In light of yet another bout of anti-Stardock/WinCust abuse elsewhere online, I thought I'd spend a few moments giving my opinion on both the company and the people who have a hand in the skinning community.

I can't remember when I first discovered Stardock, but it was almost certainly through finding and playing with WindowBlinds some years ago. Since that time, I have always considered them to be a professional and friendly bunch of people who are always willing to listen to feedback and help out when things don't go quite to plan with their software.

I've never had cause to criticise them or to deny them the right to charge for their products, which are simply worth every penny of the money they ask for. I find those people who complain about the fact that they don't give everything away for free to be not only offensive, but downright stupid. To expect that a company put in the amount of time and effort that a project like Object Desktop requires, and then give the product away for free is not only absurd but unbelievably naive. We live in a world where money is a part of everything, and had Stardock not charged for their products, we would still be sitting here using an ancient version of WindowBlinds which did nothing more than change the titlebar buttons on a window. Stardock have pushed the boundaries of skinning through their research and development, and have in turn helped many other non-Stardock products evolve and prosper.

In the time that I've known him, I've always thought of Brad (Frogboy) as a level-headed intelligent person who, while occasionally speaking his mind a little too much, can always be expected to tell things the way they are and stick up for what's right in the skinning world. He'll defend his company and his products to death, but then wouldn't we all stick up for our 'children' if someone said a bad word against them?

As for the rest of the staff at Stardock, and in turn WinCustomize, over the past couple of years I have had the pleasure of getting to know several individuals pretty well. I've had praise and encouragment from people I never even expected to hear from, and the friendly comments still come even to this day. I've also made a lot of friends through this site, spurred on by the constant challenges of an ever-evolving platform for skinning which constantly manages to impress me, and without their help and ideas I probably never would have even finished my first skin.

So let's just give a moment to thank everyone at Stardock, and all the admins and moderators here at WinCustomize, for making our computer time that little bit more pleasurable. Thanks guys!

(And here endeth the brown-nosing for the day)