[Uxtheme Rafael]

Thanks for the comments, guys.

First off, I'm a firm believer in Brad Wardell's thoughts of piracy. Just ignore them. There will always be people out there that won't pay for your software, regardless of how cheap, so don't waste time thinking about it.

That said, after posting that article on Within Windows, I sat down with some more people and thought about it some more. While I would love to recoup lost time and money in the short-term, I came to the conclusion that doing so by charging for UxStyle Core was not in best interests of everyone. Charging for the basic SKU would spawn a thousand different "uxtheme repositories", which isn't what I (or you) want. You can see evidence of this already happening (user: Lord Devrexster doing some evil research).

So some new points to consider:

• UxStyle Core will be free. No adware, crippledware, etc. I will throw up a donate link for those that would like to thank me for spending months and months of time and money on this. No obligation of course (you better sleep with the light on, though)
  
  
• UxStyle Premium, to be created/released later, will not be free. Anything I have to sit and think about will be thrown into this SKU, e.g. auto-updating. I'd be happy to send some sort of disc I could sign and you could idolize.
  
  
• UxStyle will page itself out to disk when idle (99%+), freeing memory. The impact to resources is negligible so don't even start with me on memory usage vs. disk patching.
  
  
• Patched Uxthemes will not be continued.

I think this should satisfy everyone for now.

This post has been edited by Uxtheme Rafael: 23 March 2009 - 07:46 PM

[gcnaddict]

Uxtheme Rafael, on Mar 23 2009, 07:44 PM, said:

Thanks for the comments, guys.

First off, I'm a firm believer in Brad Wardell's thoughts of piracy. Just ignore them. There will always be people out there that won't pay for your software, regardless of how cheap, so don't waste time thinking about it.

That said, after posting that article on Within Windows, I sat down with some more people and thought about it some more. While I would love to recoup lost time and money in the short-term, I came to the conclusion that doing so by charging for UxStyle Core was not in best interests of everyone. Charging for the basic SKU would spawn a thousand different "uxtheme repositories", which isn't what I (or you) want. You can see evidence of this already happening (user: Lord Devrexster).

So some new points to consider:

• UxStyle Core will be free. No adware, crippledware, etc. I will throw up a donate link for those that would like to thank me for spending months and months of time and money on this. No obligation of course.
  
  
• UxStyle Premium, to be created/released later, will not be free. Anything I have to sit and think about will be thrown into this SKU, e.g. auto-updating. I'd be happy to send some sort of disc I could sign and you could idolize.
  
  
• UxStyle will page itself out to disk when idle (99%+), freeing memory. The impact to resources is negligible so don't even start with me on memory usage vs. disk patching.
  
  
• Patched Uxthemes will not be continued.

I think this should satisfy everyone for now.

Nice.

I'm happy about resource usage, by the way. That was a concern for me, but if you're having it paged out, all is well.

This post has been edited by gcnaddict: 23 March 2009 - 07:48 PM

[ThunderROM]

Uxtheme Rafael, on Mar 23 2009, 07:44 PM, said:

UxStyle Core will be free.

UxStyle will page itself out to disk when idle (99%+), freeing memory. The impact to resources is negligible so don't even start with me on memory usage vs. disk patching.

Cool

[Eye Pie Rate]

UXTheme patches will continue where ether you like it or not...
I think most people can agree with a .dll patch is easier anyway.

[Villain]

gcnaddict, on Mar 23 2009, 03:22 PM, said:

I'm guessing those of you who don't feel charging for this is justified are broke high school students living in your parents' attics.

The number of files required for patching in Windows for themes is ballooning at a rather mindnumbing rate. It's no longer just a matter of flipping a single bit in uxtheme.dll; there are now a good number of files with multiple checks which need to be worked around with every new build... and soon, with every new update to an RTM installation of Windows.

