Services such as Alexa provide rough estimates on the popularity of different websites.

Using this data over a period of time allows us to get a rough measurement of the overall popularity of skin sites and to see if customization is something that is increasing in popularity, steady, or on the decline.

The forumula we use is as follows:

100,000 / (1/Rank^1.25)

The benchmark sites we use are:
WinCustomize.com
deviantART.com
Skinnables.org
VelocityART.com
Teknidermy.com
ArtUproar.com
Deskmod.com
Skinz.org
Neowin.net
Skinbase.org
Customize.org
Pixtudio.com

We take the formula and add them up.

In December that number was 8.4.

This month it's increased to 9.0. A dramatic increase.

Most of the increase came from DeskMod, deviantART, and WinCustomize. But there was a general increase across the board.

The conclusion we reach is that people wanting to make Windows their own personal OS continues to expand into the mainstream.

Our friends as OSNews have an interesting article looking at Windows that is akin to those "Is Linux ready for the desktop" articles.

https://www.joeuser.com/Articles/TheSkinningSuperbowl.html

I help run a skin site called WinCustomize.com. It is immensely popular. With well over a million unique individual visitors each month, it is one of the busiest websites on the Internet.

The site works as follows: Graphics designers and artists submit their themes, skins, icons, wallpapers, and other items that can be used by various programs to change the look and feel of Windows. WinCustomize provides them with secure, reliable hosting for their work in the form of disk space and bandwidth.

This in turn attracts users who are interested in doing cool stuff with their computers. They download the various programs (or use what comes with Windows) and then download these themes, icons, skins, and wallpapers and apply them to their system.

WinCustomize is funded by Stardock. Stardock makes its living developing software like Object Desktop which is made up of WindowBlinds, DesktopX, IconPackager, ObjectBar, WinStyles, and more. People buy this software which costs between $8 and $50.

What Stardock gets out of WinCustomize is a reliable website for its customers to go and get more stuff and encourage people to create more cool stuff for customizing Windows. And because the site is so popular, it attracts new users, some of which purchase its software.

Unfortunately, WinCustomize suffers from the classic “free rider” problem. During a recent server upgrade, the site disabled downloading for non-contributors (people who weren’t in the database as being a Stardock customer and had standard access – i..e. non-uploaders). It turned out that over half the total bandwidth consumed disappeared. Bearing in mind that free riders could still browse the site, which makes up quite a bit of bandwidth use, this means that most of the expenses of WinCustomize are used by free-riders.

Any time you try to tighten things on free-riders, you inevitably create a fire storm because people start accusing WinCustomize of trying to charge for skins and themes made by other people and freely submitted. Which it isn’t.

So here’s a better analogy. WinCustomize as a big old superbowl party:

Bob decides to throw a great big superbowl party for his friends. He has a big old 60 inch TV for everyone to watch the game on and plenty of couches and such. He’s also providing lots of beer, soda, and other drinks. In the invitations, he included a note that people should feel free to bring over food to eat.

Word on his party spreads far and wide. As the kick off time approaches, tons of people start showing up. Most of whom bring no food at all. But they sit down and start making themselves at home. The beer is quickly consumed, the pop is quickly running out.

Other people show up who do bring some pop and beer and food and freely share it with others. But by the time kick off time comes, the place is jammed. No one else can fit in the apartment and many friends can’t even get in as a result. The drinks run out and hardly anyone can even see the TV despite its enormous size.

So the next year, Bob decides that everyone who wants to come has to pay $2 to get in. The idea is that the $2 will go for buying more beer and soda and help pay for the massive clean up after the party. But it also, he hopes, will keep so many free loaders from just showing up so that the number of people who actually come can comfortably fit in the apartment.

But as soon as he does it, some of the free-loaders from the previous year start complaining about how “Greedy” Bob allegedly is. They accuse Bob of trying to charge people to watch the superbowl (even though they can go to any number of places to watch it). They accuse him of trying to make money selling the snacks that other people are freely bringing to the party (though they themselves weren’t planning to bring any snacks). And ultimately they huff and say “Well fine, I won’t come to your super bowl party, I’ll show you!” (as if this is somehow a problem).

WinCustomize isn’t trying to make money off of the food other guests are bringing. And it’s not even trying to make money off of the game itself. All it’s trying to do is find a way to help pay for the drinks and clean-up and discourage so many free-riders from showing up so that people who honestly want to contribute to the community can fit into the apartment.

WindowBlinds 4 Alpha 1 has been released. Version 4 is a major rewrite of WindowBlinds that is designed to be much more low level than previous versions of WindowBlinds, use less memory, and skin a lot more.

The main features of WindowBlinds 4 include:
+ Skinning of the command prompt
+ Skinning of pretty much every part of the Windows OS including the explorer task panes (shell styles), and many small areas that users may not have noticed before not being skinned but will almost certainly notice being skinned now.
+ Skinning of lots of dialogs and notices that Windows XP itself doesn't change normally such as the logoff screen, the transition dialog, and more.
+ Smart painting, a new technology that makes WindowBlinds much faster and in some cases almost as fast as running "classic".

