The State of Skinning: 2007 Edition (from OSNews.com)

StarDock's Brad Wardell has published his yearly 'State of Skinning' article. He concludes: "So there you have it. 2007 was a bit of a sucky year for skinners. Vista was a pain in the ass to get existing things working on. If you want to create cool new stuff on Vista, it's very painful unless you use Windows Presentation Foundation but if you do that, you'll find that your app is incredibly slow until SP1 arrives. And with so many new platforms to choose from, the skinning community is extremely fragmented. And plus, Bill Gates retired which just makes me sad. But 2008 looks much better. The transition to Vista should be completed soon. The software will get polished. More focus will be put on the actual skins. And skinning will likely move from just being mainstream to ubiquitous. So hold onto your hats, this year should be a great ride!"

Hmm. Skinning. I remember when I used to get my Windows 9 system to look like Windows XP and OSX about years ago. These days I prefer to use the standard windows layout. Skinning is nice for the sake of it, but I prefer a simpler looking interface when working.

Vista's default theme really isn't that bad looking... although I do have to admit that I wish I could get rid of all the Windows logos...

Other than that, the only real things I've changed were the desktop background (wallpaper), a few custom folder icons, and the cursor/pointer.

Don't get me wrong, there are always times the old Mac user in me wishes I could just use good-old Kaleidoscope schemes on Vista... *pauses for a moment*..... *proceeds to laugh like Frasier Crane's father*......*lets out a sigh, reminiscing all the good times*

XP or Classic, I wanted to put a Dock to good use and avoid icons with text. Is it true that a lot of icons on a desktop can hurt resources?

these days? probably not as much.... however, it does make it harder to find things. I prefer to use the Start menu with this kind of configuration........

*a folder for all my most frequently used graphics apps shortcuts
*a folder for all my most frequently used office apps shortcuts
*a folder for all my most frequently used games shortcuts
*a folder for all my other most frequently used FOLDERS...
*and finally a folder for all my documents, organized by topic

Just mouse over the thing I need and click once.

While a dock is pure sex (eye candy), I think I've gotten used to reading the text titles of the items to find exactly what I want. But don't worry, the mac user in me can still just as easily navigate with the dock. (as I'm sure the dock can do pretty much the same thing)