Is DesktopX really that usefull?
Friday, February 6, 2004 by GoatRider | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
OK, I know I’m at risk being labelled as a troll for this post. But I really have to ask this:
What the h*ll are people doing with DesktopX??? Apart from making useless little fish, weather objects and framed pictures that is….
I know I’m missing out on something, but what???
That said, I’m a huge fan of the Stardock products (renewed my OD subscription for the 3th time now). I’m an avid user of WB and I simply LOVE Object Bar! Object Bar alone is worth the subscription money IMHO. The only thing I can’t understand is the apparent popularity of DesktopX. so please, enlighten me...
Anyways, Keep up the good work!
What the h*ll are people doing with DesktopX??? Apart from making useless little fish, weather objects and framed pictures that is….
I know I’m missing out on something, but what???
That said, I’m a huge fan of the Stardock products (renewed my OD subscription for the 3th time now). I’m an avid user of WB and I simply LOVE Object Bar! Object Bar alone is worth the subscription money IMHO. The only thing I can’t understand is the apparent popularity of DesktopX. so please, enlighten me...
Anyways, Keep up the good work!
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bakerstreet
Reply #22 Saturday, February 7, 2004 5:06 AM
Reply #22 Saturday, February 7, 2004 5:06 AM
Shameless:
I started with Talisman, then Fathom bet me in #skinnerz I couldn't do a Litestep theme and if I did he'd stoop to skinning ICQPlus. I made a (now ancient) theme called 221b, but the icqplus skin musta slipped his mind... that was like mid '99. When LS tanked temporarily I went back to Talisman.
Glad you see the potential. Arkadiy Istomin over at Lighttek has been promoting the use of replacement shells for business workstations and kiosks for ages. Nice guy, too.
There's a bunch of shell replacements, and lots of takes on how desktops should look/work. You oughtta look around at some of the alternatives to DesktopX, might give ya some ideas.
I started with Talisman, then Fathom bet me in #skinnerz I couldn't do a Litestep theme and if I did he'd stoop to skinning ICQPlus. I made a (now ancient) theme called 221b, but the icqplus skin musta slipped his mind... that was like mid '99. When LS tanked temporarily I went back to Talisman.
Glad you see the potential. Arkadiy Istomin over at Lighttek has been promoting the use of replacement shells for business workstations and kiosks for ages. Nice guy, too.
There's a bunch of shell replacements, and lots of takes on how desktops should look/work. You oughtta look around at some of the alternatives to DesktopX, might give ya some ideas.
bakerstreet
Reply #23 Saturday, February 7, 2004 5:38 AM
Reply #23 Saturday, February 7, 2004 5:38 AM
P.S. I wasn't in any way suggesting switching products, btw. I am breaking in DesktopX myself at the moment. I just meant that there is a large body of extant work in desktop/shell replacement, going way back. By looking over different flavor themes you might see some options you hadn't considered for DesktopX.
(Whew, did I dodge the bullet? Frogboy must think I am Lighttek's love child with all the Talisman yap he has tolerated over the years...
)
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(Whew, did I dodge the bullet? Frogboy must think I am Lighttek's love child with all the Talisman yap he has tolerated over the years...
)[Message Edited]
Koasati
Reply #24 Saturday, February 7, 2004 12:42 PM
Reply #24 Saturday, February 7, 2004 12:42 PM
| #8 by Frogboy - 2/6/2004 9:26:49 AM I think DesktopX 2.1 will radically change people's perceptions. Particularly in the area of widgets. Widgets are basically DesktopX dependent programs. You can run them without DesktopX running (i.e. it uses DX's DLLs and such), just installed on your system somewhere. |
Koasati is wondering where to find these Widgets, or any info about this new feature. 
HG_Eliminator
Reply #25 Saturday, February 7, 2004 12:47 PM
Reply #25 Saturday, February 7, 2004 12:47 PM
clik library and look through. look for "widgets for skin studio" there ...
HG_Eliminator
Reply #27 Saturday, February 7, 2004 1:03 PM
Reply #27 Saturday, February 7, 2004 1:03 PM
hmm.....ohh fine just shoot my theory ta heck 
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[Message Edited]
dabe
Reply #28 Saturday, February 7, 2004 1:06 PM
Reply #28 Saturday, February 7, 2004 1:06 PM
The only "object" I generally use is DX Weather. The rest is just eye candy, though I have to admit, they're fun to look at. What I DO love about DX are the desktop themes. Most notably, and usable for me are gef's themes and Phoon's themes. Gef's are generally more usable for me, because the menu stays put in the sidebar, whereas Phoon's pop up elsewhere on the window.
