TEKNIDERMY - ISSUE 7: November/December 2001

XP - Take it or Leave it.
The rising tide of OS Based skins.
by JellyBeanSoup

Author's note: This is more of an Editorial than a plain article… and if you don't agree… then it's your choice. Editorials such as this are designed to give one side, and then you decide which you will take.

First off, I'm going to say that I don't dislike some of the new OS's around. I have at least one Luna (XP) and Aqua (OS X) skin in my collection for all my different apps… and I've even made a few OS Based skins. But doesn't the OS based skin fad seem over-rated?

In a forum post DaWebMassa (DW) made a little statement regarding this subject. "It would seem to me that if I created a 'skin' and called it 'XP-dabomb' and simply put a big huge "XP" in the middle of a white and blue gradiated screen, I'd get a kajillion downloads."

It definitely seems that way. With the oncoming release of XP, it seems that we definitely won't upgrade for it's new interface design. We've seen it all too much. XP is all over the web, and us skinners are pretty much sick of it. There's hundreds of different XP skins floating around, and they all look pretty much the same. And all of them have downloads in the thousands, if not the hundreds of thousands. Even though I like the look of XP, there's no need for all these separate skins. Why not have one? That would be sufficient to fulfill everybody's needs right?

DW also said that when Win2K came out, there wasn't this big a scene. The reason why is because Win2K looked pretty much the same as Win95/98… so why use a skin looking like that? XP has a new look, so people are trying to get the new look on their computer. Give the release of XP some time, and the downloads will eventually slow down and stop as more people turn to XP as their OS.

So it seems that yet again Microsoft has taken over the scene.

Aqua skins aren't half as popular. Then take a BeOS skin or a Linux skin and you'll get half as many downloads again. Why?

My answer (with Aqua, anyway) is that Apple hasn't featured as big lately. People like the old look of Mac OS, for it's "simplicity with style" look, and OS X's new "Aqua" look just don't cut it with some, while others love it totally to death. And not many people download much Aqua, or even know of it's existence. Why?

It seems XP has hit the front covers of every computer mag here in Australia. Meanwhile, articles about OS X are 2 pages long, and hidden in the back, hardly seen, hardly read. Thus Aqua isn't as well known as XP… because average people just walking past the computer mag rack will see the huge XP plastered on the front, and later, when they're online, they'll see it and remember.

Then there are the skinners. When a skinner sees a skin that has thousands of downloads, they automatically think, "If only I had made that." If it's an OS Based skin… such as one of the XP Based skins that float around, they have an easy way of getting what they hope will be thousands of downloads, and thus a top-rated skin.

So, how can a problem like the XP takeover be prevented? It's Simple. People should see a new OS… say for example "Win 5000 XP"… and talk to other skinners about doing a set together. After the set is finished… that OS should be left alone, except for updates to the skins, to add new features and such. Any "remakes" of an OS should be added to the set. Zip all the different WindowsBlinds skins into a single zip file, and then there's only one floating around. Make a single Icon Packager set with all the different Icons. It's simple teamwork that make the skinning community work as it does, why not take it further and each pitch in to a set? We do it already with original stuff… there's no point in letting the idea slip with the OS based stuff.

So… in essence this is a challenge: All skinners around the globe… work together… and the community will be a cleaner, tidier place.