[quote who="LightStar" reply="53" id="3698900"]
Actually,  it woul be great if Stardock created software to skin Apple systems too.  I know many people that would be very interested. [/quote}

Yeah, me included.  I have a Mac Mini that I'd love to be able to change the GUI on. Honestly, I can't for the life of me see how Mac fanbois can say the Mac UI is classy and far superior to Windows.  In my opinion both are equally as bad and desperately need customising.... and what better than Windowblinds: Iconpackager; CursorFX and Fences to do both OSes.

So, Mr Wardell, Draginol, Frogboy.... how about it?  And you can still call it Windowblinds cos 'they' don't call 'em doorways or portals, right?

BTW, Brad, I have a large collection of ornamental dragons in my mancave.... around 85- 90 or so.

 

 

 

 

Ahah. You guys are forgetting one thing: until recently, one of Microsoft's main concerns was in preserving backwards compatibility. This is why you can still run 32 bit programs made for Windows 95 under Windows 10, and it's actually a good thing: evolution in Windows is not (usually) forced but rather follows a natural progression, with some older stuff eventually dying of 'old age' simply because nobody uses it any longer. At that point, support for that particular legacy thingy can be safely dropped from the OS.

But Apple is not like that. It never was.

Apple breaks backward compatibility with almost every new release of the OS. Many Mac applications MUST be re-written if they want to run on the latest and greatest.

So, imagine you've built a company based on skinning the latest version of Mac OSX. You put a lot of effort into it and all is going well until Apple releases a new version of Mac OSX. Not only does your application no longer work with the new OS version, as there is no way to make it work again because Apple changed something that makes this impossible.

Your revenue drops like a rock as everyone upgrades to the new version of MacOSX and all that effort and years you invested into building a company based on that popular skinning application goes to waste almost overnight. If you want to survive you literally have to start from scratch again, and come up with another cool application idea - but lucky breaks in life are few and far between.

With Apple this has already happened before, and it will happen again.

 Well one thing's for sure, I won't be updating my MacMini from Mountain Lion to Yosemite or El Capitan.  It's enough of a closed system as it is, but at least with Mountain Lion I can customise things to better suit my personal want and needs.  Yosemite and El Capitan are such closed shops [read walled gardens] and reading the comments below the article it looks like Apple will lose OS market share as more and more users migrate away from OS-X to Linux or Windows.

I don't mind using my OS-X machine, and it does have some nice features, but I'm predominantly on Windows for the greater freedom it gives me.... though, given Microsoft's 'let's get rid of this and stop that' attitude of late, I have to wonder how much longer that greater freedom will last.

I think days of the PC [read PERSONAL computer] are numbered, and that operating systems from both Apple and Microsoft will be walled gardens with little to no user input.  Yes, we'll be able to surf the net, upload videos and photos, even edit them, but beyond that there won't be much left for users to tinker wiith no more or barely there skinning/customisation.

As it is, MS began phasing out Win 32 and phasing in phone-like apps with Windows 8, and with Windows 10 that has progressed further, what with that gaudy looking start menu that's riddled with app crap.  Yes, we still have Control Panel, but with the 'Settings" app gaining traction it may not have much longer to go.  Now Microsoft says that many of its changes are for security reasons, for our benefit, but really, are they?  Or are the changes what's best for Microsoft? 

In most cases I believe it's the latter, but sadly, most users just cop it sweet and not enough complain... hence, MS just does what it wants and we all have to suffer decisions not necessarily to our liking.  So maybe Fuzzy is right, though probably not from a Stardockian point of view, and customisation is an extinction level event.  I'd like to think not, but MS does hold the reigns as to what we can and can't do.... maybe save the odd workaround here and there.

Yup, you're right, it hasn't been the same since he passed.  The stuff coming from Apple nowadays is nowhere near as polished and lacks the same attention to detail.  Thankfully, my Mac Mini was created during the Jobs' era, cos I wouldn't touch the later ones with a pole.

I've heard quite a few as well, not that Apple fanbois would agree.... "once an Apple user always an Apple user"  Or so they believe.  However, my niece and her boyfriend both ditched their Macs in anger and reverted back to Windows when a particular update removed some features and blocked the addition of 3rd-party alternatives. And like she said, there's an 'in-crowd' at university who all use Macs, and to get on and be accepted, one had to have a Mac.  Now she doesn't care about the in-crowd and reckons the majority are stuck up a**holes anyway.

If only you could ask my niece and her boyfriend how Apple failed them, and the several dozen other people I know.  As far as they're all concerned, Apple screwed them over.  So yeah, there's a joke orright... about how great and perfect Apple is.  Yeah, I own an Apple computer, a Mac Mini, and it's okay but it certainly isn't great.

Here's the skinny.
I turned a computer into a guinea pig.
For 20 months I used only a firewall ,opera and firefox.
The browsers were stock and kept up to date.
The computer OS was not updated.
After the 20 months I scanned the whole computer with
updated windows defender and found nothing.
The computer works great, don't try this at home.

Why are you posting these here Iben? They have nothing to do with the threads topic, which is 

Skinning - an Extinction Level Event

ehhh, what's any of that got to do with what this topic is about iben? lmao

I seem to recall .... way back .... when .... There was a separate Application like Windowblinds ... Specifically crafted for this purpose .... That is .... Browser Skinning ... 'WEBBLINDS' (not sure if I spelled it correctly  .... But you get the idea: WEB: INTERNET (browsing) BLINDS: Windowblinds for Surfing the Internet and skinning your browser.

But then again ... I remember using NETSCAPE Too!   

Quoting artexpert,

reply 71

But then again ... I remember using NETSCAPE Too!   

I'm using Netscape right now (the successor). It's called SeaMonkey. It kind of needs extensions to make the UI usable and "pretty". Otherwise it's too old-school even for me. It's not the fastest browser, but I like it. It was the built-in mail client that made me try it.

Time goes fast. It wasn't that long ago Internet was new. Those were exiting times. Windows was a big part of that. Now I feel MS has pretty much given up on consumers and client computing. Nadella sees the future of personal computing in the cloud.

Skinning websites isn't a bad idea. If someone makes a WebExtension for Chrome/Firefox/Edge the underlying platform wouldn't matter anymore. You could still have a personal experience even on a Chromebook.

If personal computing moves into the cloud, the only thing we'll see are websites I guess...

But ... For the times....it still beat IE!

I Now Use 'VIVALDI'    

Ah, the old throbber, eh.  Yup, I've pretty much forgotten it.  T'was so long ago since I saw it.  

Throbber:
I think it was an animated picture that replaced the windows flag
in the upper right corner of IE. My memory could be foggy?