Longhorn Skinning A Reality 356
AlphaAlien writes "AlphaAlien of HardwareGeeks.com has figured out how to skin all of Microsoft's upcoming Windows release codenamed Longhorn. We can now skin Longhorn in the same manner we can skin Windows XP. Here's a picture of a very early copy of the first ever non-Microsoft skin for Longhorn. The only possible issue at this point is that Microsoft appears to be planning to move away from BMP based skinning altogethor and move to PNG based skins in which case any skins made for Longhorn at this point in time will not work far into the future. Also the patch to allow the skins to be loaded may not work many builds from the present as well. But for now we'll be able to hack away at the skinning engine at our leisure. in co-operation with BetasIRC.net we will be releasing the first few longhorn skins and a guide on how to get started on creating your own Longhorn skins."
Planning for the future? (Score:4, Funny)
That, more than anything, tells me a lot about how people feel about Microsoft's operating systems. Past, present, and future.
To paraphrase Douglas Adams: "It is no accident that there is no single word in any language that means, 'As pretty as the Longhorn OS.'"
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, there is. It's just very difficult to pronounce unless you happen to be in the act of vomiting at the time...
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:3, Funny)
Perhaps it is 'vrgwr!wrkp*rwq' (! is a glottal stop, * is a click), which is normally translated as "Gorge my eyes out with a spoon"
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:2, Insightful)
Many people - like I - probably feel insulted with the XP 'Fisher Price' interface. I mean they could at least pretend they've not designed it for users that have the computer knowledge of a four-year old.
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:2, Funny)
Actually, I think most 4 year olds have better comupter skills than the mass populace.
Maybe that's the angle OSS should take: Get Linux installed in all Fisher-Price and Playschool toys. Hook 'em young, I say.
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:3, Funny)
I feel the same way about the candy interface on my Mac. :-)
It's improving slowly with each new release, but it's still a little too "lickable" for my tastes.
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:4, Insightful)
Tell me again why monopolies are good?
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:3, Informative)
But of course you change the entire color scheme yourself, fairly easily. Just go to the desktop properties.
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope they dont teach this in ART class. Who says you need to bind creativity? I dont need my Art spoon fed to me, let them design as they see fit... I dont need some group-think confining my options, in ANY regard.
Absolute rules are to be broken absolutely.
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is the whole problem with skins. Skin artist makes this beautiful brushed metal design, and then can't figure out where his scrollbars are.
Apple done it right. Backgrounds are dull whites or brushed metal, but foregrounds are bright, gaudy mixes of whitish and bluish with big colorful icons. Shit, the three window accessory buttons (minimize, resize and close) are red, yellow and green.
XP is of course a mess, but not because of the colors. XP is a mess because it replaces the simple icons and buttons with a shitload of text and an obnoxious dog. People don't want to read a short novel and wrestle Bonzi Buddy just to install a printer.
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:3, Interesting)
Absolute rules are to be broken absolutely.
You can't really break a rule unless you know it's a rule.
We see the world through cultural and physiological biases, and those ever-changing biases have been studied for millenia by artist-scientist types. These teachings are employed by artist-engineer types to express a message as effectively as possible.
For example, to add tension, you can use angular shapes, discordant color combinations, and uneven spacing. If tension is useful to your artistic messa
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:3, Funny)
Am I the only one who actually likes the default winXP theme ?, do I need to hand back my
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:3, Funny)
Really? Are you sure about that? Because the guys who do the graphic design for McDonalds, Burger King, British Telecom and many more probably missed that day in school.
I'm not even going to mention Wired magazine.
Re:Errr (Score:5, Informative)
RGB is the three additive primary colors (and monitors use additive primary colors since they emit light, not subtractive).
XP uses by default in G and B in its color scheme.
Wikipedia article about primary colors [wikipedia.org]
Re:Planning for the future? (Score:3)
Well, is the iPod interface so horrible that people had to port Linux to it?
Re:Planning for the future? [OT] (Score:3, Informative)
Open Formats (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Open Formats (Score:5, Insightful)
This is news....because? (Score:2)
I mean, that's cool, Longhorn will be able to do this, but I still fail to see why this is a news story on Slashdot.
What's next? "New DVD player from Sony will play music CD's also!!!!"
Re:Open Formats (Score:2, Informative)
Windows Services for Unix [microsoft.com]
bash [interopsystems.com], from Unix Tools for Windows [interopsystems.com]
Re:probably not (Score:5, Informative)
Re:probably not (Score:3, Informative)
Just a friendly warning, but themexp.org is filled with all kinds of lousy spyware. Their frontpage links to a javascript on http://webpdp.gator.com/4/placement/475/, which presumably tries to install GAIN under IE. They also have the audacity to wrap (!) all the themes that they offer in spyware. That's not nice.