I know Rafael personally, and I know enough about him to tell you guys that 9 years of patching this stuff for free while dealing with shit from people who expect him to patch it has started to take a toll on him and his time. If you think you can do it for free, go ahead, but he stopped doing it for free because there are far too many ungrateful people out there to make it worthwhile.

4 bucks isn't a lot. If anything, he might even be able to release it on Impulse (I'm sure Brad would be happy with that, anyway). If you can't cut 4 bucks out of your lunch money, let alone 99 cents during the promotional period, maybe you should look into patching it yourself or just not using customized themes on Windows. I'm working on a theme concept I haven't touched since Longhorn 4074, and it'd be a shame if you guys missed out on it just because you couldn't hold your appetite back in high school for a day.

tl;dr: you guys took uxtheme patching for granted and treated Rafael like crap, so payware is the only way Rafael knows to filter the worthless from the grateful.

Enjoy your day.

-Bryant, AeroXperience Chief Editor

Actually I was only saying what i said because it has been proven, some bastard will be evil enough to try to bypass you making money for honest work, for no other reason that "just because", or "I dont think that he should make money off of this app".

I know how hard it is to make a good app, then try to market it. Even worse, any one like me knows how much of a pain in the ass it is to know that you have worked so damned hard, then some one has found a way to crack it, or even yet, bought a copy, then liberally puts it up for d/l, with serial included, "just because".

Sad fact is this, you CANT fight piracy. So Rafael is right, your going to have to ignore it, take the lumps, and just work past it.

Brad M

[hab]

First of all, nothing is wrong with a patched uxtheme.dll. Second, what's the difference between my patched uxtheme.dll and this software. There really is no point in it...

[Uxtheme Rafael]

Eye Pie Rate, on Mar 23 2009, 07:59 PM, said:

UXTheme patches will continue where ether you like it or not...
I think most people can agree with a .dll patch is easier anyway.

hab, on Mar 23 2009, 08:16 PM, said:

First of all, nothing is wrong with a patched uxtheme.dll. Second, what's the difference between my patched uxtheme.dll and this software. There really is no point in it...

I think you two overrate their simplicity. For 9 years, I've received at least one email per day asking for support. It was okay during the XP days, but with Windows Vista and increased permissions, it's a nightmare to walk someone through. Patched files are great... until a hotfix or service pack comes out. Then it's panic time when there's not an updated patch available. You need to realize, I am the source for these patches.

Before anyone uses "but XYZ patcher works", let me point out that all the "patchers" on the internet fall into one of two categories:

• Unreliable search and replace algorithm
  
• Offset-driven (my work copied into their program)

Both suck. UxStyle will reverse engineer the Theming engine, on-the-fly, and provide a consistent experience after applying a hotfix/service pack.

This post has been edited by Uxtheme Rafael: 23 March 2009 - 08:20 PM

[Lord Devrexster]

If Mr. Rafael is giving Uxstyle Core for free then I surely think this is better than patched dll's

I am not doing any "research" as long as theming can be done for free .... So cheers to Rafael for keeping this free !!

[CommonSense]

Good thing I read through this all before I posted.

Thanks Rafael for making Core free. I would've been pissed if that wasn't because it is nothing more than patching the files manually.

Anyway, looking forward to this. And good job for the last 9 years!

[The Flashing Fish]

Uxtheme Rafael, on Mar 23 2009, 07:44 PM, said:

Thanks for the comments, guys.

First off, I'm a firm...
..I think this should satisfy everyone for now.

Thank you for reconsidering your position. My whole issue wasn't with "paying," but rather what you get for the price. Because you changed your position, I may just buy the Premium version.

I'm assuming what you mean by "auto-updating," is that any updates (service packs and Windows Updates) that may break the Uxtheme patches will be automatically updated, which while it doesn't happen often (typically when service packs are released I believe), it would be pretty convenient.

You said that it won't be subscription based. Does this mean that when the next version of Windows after Windows 7 is released, I won't have to re-buy the Premium version?

