Actually,  it woul be great if Stardock created software to skin Apple systems to.  I know many people that would be very interested. 

[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.

 

 

 

 

Um Heck Yeah!

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.

It seems Apple made their UI unskinnable (think Modern app) and that was the reason Flavours development stopped. It was rewritten between Flavours 1 and 2 and the return on investment was probably low. Not because people didn't buy it but because it took years to develop.

“Apple introduced a new security policy on OS X El Capitan, preventing every process (even privileged ones) from modifying system files, either on filesystem or dynamically at runtime. Unfortunately, with these security restrictions in place, this is the end of line for Flavours.”

Skinning on the Mac is probably still possible in the sense that third-party apps can skin themselves. Unfortunately not many app developers build in support for different themes. Firefox used to have a large collection of themes before they dropped full theme support.

 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.

Steve Jobs *was* Apple. Both times he left the company (first when he was let go and now that he is dead) Apple went downhill fast.

I have never seen so many Apple users furious at the company and bad-mouthing Apple as I have been seeing recently, and they used to be rabid fans. To be able to alienate so many of your most devoted users in such a complete way in such a short amount of time, is an accomplishment all by itself. Microsoft is close, though, but not quite yet.

High Sierra slowed Mac computers literally to a crawl and allowed FULL access to the OS by simply typing Root without a password, the notch on the Iphone X is now the target of countless jokes, etc...

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.

Lock down windows 10 home edition no updates
Services
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Delivery Optimization
Update Orchestrator Service
Windows Update

All are disabled

The last 2 must be on to access recovery.

Kill windows defender updates
Administrative tools
run as administrator
Windows Firewall with Advanced Security
Block incoming and out going MpCmdRun.exe (Microsoft Malware Protection Command Line Utility)
it is in windows defender program folder.

Kill auto installing apps
Block app installer in firewall and or uninstall in apps.

Turn off auto update by the computer manufacturer. Hunt it down they are all different.
You are on your own with your programs.
I trust no security software all I have used screwed the start sequence
and I had to get rid of them before the computer was inoperable.
You can trust them if you like to. I have had no problem with windows defender yet.
Use opera and firefox preferably at the same time.
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

Cut down on unnecessary auto maintenance.
Set windows defender to custom scan and don't select any thing.
It still scans processes or something.
It will reset to quick scan after restart.
I do a quick scan once a week with the other maintenance.
Why scan it if nothing changes I have real time scanning on.

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

In a round-a-bout, convoluted sort of a way, I think Iben is trying to say that Windows is an Extinction Level Event at some point or other.... and if you mess around with it the wrong way it'll be sooner rather than later.

Other than that, I don't have a clue.  

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!   

LMAO!

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...

And I remember it being referred to as 'Nut scrape' which probably said something about how good it wasn't...;)

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

I Now Use 'VIVALDI'    

Who can forget Webblinds and it's 'throbber'  

Netscape - now that brings back memories. Worked better than IE on 3k dial up  

My PC is still clean. No unnecessary programs at all. Guess what - all the problems people have had with the latest Windows updates have not affected me at all. Everything is running as smooth as an android's bottom

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

There we go with the throbber again. After a bazillion years I still don't know what you're talkin' about. 

*having never seen it that is*

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? 

Yup, the old throbber never died, it just got a bit broken.  As I recall, it was Bichur who complained that his throbber was broken, but me thinks he just got carried away and got a little too rough with it.  I'm not saying it was his own fault, cos boys with their toys can get a bit over-excited, but perhaps he could have been a little more careful with it.