MSStyles=clones, clones and more clones?

-or- where is the originality?

Published on December 16, 2004 By BlueDev In OS Customization

This is a geek rant. Yes, by writing this I am totally revealing to the world that not only do I care about the subject, but that I think enough about the topic to decide to write a rant about it. So, yes, this is a geek rant, by a geek, and will probably only be relevant to other geeks. Geeks freaking rule.

It isn't any surprise that I enjoy customizing my computer. I love downloading and trying to goodies, widgets, icons, cursors and most of all visual styles. And lately I have enjoyed working on my own a bit. My fascination with OS customization really started when I stumbled across Windowblinds (back when it was early version 3.something, so I am still pretty new to the whole scene). Being able to change how my OS looks is very appealing to me, and to be honest I can't imagine just using plain old Windows or even being limited to one of the Luna themes XP came with. They just bore me.

But at the same time I don't like to limit myself to just using Windowblinds skins. As I mentioned previously I like to use Skin Studio to convert themes that are in MSStyle format to use with Windowblinds. I am not a fan of using a hacked uxtheme.dll myself, so I opt to convert. Then I can add even more goodies to my visual styles. But my use of visual styles is becoming less and less frequent.

I like to stop by Neowin on a semi-regular basis. I peruse their Completed Visual Styles section to see what is coming out. But it seems that lately all that is coming out is the same old thing. Sure, they change a color here and there, perhaps change the buttons from a box to a circle, maybe just make them lines. But they are clones and clones and clones. Someone comes up with a great idea (like Stefanka's Inspirat visual style) and you get 30 other monkeys who change a color here, make it lighter/darker, and then release it and let the MSStyle lovers over at Neowin heap the praise on them.

Guess what robots. I can do all that with the same skin in Windowblinds. And I can do even more without much effort with Skin Studio.

And when an original Windowblinds visual style comes around there the robots all jump on it with brilliant comments such as "fugly". I think the collective IQ of the whole bunch is probably lower than the measly points this article will earn. They deride the visual style for being too bulky, too busy, to big. If it isn't completely minimalistic, and limited to about 3 colors they rip it to shreds. To illustrate my point let me offer mormegil's elegant, colorful, festive Christmas Time skin. When the news regarding this Christmas suite was posted over at Neowin it instantly met with comment after comment about how it was fugly, bloated, hideous, and so on. One person even had the audacity to say that "Somebody needs to take a couple design courses!" Yet, just look at the page over at Wincustomize. It has well over 250,000 downloads. Over 250,000! And it has an average rating of 5/5 stars. But because it isn't another minimalistic Luna clone it gets shredded. The myopia displayed on that thread alone made me see red.

I love minimalistic styles myself. But not every stinking day. I like some changes, some creativity, some unique looks to my skin. I have seen visual styles that I honestly couldn't have told you what the difference was between them without doing a close, side by side comparison. Yet each one gets praise heaped upon it for being so slick, so sleek, so smooth.

I just want to see some originality. I know there are great artists making some stylish and even stunning visual styles out there. But the second you see one of their works released, be prepared to see 50 clones of the same thing. Me, I am just getting tired of seeing the same visual style, time after time. Perhaps it is the community, perhaps it is the inherent power of Windowblinds over the MSStyle format, but I just don't seem to see nearly the same degree of cloning going on with the Windowblinds skins. So thanks to all of you out there trying to break new ground, to make something a little different that will look great on my screen.

The robots? Let them stew in their own pot of mundane similarity.

Comments (Page 5)

GreenReaper

on Dec 19, 2004

Yeah, I know what you mean.

The one thing I hate, people who complain about something, you tell them it can't be done for some technical reason, and they claim that a) you're lazy or

the software sucks and go off in a huff. Rare, but it happens. Fortunately you can rely on someone else to come in and scold them for being churlish. *g*

smoke-tetsu

on Dec 19, 2004

Well that's the thing GreenReaper, I don't expect everyone to like anything that I might make simply because you can't please all of the people all of the time. Now, if it's a bug report then that is a nice thing to have. But if you want variety and to be able to truly take advantage of the software's capablities you need to have skins that take advantage of the skins software and not be all the same including layout. I don't expect for my stuff to be all things to all people and no one should expect me to make it that way. Case in point, dark skins. Not everyone likes dark skins, but does that mean dark skins should not ever be made or all dark skin makers should consider including a light skin as a substyle with their dark skins? I don't think so. Or an even more extreme example, let's say having a carrot in the titlebar was one day considered by everyone to be the correct thing to have on a skin. Do all skin authors need to consider putting carrots in their titlebars so everyone will like their skins? (lmao) Anyway, If even just one or two other people like my skin then that's alright with me. Niche groups need skins too.

smoke-tetsu

on Dec 19, 2004

That's your perogative and I respect that, but you also got to respect a persons perogative not to include a light version for whatever reason. That's just an example anyway, there are many hundreds of things that people could demand.

smoke-tetsu

on Dec 19, 2004

That actually reminds me of the time I was given a hard time by a prominent commercial skin artist (who shall go nameless) because a skin I made wasn't skinning the favorites menu in IE but at the time WB didn't have that capability, so I couldn't have done it anyway even if I wanted to. Thinking back I'm pretty sure that person was just making WMP\mp3 player skins at that time but I am not totally sure, seems like it when you consider how they didn't know that at the time WB couldn't skin the favorites menu in IE.

