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History Of Customization

14
revird says:

So next year custo will have been around for 10 years! That's a lot of history. I think it's time we put together a definitive history of customization, from pre-custo winamp skinning right up to vista and EVO. I've attempted a basic outline here (definitely needs some work):

http://customize.org/help/History_Of_Customization

If you can think back to what the community and skinning scene was like at any of those points, please edit that page and contribute! Or just post here if you have any stories of times gone by so we can fill in the gaps... :)

02:02 pm, Tuesday, May 01, 2007 (1 year ago)
543
craeonics says:

In the beginning there was darkness. And on the first day, the spirit of Fli7e gazed upon the WinAmp and he said: "dude, I can reshack them bitmaps". And lo, customisation was born. And on the second day, the Soft of the Null noticed these reshacked versions and released a version with extracted, easily changeable graphics. And from that day forth this was called skinning.

No doubt that there are earlier examples (on various platforms), but the current movement started there.

04:27 pm (1 year ago)
1173
cthu1hu says:

Well, that takes care of everything I had to contribute.

07:31 pm (1 year ago)
677
Fenris says:

i remember when the most you could do to customize your computer was change the color of the desktop background...

this looks to be a great project for the community to work on. i can't wait to see how it goes!

09:06 pm (1 year ago)
301
Aphaits says:

whooo, a decade :)

10:42 pm (1 year ago)
2317
Pyro_ says:

So do we all have to get Custo a 10th anniversary gift? =)

11:08 pm (1 year ago)
158

Man, when you start listing former staff at lost sites are you ever going to see my name a lot. >XD

11:24 pm (1 year ago)
14
revird says:

Ok this is good, i've put craeonics little story up ;) Can anyone remember what other skinnable apps where important back in the day... what was the first way to theme windows, was it Litestep?

10:27 am (1 year ago)
429
colossus72 says:

I think a history of customize.org and it's trends and innovations would be much easier to tackle than a general history of desktop customization.

But heck, I'd read either.

10:59 am (1 year ago)
14
revird says:

Yeah that would be easier, we have a year to do this tho so why not ;) I'd imagine it will end up as more of a history of customize.org but at least this way we don't exclude anything of interest that might have happened elsewhere

12:55 pm (1 year ago)
543
craeonics says:

I've been thinking of wwriting a history of skinning one day (hell, I even study history these days). But not now. I do have some random pointers:

- The first "skins" (reshacked versions of WinAmp) popped up at layer3.org. This was a bit before my time, but I get the impression the skinners of these days had some links to the demo scene.

- The term "skin" comes from the skins used for characters in Quake and the like.

- Toasty on the history of skinz.org and eFX.

- Some stuff on the history of DeskMod in this gorman interview from 2001.

- The history of DevArt, part 1 and 2, by jarkles, after he got kicked out. Which is quite a different angle than what came out of Tek's 2001 interview with jark and matteo.

- Froggles' annual Skin Primer also contains a section on the history of skinning, from a StarDock perspective.

02:04 pm (1 year ago)
2317
Pyro_ says:

I would most definitely read a history of Custo and/or all customization. And I usually dislike reading about history.

08:29 pm (1 year ago)
1521
adz_619 says:

Let's not get the rivals Deviant art involved shall we.....

02:19 am (1 year ago)
1408
aMADme says:

you got rivals at dA adz?

02:39 am (1 year ago)
1342
vsm says:

do you see them as rivals? :|

06:40 am (1 year ago)
1521
adz_619 says:

@amadme: Not individuals, but I think dA is a rival site for us at customize.

Really, were friends but it's nice to have competition between the two.

07:07 am (1 year ago)
1464
egolatra says:

in fact, DA is a partner site of custo. There's no need for competition, DA isn't a customizing site.

07:45 am (1 year ago)
3268
capitalizex says:

And on the 7th day God said...let there be skins!

10:06 am (1 year ago)
1521
adz_619 says:

egolatra: dA is a customizing site.
Click on all categories>customizing.

02:20 pm (1 year ago)
3205
nosphere says:

-well adz, dA is a custo site, but not mainly...

-i mean, there you can find artist that don't make any use of computers, but to scan/upload their works
-but if you're looking to really "Pimp your ride at the virtual world" ...this is the right spot ...is there any other?

-btw some members right here are members there (like me) (haven't uploaded there :s)

04:31 pm (1 year ago)
2317
Pyro_ says:

I tried to upload there... DeviantART is really just for art. Customize is mainly for what it says customization. Ya know?

But if you sift there all the "stuff" you can find some great art though.

09:05 pm (1 year ago)
1521
adz_619 says:

I agree with what some of you are saying. Deviant art is all about art!

06:48 am (1 year ago)
543
craeonics says:

DevArt started as a skin site and was nice and quiet, but after six months the floodgates of Teen Angst opened and ever since it's been all about "art".

08:30 am (1 year ago)
1464
egolatra says:

adz_619 says:

egolatra: dA is a customizing site.
Click on all categories>customizing.


I know that, i submit some of my stuff in there, but what i mean is: DA isn't just a customizing site. They have a lot of categories, so, telling that, we are a pure customizing site. If we had to compete, our rivals should be, i.e. wincustomize

10:37 am (1 year ago)
1315
Matrix says:

craeonics, layer3 was actually the second site that contained skins, the first of which was the digideck archive which would become custo (also created by glenn)

07:53 pm (1 year ago)
158

Tib bit: during the end of the first incarnation of custo, an error caused everyone's user name to show up as glenn. As a practicle joke on modblog (possibly deskmod too), they did it on purpose. They set it in the code to go off on every April 1st. >;]

Btw, you will find a lot of history at Teknidermy. They have some way back interviews with site admins and such. The WayBackMachine has some stuff here and there too.

http://teknidermy.com/issues/
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

06:19 pm (1 year ago)
14
revird says:

Heh it's interesting to remember back to when ChangeMusic had custo - check out this news post from 2000 when they finally gave up and tried to sell the site for $500,000! http://web.archive.org/web/20001017182353/http://customize.o
rg/


The daily screenshot hadn't been changed for a year at this point, no news posted, and they'd put the site on a windows server which broke some of the code. Most people had left for DeskMod or Skinz, tho DM was up on eBay as they couldn't afford the hosting costs and Skinz was in eFront hell. Bad times for the skinning community!

Anyone got any stories from around that time? I was only an occasional visitor back then but i remember how bad things got when ChangeMusic took over.

I've added it to the history page along with some more of the links and info posted here (keep it coming :)

10:52 am (1 year ago)
429
colossus72 says:

Ha, I remember those days pretty well.

You think there was problems recently with people disrespecting each other, back then if you sucked you were told so in very certain terms.

11:40 am (1 year ago)
1315
Matrix says:

and you usually deserved it if you were uploading icq+ photoskins, or winamp photoskins. I rather miss the days of tearing into some kid who just put a picture from his favorite band into a winamp skin generator. *pine*

05:44 pm (1 year ago)
543
craeonics says:

Photoskins in general. Or OS skins for that matter.

12:29 pm (1 year ago)
2710
Wilian_souza says:

What is EVO?

04:22 pm (1 year ago)
1464
egolatra says:

we are EVO

04:24 pm (1 year ago)
429
colossus72 says:

EVO was the project codename for this website.

04:35 pm (1 year ago)
1146
motorist says:

[ß)

06:38 am (1 year ago)
 
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