I'm all for users being able to customize their software and some RISC OS software could really use a better look but it's beginning to get ridiculous when that's becoming one of the selling points of a piece of software.

People have complained about lack of software and developers about lack of cash returns from software and then time and money is being spent on something of such low priority - in my opinion.
Wouldn't it be better to have that time and money spent on a more useful feature of the software?

Many people like to customise their machines and the software on it - you get things running and looking as you want, and it's fun.

And the software company gets free publicity out of it, because some sucker will set up a website with Oregano, WebsterXL etc. skins on it. This brings those pieces of software to the public attention for zero work on the software company's part, because the site owner or the public contribute their own skins.

To be honest, skinning doesn't add that much more time to the development cycle of a product - in Vantage's case, everything else is ready for Wakefield, and so the author spoke to me about a simple way of replacing a few icons. Three extra lines in the !Run file and that's it.

That's only for the user to change the skin! The application itself has to be designed in some small part with skinning in mind to make it this simple to change the appearance of the program. That DOES take time and time COSTS money! My point is that developers have said that time is their biggest enemy when developing RISC OS software since most programmers write the applications in their spare time so it looks like a little bit of valuable time spent on something unnecessary but admittedly cool.

Many people like to customise their machines and the software on it - you get things running and looking as you want, and it's fun.

And the software company gets free publicity out of it, because some sucker will set up a website with Oregano, WebsterXL etc. skins on it. This brings those pieces of software to the public attention for zero work on the software company's part, because the site owner or the public contribute their own skins.

I wouldn't exactly say it's zero work on the company's behalf - they have to make the software skinnable before the poor "sucker" sets up the site.

Don't take it as I'm against skinning, on the contrary I love having the option although I hardly ever use it. My point is about the developers taking the already too sparse time and resources to do it.

Many people like to customise their machines and the software on it - you get things running and looking as you want, and it's fun.

... Oregano, WebsterXL etc. skins on it.

PS trying out new sig

And there's been 7 downloads of the 8MB desktop theme in two days with practically no publicity, so someone's sold on the idea of themes enough to endure that

That's only for the user to change the skin! The application itself has to be designed in some small part with skinning in mind to make it this simple to change the appearance of the program. That DOES take time and time COSTS money!

My point is that developers have said that time is their biggest enemy when developing RISC OS software since most programmers write the applications in their spare time so it looks like a little bit of valuable time spent on something unnecessary but admittedly cool.

For something like Oregano it's more of a commerical necessity because that started as a Set Top Box (STB) browser, and each STB maker/distributor will want a unique look and feel. ArgoNet did this to NCFresco (which has no built-in skinning facility) years ago, Oregano just handles it more neatly.

I wouldn't exactly say it's zero work on the company's behalf - they have to make the software skinnable before the poor "sucker" sets up the site.

If someone goes out of their way to write a skinning engine in a commercial product then sure, it can get silly, but there's also something to be said for making things like instant messengers, web browsers etc. fun - because at the end of the day, especially in PC-land, one brand triumphs over the other purely in terms of popularity, and the one with all the cool options might just appeal more over a solid but boring-looking version. Hey, look at MacOS X - how many column inches did that get just because it looks pretty?

So there's a lot of reasons why skinning is a good idea, and it really *can* be done quite cheaply. Don't worry about it!

What i'd really like are RiscOS skins that affect everything, without having to re-skin each appp.

PS trying out new sig

And there's been 7 downloads of the 8MB desktop theme in two days with practically no publicity, so someone's sold on the idea of themes enough to endure that

Or in at least one case of the (shorter) DA desktop theme, it's a combination of curiosity and unmetered access so I don't mind leaving it downloading while I'm walking the dog! (Plus I'd already put together a Dark Angel sound theme for Socketeer/POPstar.)