Blog: Konfabulous sour grapes, Tiggz stalking, and more..

from WinCustomize Forums

Get ready for some spicy stuff.  I think one of the reasons people like Stardock is that we operate a lot like how many people who have thought of running their own business would run their business.  Simply put, we're candid. We don't have any venture capital powering the company. We operate because of people like you guys who buy our products, subscribe to our sites, etc. send us money and we then take that money and create stuff you want. That makes us totally independent. We don't have corporate masters. You guys are our masters. So you don't get any of that patronizing politically correct crap that you see from so many "larger" companies (even though Stardock itself is a multi-million dollar corporation now all from many thousands of individual purchases each year).

My rant of the day is that apparently the Konfabulator for Windows beta comes out next week. How do I know this? It was on freakin Slashdot. It was on News.com. And it was on dozens of other sites. Wow. Konfabulator for Windows. Must be doing something earth shattering? Friends, I have Konfabulator on my Macintosh. It's a great Mac program. I think its developer is a very talented guy. But to be perfectly honest, it's not even competitive with Kapsules let alone something like DesktopX.

But given the coverage Konfabulator always gets, you'd think it was some sort of miracle program. Sure, it costs more than DesktopX, does a lot less than DesktopX, has fewer users than DesktopX, is harder to create stuff for, has less content, but it's special because it came from a Mac and everyone knows that people who use Macs are...you know...a better breed of human than us yokals who use PeeCees. 

Not that Konfabulator content is bad. Why this past week a cool weather widget came out for it. And an RSS reader.  And a terror alert status. In other words, the same kinds of things that have been avaiable on DesktopX, Kapsules, Samurize, and countless other programs for a long time. But Konfabulator gets credit for being somehow unique even though it was preceded by DesktopX by 3 years.

Probably the most insulting part was that Konfabulator big coverage came from CNET which has acted like it was somehow unique even as DesktopX on CNET has been on its top 10 most popular desktop enhancement downloads category for the past 203 consecutive weeks.  That's about 4 years straight (Konfabulator was released on the Mac in 2003 to keep things in perspective).

I'm going to start showing my son (who's 7) how to make widgets for DesktopX. I think he'd have a good time and it'll teach him some valuable skills such as how to use a graphics package, how to do some basic programming, and best of all, you he'd get some immediate gratification. When I was his age I was playing around with basic programming on my dad's Apple II. Those were the days.

Meanwhile, I must find Tiggz and snuff him out.  In the advocacy competition he's beating me. ME. How is this happening? Now I know how a Kerry voter must be feeling right now. How is Tiggz able to get more people to WinCustomize them myself? Personally I'm blaming it on the voter machines in Ohio. The new WinCustomize tracks the # of people you bring to the site from links you create on other sites.  Obviously he's cheating. That's the only explanation.  But this week he has brought 1,157 people to WinCustomize.com from links he's made to his personal page and his skins from other sites.

Meanwhile, Steven Grenier has taken the lead in the WindowBlinds most popular skin contest. His WindowMax2 skin has passed up many other skins to be the current leadrer demonstrating that it's not how quick you get your skin up but how much people like it.

This Tuesday DesktopX v2.2 will be released so hopefully people will be able to finally compare Konfabulator to DesktopX head to head. I'm looking forward to that. Finally and apples and apples comparison between the two.

Meanwhile, the Utopia Icons are doing really well. It's always good to see long time community skinners like Paul Boyer do well. He did this on his own folks, I know he spent many many weekends working on Utopia to make sure it was really good.

So next week things will definitely be getting interesting. New builds of a bunch of programs coming out and lots of news. And WinCustomize v4 will be available to more people. Stay tuned!

18,838 views 47 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
You know what, ***** your products.***** your company...your complete *****..never will I support or purchase anything from stardock again...who the ****** do you people think you are??? You worthless ******* whom should have been aborted at conception...****** you and goodbye!!!
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

And a fond farewell to you, too.


BTW....if you wish I can send you the deleted expletives...as I have a fine collection of them already....

ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Man how I love Mac fanboyz ... glad we got Sheriff Jafo on the watch
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I can't see how Konfabulator will be WORTH $24.95 when all it will do is WIDGETS!

Kapsules does widgets, and it's free.
AveDesk does widgets...and it's free.
Samurize does widgets...and it's free.
DesktopX does widgets, plus quite a bit more...so it costs $19.95.

See anything wrong with this picture?
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Any idea how they managed to get that kind of coverage? Did they spend the big beans, or did it just come by itself (you know, hype hysteria). Can't really blame them, if something is unfair, it has nothing to do with them, but the ones who did the coverage.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I think this will have a big impact on the AveDesk crowd. I wonder....will they jump ship in their quest for the ultimate MacPC and use konfabulator or will they be loyal to AveDesk? After seeing how revved up the got about DX and the price of konfabulator, I think they're gonna NOT welcome the proggy with open arms
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I've never been a big fan of apple computers (stemming back to my childhood days) . . . even though I did break down and contribute to the company buy picking up an Ipod (which, I will admit, was a worthwhile investment).
I don't know how to do any skinning but it's the attitude that you talk about, Brad, that I appreciate. It seems like we're all one big happy . . . even though we do spar at times!
On another note, GO TIGGZ!!!!! (sorry Brad).
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
@ Essencay - AveDesk crowd won`t mind Trust me. We were always opened for competition but we don`t even see Konfabulator and DesktopX as competition. AveDesk is more a icon enchancer than a widget program so we`re fine with that. The only thing that bugs me is the apparent repeating of Widget Wars from few months ago and i know a lot of people got hurt that day. Can`t we all be friends?

