I would think so, yes.

"Dear shop owner....I have worn these jeans for 6 months...but I don't want/like them any more.  Please can I have my money back?"

that statement is inherently incorrect. Since i have using stardock products most issues have been fixed promptly and permanently. Maybe the reason OD 2 is taking so long is because stardock are making damn sure that it will be perfect. Also they cannot predict every type of machine/hardware that these products will be asked to run on.

I would hazard a guess to say that most of the time the reason programs don't run properly on someones machine is because it is either poorly maintained, Not updated or a flaky install of windows. Admittedly this is not the case all the time and some people do have genuine problems and from what i have experienced with stardock support (even if they take a few days, but hey they are busy you know) will always try and rectify the issue.

It would be nice if there was someone at Stardock who actually trolled these posts and could throw us a bone about a theoretical timeline for projected releases. True, there is a workaround to get OD+ working on Vista x64, but are they trying to get it (OD2) ready for Win7? Maybe they think Vista support is a waste of effort.............

Maybe they don't care about Vista because most people will be upgrading to Win7 (IMO), since Vista sucked from all betas until SP1 release. I think it's ok now with new hardware. Win7 seems to run smoothly on hardware that is painfully slow with Vista. This could mean that when it is released (win7), it will run nicely on most hardware out there, something MS nor apple have been able to do. (Apple locks old hardware from upgrading to new OSX releases as they deem appropriate; granted, one can get around that).  But still, MS doesn't lock anyone out, the new OS (you name it: 98, XP,Vista) is generally painfully slow when released because of bloat. 

Sorry about the tangent.......BACK TO TOPIC.........Is OD going to be around with Apple getting a patent for their dock? Or are all others besides OSX going bye-bye? Does anyone have any idea? Or is OD dead with the possiblilty of a sh*%^y Apple lawsuit?

Like I said, it would be nice if a SD troll would help us out a bit. Some other good software manufacturers have good Forum Support (most don't), I can't yet say that forum support is good at SD.

A good, compatible, & stable x64 OD2 release would be good for us all (IMO).

Reporting dates is almost always risky for any software delevoper.  Especially one that wants to put out the best product possible.  There is always the chance that if a date is missed then you'll have more people upset.

As to not caring about OD . . that's just not the case.  The fact is that there are only so many resources available and sometimes you have to pick where to spend them.  And remember, just because you are not seeing action does not mean things are not being done.  I would expect that OD2 will work on both Vista and Win7.

I wouldn't be too worried about Apple lawsuits either. 

I know sw development is incredibly difficult to estimate completion dates, especially with the load that SD is under; with so many nice products having been released lately. But if a release date is "missed", the customer is aware that something is around the corner, since it has been noted that work is being completed on a new project, thus the projected release date.

It just 'seems' to alot of people think that OD is left for dead, since there hasn't been an updates for an awefully long time. Granted, long time(s) between releases will always fuel this debate, whether it is warranted or not. Also, It would be nice if they fixed Impulse to allow the viewing and installation of the beta releases (or have they?), so we can get  simpler way to get x64 support for OD (as opposed to installing the old SDC to get the OD+ beta).

Still, an estimate of Q1 2009, or something like that would give a nice 3 month window. Or why not a Q1-Q2 2009 setimate, a six month window? Most every company has to put estimated completion dates for the sake of striving to reach the goal. If a project has not reached the standard of quality where it needs to be, then the release date of course must slip. Again, the customer is aware something NEW is on the horizon, since the 'projected' release date was given many months before.

I know, I know; it is impossible to put an exact timeline on a good quality product, but a 3-6 month estimate is "usually" a good window for a projection. And I know this is all a moot point, since OD will do what they want to do, regardless of what (we in the forums) want. But aren't we, the supposed 'fanboys' of SD, deserving of some appeasing? Just a thought. Back to work for now.

See reply #49. 

