Stardock Software: the never ending story

should things be fixed a day ?

from WinCustomize Forums
I'm a Stardock customer since years and years (perhaps since his begining in fact ...   ) and i think i NEVER saw a really finished product ...    As everything is always in development with the beta version which SDC customers can download and use (or not if they don't want to) there is no version of any software i saw really fixed. I think of a particular part (which doesn't seem to me a very much complicated thing to bring : the language updated files (for the software which have that feature). I can understand it's not essential during the beta development , but at least it would be a normal way to bring released version fully & with translated language files correctly updated ... Exemple: ObjectDock Plus is in released 1.50.024 since November 14th 2006 and the language files haven't be updated for now ... How long will have we to still wait for ?? and it's now the same for WindowBlinds 5.50.017 ...    So come on Stardock developpers please, have a break in coding new features and finish completly the released versions ...  
10,615 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Tried to update the german lang. pack for WB and found my old one still in there with no additional things to translate. GUI ist still half english though...
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
... and as it was not enough, Stardock is becoming crazy   

Early this morning (well 9 AM here, though about 00:00 in L.A) i downloaded WindowBlinds version 5.50.017 on SDC .... this evening i had a look on SDC and i saw that i got WB 5.49t[ b ].051 with which i get as System Information :

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 5 (5.5 (build 91 x86))

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

(Philips 190C (19inch LCD MONITOR 190C7)) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X

Wblind.dll 2007/02/14 17:15:20
Wbsrv.dll 2007/02/07 17:31:19
Wbconfig.exe 2007/02/15 13:35:52
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 17:54:14
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:07
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2006/04/28 18:26:49
Wbload.dll 2005/01/22 18:05:07
In the same time I watch on my second PC (and same situation, though i decided to uninstall WB on each PC (stop it, unload it, reboot, uninstall it, reboot, clear up the WindowBlinds directory from some files left ...) and then come back on SDC to see ...
Version WB 5.49t[ b ].051 was only avaible [ smileywhatasurprise ] ... though i installed this version then reboot go back to SDC and then another WB 5.50.017 was now avaible [ smileywhatanotheruglysurprise ]. I updated and then here's my system information (coming from the second PC):

WindowBlinds 5.1 System Information Report:

STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

You have one monitor in total.

(NEC LCD175VXM+ (DDC/CI)) 1 is attached to MSI NX7300GS (NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS)

Wblind.dll 2006/10/09 10:24:20
Wblind64.dll 2006/10/09 11:51:37
Wbsrv.dll 2006/10/09 10:40:18
Wbconfig.exe 2006/10/10 16:39:13
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 17:54:14
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:07
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2006/04/13 17:29:23


Just wonder what to do and which is the correct version (if any ?    )
WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

You can always stay with the "finished" versions.

Betas releases are just that -- beta. And foreign language support is something we do take seriously but there are often significant delays in that unfortunately. 

I don't mean to sound picky but starting a post talking about how "unfinished" Stardock's software is and then only listing that they didn't translate some piece of it to your native language seems a bit extreme to make such a far reaching conclusion.

Similarly, complaining about internal system versioning seems petty to me.  Ever looked at the OS version of Windows? XP is 5.1.2600 (if you're running SP).

 

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
You can always stay with the "finished" versions.

ObjectDock Plus is not supposed to be a "finished" released version since november ?

seems a bit extreme to make such a far reaching conclusion

Yep, and it is extreme because it is really boaring, but it's not a conclusion

I don't remember who did a very good article before Christmass i think, upon what was going wrong between Stardock / Wincustomize and customers ... Here is one point ...
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I think we've gone a bit off track here.

1) I think it's an open question if lang packs are part of the core of the application.  The app works as it stands.

2) Neophil, most of the translations were done by memebers of the community.  You can use the tool called ODTranslateAid.exe located in the lang directory to translate what you want and then give back to the community.  Perhaps a way could be designed to have teh community share in teh translation (like heavy equipment)

3) Starting a post with a complaint like you had in the tone it translated to is probably not a way yo increase teh dialog here.

This is an oppertunity for Stardock and the WC community to work together to improve things for both parties. Let's start there and see where we go.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top


I don't remember who did a very good article before Christmass i think, upon what was going wrong between Stardock / Wincustomize and customers ... Here is one point ...

Yes, but it's not helpful to say "Oh, it's the end of the world, the software is really in bad shape, etc." and then at the end only to find it's because the program in question hasn't been translated to their native language fully yet.

I agree that we need to stay on top of translation but it's an ongoing thing and non-English strings will never be updated as quickly. That's not just with our software but with most software out there.

Like Zubaz said - if you want the issue seriously looked into, then we need to be reasonable about these things.  My first reaction to this sort of thing is to just eliminate foreign language support entirely.

Because if the result of attempting to support non-English languages is that we're going to get posts claiming to the world that our software is "unfinished and buggy" because it's not in their language -- which is a detail that the casual reader may not notice but instead just assume the software isn't being supported well -- then the obvious answer is to remove support for foreign language. Because there's no real business justification for it. (we track sales trends very closely).

A good solution might be to find someone to edit those strings. In the case of WB, Stardock will need to provide those strings (I've sent a note about it).

Support of other languages is only going to happen through the community working together.  If it weren't for people like C242, WindowBlinds 5.1 wouldn't have a German version for instance.