Since you plan on making this available only for Windows 7, do you plan on releasing a Beta version before the release of Windows 7 so that you can work out any bugs it might have? If you plan on releasing a Beta version, would you consider releasing a beta of the Premium version, or give us an option to pay at a reduced price to get a Beta of the Premium version while allowing us to contribute feedback before the final version is released, and then allow us to get a upgrade to the non-Beta version when Windows 7 goes RTM? I think this would be a good a promotion to allow people to give you feedback and get the program at a reduced price. I think it could be a win win.

[Uxtheme Rafael]

CommonSense, on Mar 23 2009, 09:23 PM, said:

... because it is nothing more than patching the files manually.

You're over-simplifying this patching process, ignoring the amount of work that's required to actually figure out what to patch.

The Flashing Fish, on Mar 23 2009, 10:30 PM, said:

I'm assuming what you mean by "auto-updating," is that any updates (service packs and Windows Updates) that may break the Uxtheme patches will be automatically updated, which while it doesn't happen often (typically when service packs are released I believe), it would be pretty convenient.

UxStyle was designed to be pretty flexible with operating system hotfixes, updates, etc. As it reverse engineers on-the-fly, and not rely on offsets, it should figure things out on its own without update. That said, there may be a time where Microsoft screws things up royally to the point UxStyle becomes confused and requires an update.

It is planned it would detect and install any available updates, skipping the inconvenience of having to download/install manually. Core users can simply go to the site and download a new build.

The Flashing Fish, on Mar 23 2009, 10:30 PM, said:

You said that it won't be subscription based. Does this mean that when the next version of Windows after Windows 7 is released, I won't have to re-buy the Premium version?

I'm not planning on making users pay again for something they already have.

The Flashing Fish, on Mar 23 2009, 10:30 PM, said:

Since you plan on making this available only for Windows 7...

Correction: UxStyle applies to Windows XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008, and Windows 7.

The Flashing Fish, on Mar 23 2009, 10:30 PM, said:

... do you plan on releasing a Beta version before the release of Windows 7 so that you can work out any bugs it might have?

Public beta of Core.

The Flashing Fish, on Mar 23 2009, 10:30 PM, said:

If you plan on releasing a Beta version, would you consider releasing a beta of the Premium version, or give us an option to pay at a reduced price to get a Beta of the Premium version while allowing us to contribute feedback before the final version is released, and then allow us to get a upgrade to the non-Beta version when Windows 7 goes RTM? I think this would be a good a promotion to allow people to give you feedback and get the program at a reduced price. I think it could be a win win.

I haven't really pieced together everything that will be in Premium, I'm focused on just getting Core out the door so I can kill the dll patches. I'll put this on the THINKABOUT list.

This post has been edited by Uxtheme Rafael: 23 March 2009 - 10:42 PM

[The Flashing Fish]

Thank you for the clarification. For some reason when I first read the first post, it seemed that it was only going to be for Windows 7 and up.

[bhast2]

i love this idea no more replacing the files manually. I will try out the core version and if it works well I will buy the Premium version if it isn't a let down and offers something more than just auto updates and fixes the Aero theme name

[CommonSense]

Uxtheme Rafael, on Mar 23 2009, 06:40 PM, said:

CommonSense, on Mar 23 2009, 09:23 PM, said:

... because it is nothing more than patching the files manually.

You're over-simplifying this patching process, ignoring the amount of work that's required to actually figure out what to patch.

No I didn't mean it like that. I forgot that you're pretty much the only that releases the patched files, so anyone wanting to use the "manual" method would be screwed. But now it's no big deal since Core is free.

I know it's much more complicated than it seems.

This post has been edited by CommonSense: 24 March 2009 - 01:29 AM

[coldemone]

nice points set out there Rafael, your development was hardwork, but anyway it's going to get pwned by a pirate who doesn't even know what torrent he posted.

So this is for w7 right?