Zubaz, Thanks for the help and the information (#49). You know, I went and installed OB2 from my ultimate account, and it appears that is a very powerful program; and I haven't really played with it yet. OD / OB are different, yet very similar. I really like OB2, but would like to make it a little more like the Win7 Taskbar, where mousing over icons gives a preview of the open windows. Right now OB only gives the address of the open item. Maybe OD2 will give the customization that many want.

Anyway, I always look forward to a SD releases. That is why I have Ultimate, and have started to dabble in their other software titles.

Closer to this...

"Dear shop owner... I bought these jeans yesterday and they have a blotch on them. Can I get a good pair please?"

"Customer, I am sorry, but we don't have any in stock at the moment. I can give you a refund now, or you can wait until we get them back in stock."

"I can wait, shop owner. Thanks for listening."

...wait...wait...wait...

"Are the jeans in yet, shop owner?"

"No. Soon though."

...wait...wait...wait...

"Are the jeans in yet, shop owner?"

"No. Soon though."

...wait...wait...wait...

"Are the jeans in yet, shop owner?"

"No. Soon though."

"Well, I've been waiting for them to come in for a while now. Since it  seems like you won't be getting them in anytime soon, could I have a refund please?"

apple may be able to get a patent for their dock, but they didn't invent the dock so i can't see how they can possibly institute a lawsuit against stardock. Docks have been around for a lot longer than most people realise.

Well, if you asked support back then and they gave you the choice between waiting or a refund, you can send a copy of that email to the sales deparment and surely they should honor their word.

That's what happened, right? You contacted them and they proposed to give you a refund?

I wasn't sure if Apple invented it or not, MS/Apple and others steal ideas from all over the place, so it's hard to know who's idea it really is. But since Apple finally received the patent, I was wondering what might happen. They (Apple) tends to think that they invent everything, and then go after anyone who does the something similar, after they stole the idea in the first place.

I read an article shortly after the patent was granted, and it proposed the idea of possible issues to those who had similar software(s) to that of their dock. I still can't wait for the new OD2 someday soon.

for dock history read here.  http://draginol.impulsedriven.net/article/318845/No_Mac_zealots_Apple_didnt_invent_the_dock

Exerpt from Draginol's blog:

"But let's say you're a true die-hard Steve Jobs zealot and want to argue that NeXT "invented" the dock. You'd still be wrong as docks were part of Acorn computers from the early 80s."

Apple as far as I know, did not win a patent on the dock, just some specific functionality, Magnification I think was one IRRC.

it's not even "win" it's "Claimed".. if it holds is yet to be answered

Ok i will be honest here, i don't think the devs even know "how" to fix the bugs and problems with OD.

Think about it, 2 years to push out some bug fixes and minor enchancements? Come on, you have to be kidding me.

The devs are not good enough to fix it, instead of getting someone on board who's competent enough they have tossed OD aside to work on something they can actually do.

Stardock why don't you sell it to a company who can in turn make it a killer app?

-sigh- 

*shrug.* it *has* been a while since the last release, after all.

Anyway, what i really wanted to say: I'm currently testing Win7 a bit, and while i'm unimpressed with the fact that i've yet to find a virtual cd drive mounting tool that works well, it struck me that the new "Taskbar" is trying to implement some of the features OD+ has been offering for a while now. Only it's not always working very well. The new Desktop Preview is nice, (and should be a nice addition to the functionality OD+ already offers) but the integration with programs that (used to) minimize to the system tray is still fairly bad. One (somewhat odd) example of this is Outlook 2007, which starts acting up when you select the "hide when minimized" option, and sometimes even starts a 2nd instance of the same program, even though it's not supposed to. This as opposed to the way it works in winXP with OD+, where it will *never* start a 2nd process, even when you don't use the "only launch once" feature (which doesn't really work very well in all situations) In Win7 though, the new Taskbar 'shortcuts' that turn into 'running program minimize/maximize bar indicators (that is, the way they used to work) when a program is indeed running are nice-ish, but i imagine OD+ in winXP still has more to offer for me (and this isn't just because i'm not used to the way win7 works yet).