Stay clear of this worthless site and get your themes on good sites like Neowin [neowin.net] or DeviantA [deviantart.com]
Re:probably not (Score:3, Informative)
My technial knowledge of this is limitied, but IIRC Styles XP feigns the system into thinking these 3rd party themes are part of the original msstyles set shipped with Windows XP.
From a forum post on
Wait.. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Wait.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wait.. (Score:2, Funny)
In other news:
"Bill Gates' Microsoft Longhorn brutally skinned by open source enthusiasts."
PNG, great. (Score:5, Insightful)
( http://entropymine.com/jason/testbed/pngtrans/ )
Re:PNG, great. (Score:5, Insightful)
IE's transparency support for PNGs is definitely screwed up. I made a transparent PNG and it looks absolutely beautiful in Mozilla, Safari, Opera, Camino, etc. Load it in IE and it's a light gray background... Damn, can't they do anything right? Now I've got to "fix" it since 90% of the people use IE so they'll think it's broke.
Re:PNG, great. (Score:2)
Re:PNG, great. (Score:3, Informative)
I think modern versions of Opera support PNG with alpha - it's really just Internet Explorer that's 'special'.
Re:PNG, great. (Score:2)
Re:PNG, great. (Score:2)
now YOU are part of the problem. just have a browser detection, and have a message for IE that their browser is obsolete and point them to firefox.
Re:PNG, great. (Score:2)
That doesn't help the problem at all. You should leave the image in its correct form and put a notice on your site saying that any problems are caused by IE and that they should switch to something better (Firefox, Opera, whatever) or complain to MS if they have to stick with IE.
Thats not a bug. It is the new improved MS-png (Score:2)
Perhaps there is a new "better" way to get transparency in the microsoft implementation?
A Transparent Fix (Score:3, Informative)
It sucks that one has to play these shennanigans to fix such basic functionality. It also begs the question if javascript can fix IE's mishandling... what's the hold up from Microsoft themselves?
Re:PNG, great. (Score:4, Informative)
If you need a PNG with a fully transparent color (just like GIF), IE have no problem supporting it, as long as your PNG is indexed (aka PNG8). If you need partial transparency (aka alpha channel), then yes IE is broke.
To index a PNG in The Gimp 2.x, choose "Mode" -> "Indexed" in the Image menu.
Re:PNG, great. (Score:3, Insightful)
Skin the crash screens, too? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Skin the crash screens, too? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not sure if you're trolling or trying to be funny, but never mind.
However, you can actually change the colour of the BSOD to make it more PSOD (pink screen of death) or maybe YSOD (yellow screen of death).
Details are here [beemerworld.com] although many Slashdotters probably won't like to admit that on W2K/XP they might never actually see the fruits of their labour.
Re:Skin the crash screens, too? (Score:5, Funny)
I've got a bad dimm on ram on my desk that I guarantee will give you a blue screen. I will sell to anyone that needs to test their BSOD mods, for a slight fee.
Re:Skin the crash screens, too? (Score:2)
Of course, if I were going to switch desktops at work, it would be to MacOS/X, at this point.
At home I have the game box that runs nothing but XP and games, the laptop and two servers running Linux. They a
Re:Skin the crash screens, too? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Skin the crash screens, too? (Score:2)
Re:Skin the crash screens, too? (Score:2)
PNG support (Score:2, Interesting)
The real issue.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The real issue.... (Score:2)
There isn't much mud you can sling at longhorn that will stick ;)
Windows 2000 & XP don't crash. I've been using it for years, and it's rock-solid. I rebooted my machine for the first time in a couple of months today (my work PC). All the old "wind0ze crashes!" stuff ceased to be factual when Windows 2000 appeared.
Re:The real issue.... (Score:2)
If by rock-solid you mean it doesn't crash as much then I agree. Windows 2000+ is much better than Microsoft's previous attempts at OSes. I have had Windows 2000 crash on me though from a buggy driver. This crash brought down the whole system btw. Mos
Re:The real issue.... (Score:2)
Re:The real issue.... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's direct3D-9 hardware accelerated, so it'll be one of the fastest GUIs out there, much faster than anything in the UNIX world, simply through co-operation with the card manufacturers.
Will we be getting new direct3D-9 graphics cards included in the box? Cool!
Re:The real issue.... (Score:3, Informative)
Hmm, you do realize that OS X (arguably a Unix) has been OpenGL hardware accelerated for nearly two years already (May 2002) and by the time Longhorn ships it will be even more hardware accelerated, and approaching four years of OpenGL acceleration.
