I am not into skinning very long. About the time WB 1.xx came along I found Stardock because I was experimenting with LiteStep. I loved the skins that came along with some of the LS themes. <BR> <BR>Being in the software industry myself, I struck me how well Stardock was supported. It had very active news groups. Not knowing who was who I reported a WB bug. Some guy, called Neil Banfield, asked me for some details. It was hard to explain so, I wrote a little program to show the bug. To my surprise he was working on WB and the next day a fixed version was available to the users. I wasn´t even registered. Yet I was helped. <BR> <BR>I registered ObjectDesktop. Something went wrong and a guy called Kris Kwilas helped me out and I had everything up and running. <BR> <BR>ObjectDesktop was my choise because it was cheaper than buying WB, IP and CC seperately. The price did remain the same over the years and even after DX and OB were added the price did not change. I compare that price to other products and to me it is in the area of other shareware. A price level that fits my wallet. BTW: I didn´t go for Chroma because it wasn´t as advanced as WB (although it had a pretty nifty format). Both were in the same price range. <BR> <BR>As things go in a community I became involved in the news groups and got to know great people like BuzzHog, Mercury, Morphh, pjpowell, greenreaper, d, Adam (BuilderBinds), scartch, tarkus (he used another name back then), to name a few. <BR> <BR>One of those guys (Morphh) wanted to know if it was possible to make remote control for WA on the title bar of a window skinned by WB. I told him that no such plugin was made, but that it could be done. Since nobody wanted to write that plugin, I did it myself and WBAmp was born. WBAmp was easy to make ( I remember that it worked in 2 weeks). Everyone loved the idea. A lot of people helped me testing it. <BR> <BR>I remember that Brad loved that plugin and when I wanted to renew my subscription he gave me a free ODNT supscription for two years. I didn´t ask him to, he just did it. <BR> <BR>Those active users were united in a private mailing list that allowed one to talk more directly to the dvelopers and helped them with ideas. The first mailing list of that type was called WBBeta. Later on another one was started called DXBeta. Now a days we found out that news groups are easier to deal with and to allow the system to work for other apps too private newsgroups were created. The old public ones were equally important and didn´t loose any of its goals: Support, bug reports and new ideas. Or just having fun. <BR> <BR>When DX came arround I did a similar plugin for it called DXPlayer. That one began to lead a life of its own and SD wanted a player of its own. Not a remote thingie, but a real player. I am working on that for a year or so. It is now in Alpha. Because I am busy with my own job things go slower than I wanted. Also, I had some personal problems that didn´t make it any easier. SD started paying me of course for my work I did for the new player (it was not a simpel hobby project anymore), but they never forced me to work any harder then was possible, considering my daytime job. <BR> <BR>So, my opinion about Stardock is colored? I guess not. People working there now were once skinners them selves or were active in the skinning community before they were paid. To name a few: Neil, Adam, Ian, Alberto and Jeff all have a similar background. None of them, including Brad, is getting rich and driving BMWs because of it. I don´t even have a car. Well, in Amsterdam (where I live) one is better off with a bike). <BR> <BR>There are more interesting parts besides the news groups. I discovered IRC somewhere along the lines. First on EFnet, later on a SD server and of course on CavNet. Again great people were to be found there: likwid, Red1, dreamer, nivenh, shoggot, Viro, Transmutate, Hippy, to name some more. <BR> <BR>Any help I wanted was given me. Users helped me with bug reports. Skinners helped me with ideas. SD Developers helped me with pieces of code. Where on earth can you find that. This is software created by all of you involved. <BR> <BR>In some of my personal problems I found out that some of those people helped me out as well. I won´t mention any names. <BR> <BR>So, there is definityly a community. You can find that comminity on WC, but also on the other sites like this one and the newsgroups and IRC. <BR> <BR>Now back to reality: SD is asking money for their software. So what? They need to feed mouths, pay office bills, by development equipment, pay for file, web and e-mail servers, pay for bandwith and pay for the development of future products. <BR> <BR>It hurts me when I see some people not willing to speak their mind in this thread and it hurts me because most probably don´t know the stories behind it. It also hurst me that some people are not willing to speak their mind because the company is OK, but is is not l337 enough to admit it. And I am happy to see that some see the perspective of things. <BR> <BR>How is that for a colored opinion. ;) <BR>
