1, 2004 8:27 PM
I don't think this is really up for debate, I think Frogboy just wanted to "bitch" (as he so gingerly put it) about Mac users.
In other news, Longhorn comes out in 2000-forever, so look forward to a "UNIQUE" cross between Konfab and Dashboard...they'll probably call it Windshield or something.
Reply #6 Thursday, July 1, 2004 9:17 PM
Macrobyte: DesktopX precedes Konfabulator by over TWO YEARS. But way to make my point for me about Mac zealots always retroactively claiming to have "innovated" things.
Barry: WindowBlinds is a program, not a skin. By definition it can't look nice or ugly. Royale runs fine on WindowBlinds (and I can even colorize it when running it via WindowBlinds) but I still think it's ugly.
ObjectDock Plus: $19.95 with a probable discount for Object Desktop users.
BootSkin Plus: It will probably show up as an experimental item on Object Desktop but it'll never be completed. There are simply configurations that it won't work on since it relies on various hardware support that changes from video card to video card (i.e. it relies on VESA being implemented in a specific way which some video cards don't implement the same way).
Reply #7 Thursday, July 1, 2004 10:29 PM
Reply #8 Thursday, July 1, 2004 11:31 PM
Reply #9 Friday, July 2, 2004 4:48 AM
Long live you and the other masterminds behind your work. I've been an Object Desktop subscriber for 1 and 1/2 years and my only regret was that I didn't purchase the subscription earlier. I see the Visual Styles at DeviantArt and then check out the Windowblinds skins both here and there. IMO, there is no question that Windowblinds rules the market (in a general sense of course there is some very nice Visual styles that are around if you look for them). Beyond that, your continued innovation with DesktopX always seems to be ahead of the game. Keep up the great work.
That being said, I enjoy your personal opinions about Mac and always enjoy even more your fact-filled defenses when ignorant comments are made to try and discredit your frustrations.
And like Nomad529, you have a great idea going to separate IconX from DesktopX Sometimes, I just don't want to run a DesktopX theme but still want IconX running. Good move. Can't wait for the results!
One question (and forgive me, for I now reveal my weaknesses) but is there a tutorial on how to use SkinStudio to convert a Visual Style, that I find and actually like, to a Windowblinds skin?
Thanks, and onward we go!
Reply #10 Friday, July 2, 2004 7:36 AM
that saves me typeing up all that hehe.
When can we roughly expect a beta of obejctdock plus for testing?
Reply #12 Friday, July 2, 2004 9:31 AM
I'd also like to know when we will be able to try out ObjectDock Plus.
Reply #13 Friday, July 2, 2004 9:38 AM
Reply #14 Friday, July 2, 2004 10:16 AM
Should be free in my opinion.
Reply #15 Friday, July 2, 2004 11:17 AM
Reply #16 Friday, July 2, 2004 12:08 PM
Reply #18 Friday, July 2, 2004 1:01 PM
When I will be able to put a Matrix wire in my brain and master programing I will do it
Reply #19 Friday, July 2, 2004 3:55 PM
)I would, however, like to know what is teh matrix that decides what's part of Object Desktop and what's not. Does my subscription get me a year's worth of upgrades of the OD apps when I purchased it, or do I get new Stardock apps too?
Reply #20 Friday, July 2, 2004 4:10 PM
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Reply #1 Thursday, July 1, 2004 6:03 PM