The alpha only is available for Windows XP users. Subsequent builds will be released for other versions of Windows. It is currently only available on Object Desktop. Follow the link if you want to purchase or upgrade Object Desktop which comes with DesktopX, ObjectBar, WinStyles, IconPackager, ControlCenter, and much more.

WindowBlinds 4 Alpha 1 has been released. Version 4 is a major rewrite of WindowBlinds that is designed to be much more low level than previous versions of WindowBlinds, use less memory, and skin a lot more.

The main features of WindowBlinds 4 include:
+ Skinning of the command prompt
+ Skinning of pretty much every part of the Windows OS including the explorer task panes (shell styles), and many small areas that users may not have noticed before not being skinned but will almost certainly notice being skinned now.
+ Skinning of lots of dialogs and notices that Windows XP itself doesn't change normally such as the logoff screen, the transition dialog, and more.
+ Smart painting, a new technology that makes WindowBlinds much faster and in some cases almost as fast as running "classic".

The alpha only is available for Windows XP users. Subsequent builds will be released for other versions of Windows. It is currently only available on Object Desktop. Follow the link if you want to purchase or upgrade Object Desktop which comes with DesktopX, ObjectBar, WinStyles, IconPackager, ControlCenter, and much more.

So what does Toon-XP look like in action?

Check out the video: https://www.stardock.com/videos/toon-xp.wmv

Toon-XP's home page is: https://www.stardock.com/products/themes/toon-xp/

One general concept we've been playing around with is one that Green Reaper came up with awhile back. The idea is that people could submit skins and allow others to submit additional pieces to those skins and themes.

Example:
Someone uploads a WindowBlinds skin but it doesn't support some of the new WB4 features like shellstyles and such.

So another user could submit an addition to it that just has those features.

Then usres could choose to download either the main skin alone or the skin entotal.

Now, implementing something like this wouldn't be trivial but we were interested in hearing ideas on how such a system could be implemented that provided a balance to protect skin authors while not making it so difficult to do that no one would actually make use of such a feature.

Nobody wants war. And using military action against a sovereign country is something that shouldn't be done lightly.

There are many principled viewpoints on both sides. And, unfortunately, there's a lot of arrogance on both sides as well.

-- The case against military action --
On the case against military action, there is the simple fact that Iraq is a sovereign country and that the world is supposed to put its faith into the United Nations to determine when military action against a country is warranted. The UN has enacted a new resolution that provides for military inspectors to help ensure that Iraq has given up its weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps more time could be given to make the dtermination of whether Iraq has really complied.

Besides, a regime change in Iraq, as terrible as Saddam is, would leave quite a vacuum which could destabilize the entire middle east. Terrorist reprisals could be made on western countries and an unknown number of innocent civilians could be harmed in the process. It seems a better way might be to contain Saddam and just keey a close eye on him. What right, does the United States and UK have to decide who governs what country?

And if the USA/UK are going to go into Iraq, where does it stop? If they become the final arbiter on who is allowed to have a country, who's next? Is this the wave of the future? That an american hyperpower is going to run amok across the world in order to create a new world order of its own design? Would it not be better for the US and UK to work with their friends and come to a better understanding?

Is Iraq really that dangerous? If it is, then surely there would be more obvious evidence. A smoking gun. Not inuendo and rumor but facts ala the Cuban Missile Crisis. Anything less only feeds the rumors that this excursion is really about controlling oil resources and cementing Anglo-American world hegemony.

-- The case for military action --
Not only is Saddam a brutal dictator that has killed thousands of his own people with chemical weapons over the years, he actively gives money to suicide bombers in Israel. Shortly after 9/11 the policy of the United States has been to replace regimes that support terrorism. Clearly Saddam fits the bill there.

Additionally, for 11 years Saddam has played cat and mouse with the UN. The 1991 Gulf War CEASE FIRE rested on the stipulation that he abide by the UN resolutions. He has violated this for 11 years and reports from Iraq indicate that he continues to play those games. Is the UN as useless as the league of nations?

The inspectors aren't there to search for WMD, they are there to work WITH Iraq to ensure compliance. South Africa, Ukraine, and others have gone through this process in the past without problems. The fact is, Saddam wants weapons of mass destruction. Starting with chemical and biological and ending with nuclear weapons. There is no shortage of evidence to show that. You can't take a picture of a nuclear bomb. But defectors and evidence recovered by inspectors along with intelligence has shown a trail that leads to only a single conclusion: Saddam is trying to get these weapons in violation of the cease fire terms.

And what would he do with such weapons? Based on his history, he would use them to intimidate his neighbors and dominate the middle east. He might provide them to terrorists. Oil isn't the main issue here, security is. But before you dismiss oil as being something irrelevant, without middle eastern oil, the world economy would come to a halt. How many millions would starve or freeze due to food and heat not being able to be distributed?

Security from weapons of mass destruction is the main issue. But one cannot just blindly ignore the reliance of modern societies on petroleum.