So i'd say a new version of OD+ (with, say, better "running" process detection, better instance detection (the same executable in different directories is detected as the same program, even when it has a different config attached to it), and more consistent resizing behavior when maximizing something from a systray dock, along with whatever other features you can come up with that work) would still have a lot to offer even Win7 (x64) users.

Foppe, thanks for the update on working with win7 (x32 & x64). i have used it as a bluray player for my big screen (stability not that important). SInce I couldn't get it to run (consistently) some very important 32-bit engineering programs at work, regardless of the nice Compatibility setup it runs, I haven't kept it on any MAIN computers; only as a second partition boot. Which I was very impressed with (it installed seemlessly on the same WD 1TB black HDD, with 250GB Vistax64 patition), on a seperate partition (same HDD). I now have a simple dual boot that works perfectly.

It'll be nice to have have good compatible SD SW when we leave Vista for WIn 7 for good later this year. Thanks all.

IF OD+2 is "supposed" to be released anytime soon, why is it not in the COMING SOON section?

Does anyone have any CLUE as to what features we will see with OD+2, when it will be released more or less, and what it'll cost? Just wondering. If it is anything better than 1.9, with super features, i will pay the upgrade. Just wondering when.

Nope... they said they'd have it fixed up right away!  Four months later and I can't even get the version of the software that I had when I made my purchase. Support had me "try reinstalling" which downgraded my version. I can't even get back to where I was when I paid for my subscription!

In the new ObjectDock 2.0 will I finally now be able to change the color of the font that shows when hovering my cursor over the icons on the dock? I would really like to use other colors besides white.

I have e mailed Stardock about this many times already!

RocketDock allows this! Why can't StarDock?

i would never pay for it   thats a load of crap!

Let's have a bit of a speculation and let's have a look at the facts as well, shall we chaps?

 

The speculation that I am talking about is my thought that Stardock knows that, as far as desktop dock software for Windows is concerned, they are such a dominant force and, since there is little in the way of competition, there is also less incentive to improve the software. Sorry, but I call it as I see it.

 

Now onto the facts. Version 1.5 had bugs. Version 1.9 that came out 6 months later has bugs and all of the alphas/betas that have followed in the past 2 years had bugs. No, they aren't my-machine-specific problems, they are bugs and have been acknowledged as such by Stardock support. There is also an issue of the 64-bit compatibility. Windows XP 64-bit came out over 4 years ago, Vista had a 64-bit edition at launch and so will Windows 7. Yet I can't think of any Stardock product, let alone OD, that officially states in System Requirements that 64-bit is fine. People may report it working but that's completely different. If one encounters issues on 64-bit and asks Support about what to do they can very well put their hands up and say: "We don't officially support 64-bit, so you're on your own mate". They probably won't, but there's room for manoeuvring just in case a 64-bit bug pops up.

 

I have been using OD+ for the past 3 years: there have been good times and there have been bad times. There have been bugs when I used it on XP and there are still bugs once I moved onto Vista. I do hope that OD+ 2.0 will arrive soon and I'm sure Stardock will be praised left, right and centre once that happens. However, I feel that 2.0 should be a free update for current 1.9 users no matter whether they just bought a licence or did it 2 years ago. The reason why I feel that way is because I believe that it's a bit rich asking people to shell out extra for fixes of existing bugs. New features? Sure, I'll pay for those, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect bugfixes to be on the house. So let's keep our fingers crossed that a new version will come soon and that it will fix the problems that many a user are having. I also hope that Stardock's strategy will be fair to people who, so far, endured 2 years of no updates and no fixes. Yes, I know they have been busy with other stuff too but, as someone who's only Stardock product is OD+, I don't see that as a good reason to feel left out. As I said at the beginning, I call it like I see it. Bring on better OD+!

any update to release timeframe? 

What I still don't get is that all the developer time is wasted for a comparatively minor product like Fences while ObjectDock is left alone for such a long time. RightClick is the same IMHO.