Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2419

The State of Skinning: 2001 to 2003!

State of Skinning: 2003

Is Customization growing? How do you measure that? Technological improvements? Gains in popularity? Which apps are growing in popularity and which ones are slowly losing ground?

We asked that question and to find that out, we went back and looked at WinCustomize.com's logs. Looking at the top 5 skins in downloads per category and adjusting for daily fluctuations we've nailed down which programs have gained in popularity and which ones have lost ground.

We specifically chose September 2001 because it is just before Windows XP released. Windows XP's release has changed everything. Some programs benefited such as Windows Media Player. Others took a beating such as ICQ because of Microsoft Instant Messenger.

We've broken this list down into 5 categories: Big Winners, Winners, Stayed the Same, Lose Ground, Lost a Lot of ground.

		The Big Winners
	CursorXP	This program wasn't available on WinCustomize in 2001 but is the second most popular "skin" to download (cursors in this case) today.
	Media Player	This program has seen the number of downloads per day increase by a factor of 10. Much of the popularity can be given to the skin design studio "The Skins Factory" for creating and releasing so many high quality skins that it's encouraged a thriving skinning community.

		Winners
	WindowBlinds	It's pretty undeniable that WindowBlinds has benefited from Windows XP. It has seen its popularity index more than double. It went from being the second most popular skin type to download to #1.
	Wallpapers	The wallpaper section has seen its popularity grow by almost exactly the same amount as WinCustomize itself has grown.
	ObjectBar	ObjectBar has never enjoyed the kind of attention the other higher profile programs have received. But it's enjoyed steady growth. Version 2.0 of it is in internal alpha and Stardock hopes to see it take on a whole new life as something vastly easier to use and to skin for and a lot more functional.
	Suites	WinStyles only has one reason to exist -- to apply suites. It doesn't skin anything. So its popularity rests on how popular the idea of putting skins and themes together into a single suite to be applied at once. It too has seen growth and with version 1.5 nearing release, it may see its growth jump.

		Stayed the same
	Icon Packages	It's probably safe to say that the high point of icon packages was long ago achieved. People have known about changing their icons for a decade now. IconPackager files were the third biggest draw in 2001 and they are the third biggest draw today.
	Litestep	Litestep is in the same position as the icon packages. It reached critical mass for an open source shell before WinCustomize even opened. It has seen its ranking relatively increase due to the decline of two once heavy hitter skinning programs. Litestep has shown lasting power.
	Winamp	Winamp has remained one of the most consistent programs on the net. Its downloads are almost exactly today as they were 2 years ago. Despite a new skinning format introduced in version 3 (which subsequently has gone back to version 2) the skins created today are much as they were then.

		Lost some ground
	NeXTStart	NeXTStart is very good at its core feature - replacing the right click menu. But during that time, competitors ranging from ObjectBar to Hoverdesk along with a resurgence in alternative shells like Aston, Talisman, and others have eaten up a lot of NextStart's user base. NeXTStart version 3 is in beta. However, the last announcement was in January of this year.
	Beatnik	Beatnik is a skinnable digital clock. It has managed to hang in there despite a great deal of alternatives and not a lot of development effort. But it has lost ground as programs like SysMetrix, DesktopX 2, and others can provide the same functionality and more with equivalent overhead.

		Lost A LOT of ground
	DesktopX	After a lot of hype, DesktopX was released in summer of 2001. Not surprisingly, it became immensely popular as people tried out what it could do. And it could do a lot of amazing, though largely useless, things. People used it to create really complex but beautiful looking themes...that didn't quite work when used. Other users made a sophisticated objects...that didn't quite work right or moved funny. The last public update to DesktopX before the 2.0 beta was in Summer of 2002 and it's taken a toll. DesktopX was the #1 downloadable skin/theme type on WinCustomize in Sept of 2001. Today it is a distant 6th. DesktopX 2, however, looks very promising. But will Stardock be able to get the people who couldn't figure out a use for DesktopX 1 to try out DesktopX 2?
	ICQPlus	No program lost more ground than ICQ Plus. ICQ Plus is a program that skins ICQ and therefore is tied to the fate of ICQ itself. ICQ Plus is a fantastic program that works very well. Unfortunately, ICQ has lost a lot of its user base particularly to Trillian.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1846

Since ICQ Plus has been losing 'interest' towards Trillian it stands to reason that the latter should be looked at more closely as the 'next' addition to the site's sections...

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2419

we're talking to them.

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Join Date 03/2001

+23

Cool. I use trillian and I would love to see those skins

expecially ones that matches the WB skins.

Hmm a idea. Can skinstudio be made to convert wb skins to trillian?

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I its called 'porting' a skin...And yes, I too would love to see some new trillian skins.

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oops...I believe it's called...*

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I am not surprised at the demise of ICQ (yay!), WinAmp staying the same and the rise of MSN (boo!) and MediaPlayer. It just shows the impact of having an OS with these types of programs built-in. WindowBlinds perhaps profited from the StylesXP/WindowBLinds controversy.

Ofcourse this whole analysis can't say anything about the popularity of skinning as a whole, due to the limited number of sections on this site.

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By the way, strange that DesktopX has dropped. It seems to be StarDock's prime achievement (even more than its flagship WindowBlinds), but does not seem to get picked up by he crowd?

