Happy 2006!
Wow! The future looks great!
Saturday, December 31, 2005 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
Can you believe 2006 is here! Holy cow!
On behalf of everyone at WinCustomize.com, happy new year!
2006 is THE YEAR. A lot of people may not realize this but 2006 is going to be a defining year in the history of personal computing. The reason has to do with Windows Vista. It's not that Windows Vista is just some new version of Windows, it is that the underlying technology of Windows is being completely replaced.
For the past 10 years (and more) we've been using the same technology for displaying fonts, images, graphics, windows, etc. It was all based on a 2D, 16color system. In time, it was expanded to support 16.8 million colors but visually, it was all based on pictures or 2D vectors (at best) with visibility either on or off (most skins still rely on "magic pink" to determine whether they are visible or not).
But with Windows Vista, things are being changed. GDI, which is the display system we've had with Windows since Windows 3.0 is being replaced by something called WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) which is 3D based. The screen you look today is based on "blitting" 2D images. In Windows Vista, it's a 3D surface that is hardware accelerated by your video card.
The networking you use is based on a hodge podge of fairly insecure protocols written in the kumbaya days when it would be cool for us all to be able to look at each other's computer and "share". Those naive days are long past but we still patch up the patches that try to retroactively close the door. Instead, Windows Vista brings the Windows Communication Foundation which is a much more powerful (for developers) system that was built with security in mind from the start.
And Microsoft's .NET support is part of the OS. Right now, many developers (including Stardock) don't use .NET because they won't require their customers to go download a 30 meg extra download in order to use their stuff. It's not that .NET is "bloated" btw, it's just a class library that has its own DLLs and such that have to be used. With Vista, .NET is part of the OS and developers will be able to much more easily create very interesting and useful things.
How Windows Vista will affect skinning remains to be seen. From what we've looked at so far, it'll be great. While Microsoft is not going to make customization part of the OS (to an even lesser degree than Windows XP), it will be possible for third parties to hook in and do some amazing things (And you can bet if we'll raise a storm if MS reverses this direction).
WinCustomize will likely end up with sections like "Animated Wallpapers" and XAML parts and Microsoft gadgets and new stuff from Google and Yahoo and elsewhere!
Stardock has what it believes is a killer application in store to be added to Object Desktop AFTER Vista ships (like many historically "good" ideas, once you know what it is, it seems obvious in hindsight so Stardock is keeping it very quiet until it's too late for it to be added to the OS or for others to do something similar for Vista by release).
Wherever you are in the world, Happy New Year to you! Feel free to add yourself to WinCustomize's FRAPPR community!
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Reply #2 Saturday, December 31, 2005 6:54 PM
Reply #4 Saturday, December 31, 2005 6:58 PM
Reply #5 Saturday, December 31, 2005 7:01 PM
Happy New Year......a bit over 7 hours to go here in USA (PST)........
As long as I can use Mormegil's "Apogee" icons with Vista (IconPackager hint 
), I will be a happy camper......I know....I'm easy to please......
I have to say that Paul has surpassed himself with this new suite of icons, and as soon as he releases the update and extras - well, it is just extremely well done, IMHO.
Other goodies, including WB are welcome, of course.......
Wishing all well in 2006. 
Reply #6 Saturday, December 31, 2005 7:26 PM
Reply #7 Saturday, December 31, 2005 7:35 PM
Reply #9 Saturday, December 31, 2005 7:52 PM
I hope 2006 WILL see a release of Vista for public consumption but I'm too used to Microsoft's delays of every OS they've ever put out. I expect it'll be more like May 2007 personally but I HOPE your right. Got my fingers crossed. (hope they don't stick like this)
Reply #10 Saturday, December 31, 2005 7:56 PM
Reply #11 Saturday, December 31, 2005 8:02 PM
| Holy cow! |
mmmhhh...., a new phrase?
-------------------
-=TYCUS=-
Reply #12 Saturday, December 31, 2005 8:41 PM
Animated wallpapers?
Reply #13 Sunday, January 1, 2006 12:28 AM
Wholely Cow....[100% bovine]....
It's 16.24 Jan 1, 2006 here.....and things aren't entirely rosy....PSU decided it didn't like the vintage...and expired.
Got a bit warm on the eve....42 to 44 in Melbourne....and even still 33 at 2am New Years morning.....
[that's Centigrade, btw]
Anyway....best of wishes to all in '06 ....gotta be fun....
Reply #14 Sunday, January 1, 2006 1:17 AM
Reply #18 Sunday, January 1, 2006 3:01 PM
Now I am all eager for Vista to ship...just because it means the secret killer Stardock app is not far behind.
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Reply #1 Saturday, December 31, 2005 6:46 PM