Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2419

Revisiting skinning history

Somehow a mythology has grown over the years that there was this huge community of skinners and then "evil corporations" like Stardock swooped in and began cashing in.

That's not how it happened at all. Customization, as we know it, didn't spring up due to hobbiest developers. It largely sprung from the work of commercial software developers. Companies like Nullsoft, Neoplanet, and Stardock were there at the very start when skinning was obscure and the number of people into it were in the dozens.

Here's a time-line on full GUI skinning:

1994: Stardock begins customizing OS/2's GUI with new product, Object Desktop.
1995: Windows 95 released...
1996: Still no GUI customization programs for Windows.
1997: Stardock begins working on Object Desktop for Windows.

1998: Stardock puts out beta of GUI changer "WindowFX".
1998: Thirty4 Interactive releases competitor to WindowFX called eFX.
1998: Stardock teams up with Neil Banfield, renames WindowFX to WindowBlinds

1999: WindowBlinds 1.0 released.
1999: Top developers of customization software at this point: Nullsoft, Stardock, Neoplanet, Litestep.

Key points here - there was no Windows GUI skinning going on before. There are no patents, nothing stopping others from doing it. It's just a lot of work.

At the start of this, there is no community of any size. The software came first. I made the first Windows "skin" design. You can look at it here: Screenshot

The software came first. Made by very hard working developers who took a chance that a) this stuff could be even done (it wasn't obvious that this was possible at the time) and

people would be interested in not just using it but paying $20 for it. WindowBlinds was $20 from day 1.

This is an important point: It's not like there was this hobbiest community of skinners making GUI skins for some mythological freeware skinning app and then evil Stardock jumps in and crushes the competition and starts milking skinners. WindowBlinds was the first GUI skinning program for Windows and it was always $20 to register. People made skins for it because it is fun. Making skins is fun for a lot of people (I've made lots myself).

When we started working on GUI skinning, 7 years ago, back before many of the more "righteous" skinners could drive a car, all we knew was that it was hard and that we had no idea if people would be interested. All we knew is that we thought it would be cool if you could change the look and feel of Windows.

The same people who bash WindowBlinds and talk how great msstyles ignore the fact that there'd very likely be no msstyles if there had been no WindowBlinds in the first place to demonstrate that yes, you could skin the Windows GUI via a system hook (which is exactly how uxtheme does it despite claims to the contrary).

It's taken 7 years of hard work to bring WindowBlinds to where it is today. It's a non-trivial amount of work. Especially for a program that is sold for the cost of a couple of pizzas.

The popularity of WindowBlinds, Winamp, Litestep, and IconPackager were the seeds that created the customization community. Anyone who's been around from the beginning can verify that.

From these 4 programs sprang many others such as Hoverdesk, CursorXP, Talisman, NextStart, DesktopX, ObjectBar. And in 2000 Microsoft got into the act with a skinnable Media Player and followed that up with Windows XP which expanded the customization community further.

But without WindowBlinds, Winamp, Litestep, and IconPackager I say it's doubtful there'd be a community as we know it today. There is nothing inevitable about changing the user interface of your computer. And there certainly was no obvious way to program it.

After all, Windows 95 had been out 4 years before WindowBlinds shipped. When development began, prevailing wisdom said it couldn't be done. Consider that: Win95 ships and nothing from any third parties for 3+ years. And yet look how much things changed in the 2 years AFTER WindowBlinds, IconPackager, Winamp, and Litestep got out there.

The software developers and the skin designers are part of a symbiotic relationship that is mutually beneficial. It riles me up when some skinner tries to treat us software developers like we're somehow parasites. It gets worse when someone makes false claims that we don't treat skinners with respect. I can't speak for how other companies treat skinners but I find it most ironic that anyone would argue that Stardock hasn't done a great deal to help skinners during the middle of the GUI Olympics

Customizing Windows XP didn't just start in a vacuum. It is the culmination of years of hard work and effort. The skinning community, from a software development point of view, wasn't some confderation of freeware hobbiests that got run over by commrecial developers. It was always led by commercial developers because desktop enhancement software is incredibly tedious to write and even more tedious to maintain over a long period of time.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents on the subject for what it's worth.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1846

Screenshot may be 2001, or 3 years old...but the LiteSTEP theme dates back to late '97....and completed Feb '98....or over 6 years ago.

LiteSTEP got me into skinning, and it, along with Windowblinds and WinAMP is what really grabbed the attention of the eager and excited.

Following on from these prominent proggies were the likes of Kjofol and Sonique [both freeform long before WA3/5 or Media Player]...and a lot of 'smaller' applications, many of which would come to light to be 'tried out' via their coders posting the info on the old skinz.org message board....then we'd all run off and experiment [eh, Rolf?].

Scripting was developed in/for LS to autoload WB....modules/plugins were developed for both LS and WB to access WA.....and everyone was having loads of fun.....the whole thing was new to each and every one of us.

Now, a lot of mythology appears to go the rounds about who did what to whom [or not]...and that's all down to the newer arrivals [thanks to XP] liking to think it all began just 'yesterday', when, in fact, it began before THEY discovered XP could be 'skinned'...

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Brad I think if anyone has a doubt whther or not you've been here from the beginning they should look into your profile. It is like entering the mind of einstein, as far as i could tell you've uploaded everything but a bootskin,and usually at least 20 of each different thing...!
I must congratulate you on such a deserved reputation and I have to know, Will we see anything new from you any time soon?

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And Jafo, I have to know, is there any chanceof a future update to Trekface? It is a really amazing and surprisingly innovative skin, even now, and I would love to see some new life breathed into it.

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A very good 2 cents worth Apprentice Draginol.

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Whose draginol...?

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1846

Frogboy's alternate personna is 'Draginol'...

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Ahh I see... I learn something new everyday I'm here

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MarkMcQ

Join Date 03/2001

+18

I preffered the more 'classic' days of skinning, when things first got started.
People were skinning for the right reasons back then. Now it's all about the comments and ego-flagging.
I certainly miss those days.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1846

Mark...yes...I think we all do to varying degrees.....but life goes on...things change...some goood, some not as good...

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What got me into skinning originally was the work of guys like Steve Moss, Pordey, Fli7e, Misery...at the original Customize.org when looking for cool new Winamp skins. I wasn't heavily involved back then...just another freeloader, so I can't really compare it to now, but I do think it was more 'pure', if there is such a thing.

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Speaking of "full GUI skinning". Since when have there been themes on the *nix platform? I have this hunch it predates all of this.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1846

Crae...to a certain degree, yes....LS was a 'doze derivative...but then 'nix was so 'back room' it barely mattered....the Windows skinning was/is far more prominent, as is the OS itself...

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Koasati

Join Date 07/2001

+21

I don't know Mark, I remember certain folks who were only after downloads, comments, and popularity back then too. There just weren't as many.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1846

Randy...I had the all-time greatest downloaded CD Stomper skin ever...way back then....the unfortunate thing was that precious few people even knew what it was....

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Koasati

Join Date 07/2001

+21

Paul, I thought you had the only CD Stomper skin back then.....

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1846

Shhh...you'll spoil the illusion....

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2419

On Linux there was Enlightenment which was a contemporary of Litestep, WindowBlinds, Winamp and IconPackager.

There no doubt existed customization programs of some type even before these programs. MS Plus in 1995 includes additional "themes" for instance.

But there was no community in those days and there wasn't software that did enough to make that critical mass to get things going.

That's what Litestep, WindowBlinds, IconPackager, and Winamp changed. They were the right programs at the right time.

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