Revisiting skinning history
from 
WinCustomize Forums
WinCustomize Forums
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.
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.
Paul, I thought you had the only CD Stomper skin back then.....