Frogboy

on Dec 19, 2004

At work I have the spreadsheet that goes over the # of new visual styles (for any format) hat have been found. It uses pretty much every site that has msstyles on it as well as ones we come across on message boards. We then do the same with WindowBlinds. In purely raw numbers, about 20% more WindowBlinds were made last year. And WB has a significant disadvantage there since in raw numbers, quite a few of those msstyles are "Hey looks, it's ANOTHER Panther theme and another colored Luna and another take on Royale!". That happens on WB but not remotely to the same extent.

Then you have downloads. That is harder to measure because some sites count downloads based on accesses of files. Others base it on # of completed downloads. And others (like WC) go by the # of different users who have downloaded the skin. But even with that disavantage, WB skins tend to have a higher "download" count.

Those are pretty good measures of it I'd say. There's also WB's increasing # of sales over the years.

GreenReaper

on Dec 19, 2004

Looks like the Stardock conspiracy theorists were right all along - they are watching us!

And I think someone's working on the site, because I'm pretty sure I wasn't moved back to the second page last time I posted a comment. Still not on edit, though.

Lurchybaby

on Dec 24, 2004

I wouldn't worry too much about what those over at Neowin have to say. In my opinion (and I've been a member of that site since Aug of 2001) there seems to be a large number of "kids" (figuratively and literally) on that site. I rarely go there now, because Neowin's not what it once was.

BlueDev

on Dec 24, 2004

I rarely go there now, because Neowin's not what it once was.

Sadly, I agree. I find just a lot of juvenile attitudes. It still is a good site for news and such, but comments and the forums are just not strong anymore.

MSethWeisberg

on Dec 26, 2004

neowin is still a great customizing place, but the vast majority of themes there are mods of luna or longhorn. People need to become original and think outside the box for lack of a better saying. It's not that they aren't mature, it's that the themes have become stale and used.

BlueDev

on Dec 26, 2004

It's not that they aren't mature, it's that the themes have become stale and used.

In part I agree. Not 100% though.

I don't think the lack of originality in the skins being made is attributable to immaturity in the sense I mentioned above. However, the foolish comments bashing anything Stardock, or anything that is original in the slightest is directly correlated to a maturity level. Making constructive, thoughtful feedback requires a certain degree of maturity, while simply saying "that sUx0rs" does not.

Frogboy

on Dec 27, 2004

It does make it less inviting to go over to a place and show off a new, original skin only to have a half dozen mom's basement dwellers come on and call it "fugly". Clinical proof that too many wedgies in high school make geeks bitter.

MSethWeisberg

on Dec 27, 2004

And yet everytime someone has a mod on classic or luna or mac or longhorn its a hit. Makes you wonder sometimes if anyone has any original creativity left in them.

But take for example over at neowin the teaser Bant has over his new design. Just a screenshot and it is different, something original. That I truly waiting for.

nkj

on Dec 27, 2004

Both of them have their own benefits. I personally use visual styles just because their more themes for it that i like. (I am not implying that there are more visual styles than windoblinds styles ).
The reason why there are so many same longhorn/panther style skins is becasue people like them and hence use them. Thats one of the reason u see the ports of Stefanka's msstyles to windowblinds.
I think having two ways of themeing your computers only helps them each other mutually.

colossus72

on Jan 03, 2005

"When the news regarding this Christmas suite was posted over at Neowin it instantly met with comment after comment about how it was fugly, bloated, hideous, and so on. One person even had the audacity to say that "Somebody needs to take a couple design courses!" Yet, just look at the page over at Wincustomize. It has well over 250,000 downloads."

Maybe it comes down to personal taste? I think that Xmas Suite was overwrought, byzantine, bloated, nonfunctional, etc.

It's like some people like a certain style to decorate their homes, others like another. Like French Provincial vs. Modern Minimalist. I think the most elegant designs follow their function, to me that Xmas suite is like a rubber o-ring encased in a Krispy Kreme donut.

So it boils down to taste, pure and simple, and snotty articles like this won't make me say that Xmas theme looks good or looks like it's easy to use, because I simply do not think so, it disagrees with what I fundamentally like in a vs and in design in general.I don't care if goddamned Walt Disney himself hand drew the thing.

To me something like this is far more elegant, refined and useful:

http://www.customize.org/details/34773

You may think it's barely off the default or whatever, but it's not. It's clever, good design. That design is about a useful, sleek, functional and (I think) beautiful interface. But I imagine it's not your taste, not enough animations or birds chirping in the background or whatever. But that's okay, you know, long live the difference.

Hah! Emoticon thingies.

colossus72

on Jan 03, 2005

And just a quick point on the number of downloads as some sort indicator of quality: I think, say, the Postal Service is a much better musical act than Britney Spears. Who sold more records?

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