To claim it will be one of the fastest GUIs, *and* much faster than anythi
Re:The real issue.... (Score:2)
I don't think they're gonna go backwards with this. XP isn't slow and doesn't crash (well in my use of it, anyway) and I don't think they will drop the bar.
if Longhorn turns out to be a nice, stable, functional OS that happens to be skinnable
Isn't that what XP is now?
Anyway, I hate the whole idea of skinning. It's the worst possible thing you can do to software. It's like prostitution for soft
Priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
get started on creating your own Longhorn skins.
How about I get the OS first?
what the... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:what the... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:what the... (Score:5, Informative)
The current Longhorn releases feature the same UI system as XP, using static images for everything.
The final release will have an Avalon-powered UI. Because it uses DirectX, its a safe bet they will use scalable vector graphics (more flash-like, no BMP/PNG/JPG) for everything possible. The ability to resize windows has already been demonstrated, and keeping the UI clean and un-pixely is probably a big priority for them.
I would be *very* surprised if the Avalon UI uses the same theming system. All they've done is apply an old crack to old code. Nothing amazing there...
All part of The Plan(TM)(c) (Score:3, Funny)
2. Release some unimportant software under open/shared source license
3. Allow skinning of crappy m$ OS windowing environment
4. Spread more patently false FUD about how Linux suX0rs, make outrageous claims saying m$ is better
5. Have m$ OS be able to look like Linux
6. $$$!
I just don't get skins (Score:4, Insightful)
Is this feature really going to be popular? Honestly, I'd love to hear what makes customizable skins so desirable.
Heard of "Personal preferences"? (Score:5, Informative)
<obvious>
Well, this might come as a shock to you, but I'll cite some examples:
Simply because you like your speakers in black, doesn't mean everyone does. I, for once, prefer mahogny.
And as computers become a common thing, you might expect people to want to alter their looks and maybe even behaviour to suit whatever needs they may have.
</obvious>
If you really needed this answer, I think you spend way too much time alone in your room, boy. (Perhaps <obvious> as well...)
Re:I just don't get skins (Score:2)
It's hard to express, but these themes are so well put together they change the entire feel of your OS, not just the look. And, they do it in such a way that they always look built-in to th
Re:I just don't get skins (Score:2)
Now while only a few of us try to look like artificial intelligences most stay with artful.
More seriously: If one is wedged between all sorts of constraints (taxes, work, family, put your favourite here,
CC.
Re:I just don't get skins (Score:2)
Ah, the opiate-of-the-people explanation: you're stuck in cubicle, IT management has locked down your desktop and forbidden you to use any of the freeware tools you've come to love, your web browsing is monitored and you can't even put mp3s that you own on the office hdd, because management assumes all mp3s are stolen.
So you get to pretend
Bitmaps? (Score:2)
Okay, I didn't RTFA.
But, with monster monitors coming out and some people already squinting, aren't they planning to move to scalable icons?
I recall hearing of SVG icons for Gnome and KDE and of some, uh, SVG-like XML language that MS was developing...
Re:Bitmaps? (Score:2)
Ummm... some more detail please? (Score:2)
But what about the new bits...? (Score:3, Informative)
Signs of the apocalypse: (Score:2, Funny)
Quick, someone check Bill Gates for a stylish alternate-universe goatee!
Re:Signs of the apocalypse: (Score:2, Insightful)
Never confuse long-term, cloaked malice with cash-wrapped friendliness
Can it be? (Score:5, Funny)
Moo, Moo, Moo (Score:3, Insightful)
My droning, long hours in highschool agriculture class covered the Longhorn cattle. Transporting anything with horns that big was dangerous and cumbersome. "Polled" or hornless cattle came into fashion in the cattle industry in short order.
Why has Microsoft's marketing team picked the name of an animal that was proven in the marketplace to be 1. difficult to transport (picture horns sticking out of cattle cars or OS boxes sticking out of Fed Ex trucks) 2. difficult to maneuver without being gored?
I guess Longhorn isn't as new of an OS as we might have been led to think This is all beginning to sound rather familiar if you get my "point" :P
Re:Moo, Moo, Moo (Score:2)
Or was it the development team working on the project?
Why are you guessing that Longhorn isn't as new of an OS as you've been led to think? Because of the 3rd party WinXP looking skin that appears on a beta (or alpha) test version a full two years before the real product hits? Or because cows are difficult to transport?
Re:Moo, Moo, Moo (Score:2)
Um, I thought it was an, um, phallic allusion...
Which probably tells you what MS's marketing drones hope "Longhorn" will do to Tux...