But let's talk more about what would happen if Iraq gets WMD: The United States would be the top target of any WMD equipped terrorist. That's why the US can't allow its interests to be secondary to some warm fuzzy UN wish list. A protestor in Belgium has little to fear from a nuclear armed Iraq. A citizen of New York or Washington has plenty to worry about. That's why 2/3rds of Americans support military action. They see the threat.

As for UN "support" let's remember who the UN security council is: USA, UK versus France, Russia, and China. In effect, "UN support" means Russia, France, and China. Two of those countries have significant oil deals with Saddam that create an economic reason for them to resist his removal.

As for casaulties - there were few civilian casaulties in the first gulf war (despite the propaganda some might say). There were few civilian casaulties in Afghanastan and a second gulf war would probably cause fewer deaths than the number of people who have died due to Saddam's policies in the past year.

The only reason why Saddam is even marginally cooperating now is because the US has made a credible use of force. Until then, there were no inspections at all. It is not sustainable for any country, even the US, to have to keep its military on high alert in order to get some brutal dictator to abide by UN resolutions.

At the end of the day, it comes down to this: Saddam's had 11 years to cooperate. He clearly has not. He continues to play games. And can the United States, let alone the world, risk this man getting weapons of mass destruction?

If people are really concerned about casaulties, then perhaps it is better to act now than wait until he has nuclear and biological weapons that he can use against his neighbors or supply to his terrorist friends.

The allies were faced with a similar situation in 1938 with Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, they chose appeasement and a few years later World War II was the result which led to the deaths of over 50 million people. Let us not make that mistake again.

--

Regardless of what position you take, there are two ways of corresponding with those who have opposite views. You can deride their views and principles or you can try to address their concerns.

Personally, I wish we lived in a world without such troubling problems.

Four years ago these are the sections on Skinz.org along with the # of skins in that section.

eFX: 173
EGN: 17
Half-Life: 23
K-Jofol: 14
LS Mods: 3
MPFree: 7
MyPad: 9
NeoPlanet: 23
PalmOS Emu: 11
QCD: 23
WindowBlinds: 18
WinAmp: 156
WPlay: 5

Some of these apps I'm not very sure about. Obviously Half-life isn't a skinnable app.

From top to bottom:
eFX was developed by Thirty4. They halted development after signing up with a company called Akamai (http://www.akamaidesign.com/). But nothing further ever was publicly released beyond 0.40 in 1999.

I'm not completely sure what EGN was. But you can find out more about it here (http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Sector/2995/index.html).

K-Jfol was a skinnable MP3 player that was bought out by Winamp. Its technology is thought to have served as the basis for Winamp 3.

Litestep Mods continue to be developed with themes available here at WinCustomize as well as at www.litestep.com

MPFree was another skinnable MP3 player. It has a section over at deviantART http://www.deviantart.com/browse/t/skin/mpfree/.

MyPad was a skinnable text editor. You can find its section at deviantART here: http://www.deviantart.com/thumbnails.php?section=mypad

Neoplanet was a skinnable web browser. It was actually one of those dot-com companies that saw skinning at the pathway to immense popularity. Unfortunately they were a bit too far ahead of the curve. At one point, Neoplanet had something like 60+ employees. It provided a Lord of the Rings web browser as well as an Austin Powers web browser. When the dot-com crash came, they were one of the early casaulties. You can still download their program at www.neoplanet.com (http://www.neoplanet.com).

QCD was another MP3 player. It is still updated on a regular basis.(http://www.quinnware.com/news.html). The most recent release being only a couple days old. It looks pretty impressive too (http://images.deviantart.com/large/skin/qcd/BetaMaxx.jpg).

WindowBlinds has grown in popularity over the years helping to make Stardock a significant player in the customization community. In 1999, the company was struggling in its transition from OS/2 to Windows. Stardock was in the process of creating Object Desktop for Windows and having a difficult time with the "enhanced look" component of Object Desktop. Eventually Stardock teamed up with Neil Banfield who was independently working on something similar. By combining knowledge and technology, WindowBlinds took off and now has over 2000 skins. You can find out more at http://www.windowblinds.net

Winamp has also seen its popularity grow. Originally a shareware program, it was bought out by AOL for millions of dollars. It has grown so popular as an MP3 player that even with Microsoft's efforts to dominate the media playing market, Winamp is still able to hold its own. Its third generation version incorporates very flexible skinning that supports alpha blending. You can find out more at http://www.winamp.com

WPlay, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have survived. It was a $10 shareware program that had to compete against free programs from much larger providers. It had some great skinning technology that was arguably ahead of its time. But with so many MP3 players, it was inevitable that some wouldn't make it.

So there you have it. A time machine trip back 4 years ago to the dawn of modern skinning. Back then, people didn't use graphics packages. We made skins using punch cards and each skin had only 4 colors of course... how things have changed!

You know, before I had kids, I never got sick. I had perfect attendance (other than chicken pox) in K through 12. But now with kids, blech. I'm not sure I ever even had the flu before having kids.

Anyone else out there suffering from the same thing? Seems like everyone I know is getting the flu. Thankfully, I have just the good old fashioned flu and intestinal or whatever but it is definitely a downer.