Well the problem with third party plugins always is that at some point when dx goes further plugins won't work anymore because of deep changes made, or the author just stops working on it for other reasons (real life, etc.). Remember that old sysstats plugin, that was great while it lasted and then caused big problems (don't remember the name). It would be nice to have a reliable source at least for sysstats and other popular things.
Sure. It would be nice if there were full time developers making plugins.
But someone has to pay for them. DesktopX 1.0 came out in what? 2000. Users have gotten 9 years of free updates to DesktopX.
There just aren't enough DesktopX users (and never was) to support that kind of support.
The idea was that Stardock would provide the foundation and then the community would take it from there. For a few years, Konfabulator and other such programs provided enough "competition" that Stardock developed tech was extended but Konfabulator is dead now along with all other gadget/widget movements (even Microsoft and Apple have largely abandoned their own techs).
What I pictured with DesktopX 4.0 was that we would strip out the pieces that aren't compatible with Windows 7 and then slowly build it back up with new stuff via collaboration with the community.
But if the community is going to become "consumers" then as a practically matter, either DesktopX has to be priced at a level that justifies the cost of doing the work (i.e. think $5000 or more) or it needs to die off.
As soon as Impulse began i was sure that Stardock will turn his back to the Customization software ...
Neophil, that's idiotic.
Consider what's been released in the past 60 days for Object Desktop. And you talk about us abandoning customization software? Why? Because the DesktopX 4.0 beta is rough? Really?