Terrible Practice. (Score:2, Informative)
I'm a firm believer in F/OSS and use Linux always. I still maintain a Windows partiton on the lappy for Uni-related projects &c. I'm very much partial to the Windows 2000 desktop. It's barren enough to be effecient, and compl
UFO's (Score:3, Funny)
Why is PNG a good format to use? (Score:4, Flamebait)
First PNG is an open standard that doesn't rely on proprietary formats like LZW for compression like in Gif that is owned by Unisys [gnu.org]. PNG has a better compresses algorithm than GIF anyway.
PNG is a loss-less compression method meaning that you open and save and get back to original data. Think of it like a ZIP file, you can always get the data back from a ZIP files as you stored it in.
PNG supports three main image types: true color, grayscale and palette-based. Good for Normal Pictures, Documents and Web Based Images.
Re:Why is PNG a good format to use? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why is PNG a good format to use? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Why is PNG a good format to use? (Score:3, Informative)
You skipped one of the handiest features of PNG, and the feature MS doesn't support: Alpha Transparency. This let's you do impressive visual effects that are difficult to do any other way.
What, no SVG ??? (Score:3, Informative)
AFAIK, Gnome and KDE are both going toward SVG vector graphic for icons/UI elements (correct me if I am wrong). Building a UI on bitmap graphic in 2004 seem quite retarded to me.
It will (Score:4, Insightful)
It will. This is one of the beta builds. I've seen at least three MSDN videos showcasing the technology...clearly, people on this site haven't been paying attention.
All the questions and comments similar to this one in this discussion really reveal how absolutely uninformed about Longhorn Slashdotters are as they meanwhile bash it. Common knowledge about Longhorn seems to have not yet reached Slashdot--no doubt because Slashdot would rather post silly anti-"M$" article when meanwhile, great strides are taking place in their technology. Someone here actually implied you'd need a DirectX9 level card just to run the thing--obviously he didn't know Longhorn supports several tiers of operation, going all the way down to standard 2D like Windows 2000. You can choose a tier manually or let Longhorn decide for you according to system specs. This is just one example of bizarre posts that completely reveal how ignorant people are of this OS--they call it "vaporware" as though there is no information released about it. People, there is tons of info already known that Microsoft has given away freely in the past year.
For crying out loud, visit WinSuperSite [winsupersite.com] and read up a little bit!
RiceOS (Score:4, Funny)
Skins are to user interfaces what Type-R and VTEC stickers are to Honda Civics.
Re:that's Longhorn? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm no fan of M$, but I'd hope that, for once in their product line, their actually concentrating on getting the guts right before making it pretty.
Not likely, but I can hope.. :-)
Besides, I guess that at this point there's still large chunks of XP code in Longhorn so it's not surprizing that it's not looking all that different yet.
Re:that's Longhorn? (Score:2, Insightful)
With my copy of XP the first thing I did was put the Start menu back to windows 2000 format and turn the blue task bar into the classic gray one.
Re:that's Longhorn? (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole point of hardware accelerated GUIs are that they save CPU cycles by offlaoding GUI rendering to the graphics card, hardware designed for rendering graphics.
Re:that's Longhorn? (Score:2, Interesting)
This is one of the things Microsoft doesn't get. When I build a Sun or Linux production server, the only software on it is the software needed to provide the services the server was built for. Web servers don't neeed GUIs, browsers, or media playsers. Database servers don't need GUIs, , browsers, or media playsers. Application servers don't need GUIs, browsers, or media play
Re:that's Longhorn? (Score:3, Informative)
And the OS release commonly reffered to in media as "Longhorn" is a client OS release, where eye-candy is appropriate and in some sense needed to catch-up/differentiate from OS X.
Longhorn server is a different story. I've heard rumors of Microsoft moving towards a componentized approach to OS install. Something similar to building Windows Embedded images, where you've got
Re:that's Longhorn? (Score:2)
Re:that's Longhorn? (Score:2)
Re:that's Longhorn? (Score:2)
I'm sure most of the good stuff is behind the curtain.
Re:that's Longhorn? (Score:2)
Seriously, you think GUIs are good now - just wait.
Before the criticism begins... (Score:4, Informative)
There's MUCH more (including adding and removing RAM without rebooting--currently, Windows Server 2003 only lets you add RAM)...but you've read up on Longhorn before bashing it, right?
Note before I get called a Microsoftie--yes, I appreciate their technology. They have some of the smartest developers in the world working there. Yes, I also run Linux--Gentoo, to be exact.
Re:that's Longhorn? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Performance issues (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Wasn't it supposed to be vector? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Anyone wants to make the joke? (Score:2)
Re:Heh (Score:2)
so there's no reason to think it's a "backup".
Re:at least (Score:2)
I don't know why they make default setups look so ugly either. Perhaps it's to prompt the user to change it to suit them.