@ Brad - in a way i can understand your grudge about Konfab news wave but shouldn`t StarDock's PR department do something about it?
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
AveDesk 1.2 is a vast improvement over the current 1.1. You won't see many abandon it over Konfab. Of course there will be some, but the resource usage (potential I might add) will put a lot of users off, you know, the ones that count every single little bit of ram and flip out if anything users more than 1MB (which there are a lot of).
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
hey how come stardock is a multi-million dollar corporations but you never advertize? i'v showed windowblinds to all my friends, they never even knew u can change the way windows looks let alone know about stardock, i think a couple of tv advertisements, a few internet ads here and there won't hurt stardock, if they do make millions.


im not attacking stardock or sayin they'r cheap, in fact i love stardock and im goin there to apply for a job actually but i mean a couple of ads won't hurt....u know?
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Brad, Lets face facts....Apple has that PR machine thats like a "Steam Roller" when somethings released - it's hard when your a multi-million dollar corporation & Apple is a multi-BILLION dollar one.

George Rogers Jr.
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
umm...
i don`t see the connection between Apple and Konfabulator news on slashdot?
Apple added Dashboard in Tiger, which is a direct competition to Konfab so i doubt that they would support it
Unless it`s an evil plan to take over the world!
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
couldn`t edit my previous post

Konfabulator is made by Pixoria and its only connection to Apple is that Arlo Rose, the co-creator of Konfabulator (and Pixoria CEO) worked for Apple few years ago.
There`s no reason why would Apple`s "Steam Roller" push Konfabulator in the news.
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I think that there is a certain mistique attached to Apple, Macintosh and those connected to it in any way.


As for advertising, TV ads cost a lot of money and the likely result wouldn't be that good. WindowBlinds has been in most major computer magazines. It's not obscure but it's very hard to get the word out beyond a certain point.

Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I think the hype is because the original Mac version Konfab was indeed something new and revolutionary (on the Mac platform). The original Konfab got lot of press. Now the facct that it's being ported over to Windows is just an inheritance from the original hpe, although it's not new on the Windows platform.  It's more like "Hey, look, now that amazing program will be available for Windows".That and the fact that Desktop X has long been known as a Theming app more than a widget app.  We know it can do widgets, but I tink it's not the perception a lot of people have yet (including the Windows sites and magazines). 
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Brad, if your analysis is true then there is nothing to be afraid of. It will get some hipe for a couple months and then disappear into the average OS enhancement world after people realize that other free and/or better programs can do the same.

frac

(btw. I am from Ohio and I am deeply disturbed on what happened especially as a permanent resident who cannot vote. Sorry, I know you don't want ppl to rant about politics, but your Ohio line triggered it).
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Personally, I think the real test will come when we find out how much resources Konfab uses. Every time I've used DesktopX (the demo version, that is,) my computer has almost ground to a halt (and this is with minimal themes). I might consider getting Konfab if it doesn't use as much resources :\
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I think these news posts are good. But have we not heard enough about who was first and whatever!? I think we have. That is my own personal opinion. DesktopX widgets does not respond very well on my 2.2ghz system with a 55oo nvidia card. Konfabulator on my previosly owned Mac did. And it was only 800Mhz.

All in all I feel that this biggering(sp?)should end. It serves no purpose imho.

It might well be that DesktopX was first and what have you. But Konfabulator or Samurize has more going for them.

But still Keep on making new apps and look forward not back.

The only reason why I used DesktopX(and IconX) was that IconX alone didn't support my MS keyboard with hotkeys to open folders for various things. They woul open but not pop up on the screen, instead it remained in the taskbar. With DesktopX AND IconX the thing changes folders pop up and reveal themselves. Go figure.

I guess I have that one thing to thank DesktopX for

Have a good day from a 2nd year(not in a row) ObjectDesktop subscriber.

Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
More sour grapes... banging on about Konfabulator. Change the record.
We all know that DesktopX is superior, but it still isn't "new" and it isn't the only program out that.

That's why I hate having personal Blogs on the front page of Wincustomize. It just cheapens the whole site. Stick to relevant news reporting. Save the personal gripes for the playground.

Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
For interesting info on Konfabulator and what it means:

Konfabulator for Windows... on its way!
http://www2.konfabulator.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4672

Also, check out the interesting
"Ten Days In The Wild"
A look at how two very different things can be the same
http://www.konfabulator.com/ten.html
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Stardock is a multi-million corporation ?
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Joe:


That's the thing, you don't have to run DesktopX to use its widgets. That's its big advantage. With Konfabulator, you HAVE to run its environment. With DesktopX, you just need it installed. Its widgets are EXEs.

Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
^I don't really see the point of that since then instead of managing 1 app (DX) you have to manage many (5 on my desktop currently). How does that make anyone's life easier having their notification area populated by little apps?