With those themes configured for the programs I use most frequently, I almost never have to go searching through the windoze program menu, which is, in my opinion a pain in the a**. However, just to keep things easily accessible, I configure the theme to show the object bar, then configure the bar to "hide" when not in use.
One thing for sure, DX was really confusing and troublesome at first. I can't tell you how many times I've had to reboot my computer, until I figured out that I didn't need to do that. Essentially, learning all the Wincustomize stuff has also taught me so much about configuring computers, in general. And that, in and of itself, is excellent. How many times have you had to show someone at work or in your family how to access stuff, because in general, MS Windows has so many hidden and imbedded stuff, that most users just never, ever know about it? Every day, I learn something new, and I ain't no geek. But, I suppose geekiness is a relative thing.
With those themes configured for the programs I use most frequently, I almost never have to go searching through the windoze program menu, which is, in my opinion a pain in the a**. However, just to keep things easily accessible, I configure the theme to show the object bar, then configure the bar to "hide" when not in use.
One thing for sure, DX was really confusing and troublesome at first. I can't tell you how many times I've had to reboot my computer, until I figured out that I didn't need to do that. Essentially, learning all the Wincustomize stuff has also taught me so much about configuring computers, in general. And that, in and of itself, is excellent. How many times have you had to show someone at work or in your family how to access stuff, because in general, MS Windows has so many hidden and imbedded stuff, that most users just never, ever know about it? Every day, I learn something new, and I ain't no geek. But, I suppose geekiness is a relative thing.
Stockholm Syndrome
Reply #29 Saturday, February 7, 2004 9:23 PM
If you downloaded the latest build of DesktopX it's there.
Right click on an object and select "export" and you'll see the new feature.
Reply #29 Saturday, February 7, 2004 9:23 PM
| Koasati is wondering where to find these Widgets, or any info about this new feature. |
If you downloaded the latest build of DesktopX it's there.
Right click on an object and select "export" and you'll see the new feature.
Koasati
Reply #30 Saturday, February 7, 2004 10:40 PM
Reply #30 Saturday, February 7, 2004 10:40 PM
Thanx stockholm syndrome! I couldn't find any info in the readme's, history (there are references to it, but no "how-to"), or newgroups. I doubt I would have ever found it alone. I had no reason to 'export' anything. Koasati is going to enjoy this new feature.
I couldn't find any info in the readme's, history (there are references to it, but no "how-to"), or newgroups. I doubt I would have ever found it alone. I had no reason to 'export' anything. Koasati is going to enjoy this new feature.
Frogboy
Reply #31 Sunday, February 8, 2004 12:39 PM
Reply #31 Sunday, February 8, 2004 12:39 PM
DesktopX 2.1 hasn't been officially announced yet.
Frogboy
Reply #32 Sunday, February 8, 2004 3:58 PM
Reply #32 Sunday, February 8, 2004 3:58 PM
The reason I'm not bullish on themes is that so many of them are so poorly done. It's frustrating to see people uploading themes with tons of things hard-coded to their computers.
I was doing a demo today and loaded a theme where the author hard coded something to the D drive and I got an endless error message. That sort of thing is a real turn off to new users. Object and Widgets are much more system independent in general.
I agree that themes have more potential but they are also much harder to make system independent.
Stockholm Syndrome
Reply #33 Sunday, February 8, 2004 4:14 PM
oh! er...
Should I take down my screenshot?
Reply #33 Sunday, February 8, 2004 4:14 PM
| DesktopX 2.1 hasn't been officially announced yet. |
oh! er...
Should I take down my screenshot?
Jafo
Reply #34 Sunday, February 8, 2004 4:22 PM
Reply #34 Sunday, February 8, 2004 4:22 PM
| I agree that themes have more potential but they are also much harder to make system independent. |
Same goes for the good ol' LiteSTEP....universally functional themes is the trick...
Koasati
Reply #35 Sunday, February 8, 2004 4:27 PM
Reply #35 Sunday, February 8, 2004 4:27 PM
| Should I take down my screenshot? |
I wouldn't worry about it...... if Brad didn't want it there it would be gone by now....
Stockholm Syndrome
Reply #36 Sunday, February 8, 2004 4:29 PM
Good point 
Reply #36 Sunday, February 8, 2004 4:29 PM
| I wouldn't worry about it...... if Brad didn't want it there it would be gone by now.... |
Good point
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Reply #21 Saturday, February 7, 2004 3:30 AM
I have DesktopX running at startup on all my machines.
On a couple of machines I just use a blank theme with a weather object,maybe a clock. I guess I mostly use it to customize the standard Windows interface in ways I couldn't do so easily without DX. On my main machine I usually use this one. https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=31&SkinID=2524 It's so gorgeous that I've gotten to the point that I hate using Windows without it.
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