There is interest in in though, if you look at all the questions about it on the boards.

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I love the way you presented this info Frogboy.

Very easy to read.

Weird about DX... That was the second reason why I came to the site back in 2002.

I think is DX is more popular now it will be because of IconX, some animated objects (objects that strangly enough could have been in DX1), and some other stuff like the news feeds thing (That is really cool)
I also think it will become more popular because there maybe some programmers/designers/application makers/companies who will be having a field day with the new script features (and especially the ability to connect to a database online for site info)

I think DX will move up a few months after its release.

I'm surprised about NextStart...

I LOVE object Bar!!! Can't wait for 2.0

I love Icons!! I think that will go up once people get bored of XP icons again.

Doesn't Beatnik have animation ability? That is why I liked it.

Anyway, nice report.

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2419

Thanks, Joe.

Crae, good points. On the other hand, I do think you can get a general idea of how well skinning has done. It's clearly gotten more popular. The raw numbers and popularity of skinning sites has skyrocketed in the past 2 years.

In terms of apps,

You basically have 5 key indicators:

Icon packages (IconPackager, IconPhile, etc.)
OS skinners (WindowBlinds, Chroma, eFX, and UXTheme)
MP3 skinners (Winamp, Media Player, Sonique, Cool Player)
Shells & Enhancers (Litestep, Aston, Hoverdesk, DesktopX, ObjectBar, NeXTStart, Talisman)
Skinnable Apps (Trillian, ICQ, SysMetrix)

Now it's true that I didn't cover every app I listed up there. But I covered the most popular one in each category and for the most part, the ones I didn't cover either didn't exist, are statistically on the margins (do we need to know how well Chroma is doing in 2003 to get an idea of the health of skinning) or had similar programs that provide equally good indicators (Litestep, NextStart, DX, ObjectBar).

But I do agree with you that it's not a comprehensive skinning analysis. It's just something I was curious about and looked into and shared my results.

It's the old 90/10 rule. 90% of the users use 10% of the programs. The other 90% of programs scramble afer that last 10% of the user base.

Even big decliners like DesktopX still got 1400 downloads per day for its top 5 (compared to 51 for ICQ down from 881 in 2001).

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Great report! I'm currently using LiteStep but was wondering if anyone has also used Aston and which one they prefer???

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MarkMcQ

Join Date 03/2001

+18

I tried Aston last week.
Lasted about 20 mins on my system before I uninstalled it.

Of those 2, I definitely prefer LS.

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2419

Hippy, how do Litestep and Aston compare?

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Aston sure looks good and supposedly easier (just download a theme)but it's gotta be tough to be "cooler" than LiteStep. And, yes, how do they compare and why only 20 minutes before uninstalling?

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it´s like comparing the skinning features of Winamp2 and Winamp3. Aston is more like painting over a fixed layout while LiteStep is totally free-form. also never underestimate the power of LS´s bang commands and scripting. everything can interact with everything. also LS has hundreds of plugins, Aston has about 20.
and as Greogory said, it´s "cooler"

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MarkMcQ

Join Date 03/2001

+18

Hehe, Moshi summed it up there perfectly.
Aston is like a skinnable explorer but with a few bits moved around.
It's not really got the power or functionality of LS.
Granted, it has a fairly good community and support, but I really just didn't take to the program at all.

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I do think that once DesktopX 2 hits its full release it will be a force to be reckoned with. I am one of those who wanted to use it before, but never had much luck with the themes created (the few I liked). And the objects available didn't offer much to have a need for DesktopX. Now, however, DesktopX is essential, at least I think so.
I'm not surprised about ICQ plus. I haven't used ICQ itself in 2 years, in fact its deleted now. I use Trillian. You could argue AOL killed ICQ, but ICQ killed itself by being bloatware. I was eager to find an alternative that allowed me to IM, and a few other things but not have tons of stuff I would never use.

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Interesting trends. I'm particularly surprised DesktopX lost ground: along with Windowblinds, it's my favourite programme in object desktop. IconX is great - I stopped using object bar once IconX hit the scene - and though I know little about scripting, the couple of Desktop X objects I have are useful & attractive.

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ICQ has always been bloatware, even when it was popular. MSN being integrated and enabled by default in XP is going to kill it (ICQ).

I never could figure what people found interesting in Aston. To me it truly looks like a stripped down LiteStep. One that costs money even! It has its fans though: http://shell-shocked.org/article.php?id=187

My thoughts on skindom, by the way, is that the big crowd unfamiliar with it all goes for the apps listed above, while it's still the same old group using all the rest. Or perhaps, not using the rest, but interested in the thing.

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I would like to add this comment. Before you think about adding Trillian, you should wait till they release their next version. The reason for this is because the setup of the skins are going to be different. They will have to be setup to hold a unlimited amount of connection icons if needed. That's just one thing. Like some programs that you've skinned before. You would have to convert to the new version. I'm just saying, if that section gets added. You might want to wait till they are done with this new version and it comes out. The .74 will be upgraded to a new free version also.

Right now, you can't make a skin that works on both .74 and 1.0. I think the next update will allow both free and pay to be able to use the same skin. I'll know more when they are closer of releasing it. But this is what I"m looking more toward of seeing by what I've read.

I posted my two cents. I'm done.

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