Stardock

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This article is about the software company. Stardock is also the title of a book by Fritz Leiber, and a hub for players of TradeWars 2002.
Stardock Corporation, Inc.
Image:Stardockcompanylogo.png
Type C-type Corporation
Founded Livonia, Michigan (1991)
Headquarters Plymouth, Michigan, USA (June 18, 2005)
Key people Brad Wardell, CEO
Industry Computer software
Products Object Desktop
TotalGaming.net
ThinkDesk
WindowBlinds
Galactic Civilizations
Galactic Civilizations II
DesktopX
IconPackager
ObjectBar
Employees 31+ (July 2006)
Slogan Your Edge In Software
Website www.stardock.com

Stardock Corporation is a software development company founded in 1991 and incorporated in 1993 as Stardock Systems, later known as Stardock.net. Stardock initially developed for the OS/2 platform, but was forced to switch to Windows due to the collapse of the OS/2 software market between 1997 and 1998. Most of their computer programs allow a user to modify or extend a graphical user interface, although they also develop and publish computer games, particularly turn-based strategy games.

Stardock created and maintains WinCustomize, a GUI customization community. Many of the skins and themes featured on its site are for software that is part of Object Desktop, their main subscription service. Stardock also runs TotalGaming.net, an online content delivery system for downloadable personal computer games, and ThinkDesk, a productivity application service. They are based in Plymouth, Michigan.

Contents

[edit] Products

Most of the products below are tied together with Stardock Central, a program allowing download of the components of Stardock's subscription services, whether bought as part of a subscription or separately. Some are only available for Windows 2000 and/or Windows XP.

[edit] Object Desktop

Main article: Object Desktop

Stardock's flagship product is Object Desktop, a subscription-based software suite that includes several programs for customizing elements of the Windows GUI. Originally released in 1995 for the OS/2 market, it was converted to Windows in 1997/8, and currently (July 2005) consists of the following main components:

[edit] TotalGaming.net

Stardock's personal computer games subscription product is called TotalGaming.net (previously The Drengin Network). Users buy games rather than renting them. In May 2005 it switched to a token-based system in which subscribers expend tokens on games of their choice, and may opt to purchase more games with extra tokens.

Examples of games available with TotalGaming.net are:

[edit] WinCustomize

Main article: WinCustomize

Aside from its subscription packages, Stardock also sells a variety of icon packs, premium themes consisting of content for more than one program, and programs that do not fit into its subscriptions, including:

  • The WinCustomize Browser — a specialised user-interface to the WinCustomize.com website, available by 2-year subscription to the site
  • ObjectDock — provides a free skinnable dock similar to the Mac OS X dock (available in a paid-for version with tabbed docks)
  • CursorXP — a free program to drastically change the appearance of the mouse cursor, including animations (a paid-for CursorXP Plus adds click effects and resizing)
  • LogonStudio — a free program to edit and apply Welcome screen skins
  • BootSkin — a free boot screen changer that operates using a driver rather than replacing the standard boot screen in the kernel
  • The Stardock Desktop Pet — a digital pet that lives on the desktop

WinCustomize is the name of the site that provides downloads for all of Stardock's skinning and desktop enhancement products, on which these products are sold.

[edit] ThinkDesk

Main article: ThinkDesk

ThinkDesk is a productivity application subscription service, launched on 14 April 2005. It consists of the following products:

  • Multiplicity — allows the control of multiple PCs with a single keyboard and mouse; pro versions provide file copy and paste functionality
  • KeepSafe — automatically keeps file revisions for selected directories and file types
  • ThinkSync — synchronizes files and folders between hard drives or across the Internet.
  • SecureProcess — allows only processes defined as safe to run; an anti-virus/anti-spyware component

[edit] Business Solutions

Stardock has expanded into the business-to-business market with products based on their existing consumer offerings:

  • DirectSkin — a ActiveX/COM version of WindowBlinds that provides skinning for individual applications
  • Multiplicity Pro — advanced version of Multiplicity with file copying and the ability to control more computers
  • DesktopX Enterprise — a version of DesktopX licensed to create separate executables of complete desktops
  • Theme Manager OEM — an equivalent of Object Desktop for internal or external distribution by others; includes stripped-down versions of products like WindowBlinds and IconPackager that are used to apply customized themes
  • MyColors — customization packs for amateur and professional sports teams[1]

Notable customers have included:

[edit] History

Initially a builder of PCs (named StarDock Systems), Stardock quickly branched out into software development, where it has remained despite a change of platform.

[edit] OS/2 Era (1993 - 2001)

Stardock's initial software product was a computer game for OS/2 called Galactic Civilizations. Stardock never actually received any royalties from the initial sales of Galactic Civilizations due to publisher fraud, but the market had been created for subsequent addon packs including the Shipyards expansion, and Stardock later sold a significant number of licenses to IBM for part of its Family FunPak (under the name Star Emperor). Stardock went on to create OS/2 Essentials, and its successor, Object Desktop, which provided the company with a large base of users.

At about this time, IBM decided to abandon OS/2. However, they did not make this decision public, and Stardock continued to develop applications software and games for the platform, including Avarice and Entrepreneur. With the advent of Windows NT 4, Stardock found that their core user base was slipping away, and was forced to reinvent itself as a Windows developer, but not before it lost most of its money and staff.

[edit] Windows Era (1997/8 - present)

The newer, smaller Stardock was heavily reliant on the goodwill of its previous customers, who essentially purchased Windows subscriptions for Object Desktop in anticipation of the products it would consist of. Having put together a basic package (including some old favourites from the OS/2 era) Stardock began to bring in external developers to create original products.

Stardock's first major Windows success was with WindowBlinds. There turned out to be a large market for skinnable products, and Stardock prospered, growing significantly in the next five years. Although it is not true that Stardock was responsible for the msstyle skinning engine in Windows XP, the release of this operating system did stimulate sales in Stardock products, and despite growing competition proportional to the market the company remains in a strong position.

In 2001 they added a widget creation and desktop modification tool, DesktopX. This has not had such a wide uptake as other products; some believe this is because it is harder to use and to create for, others because users do not understand the functionality that it offers. DesktopX competes with Konfabulator and Kapsules in the widget arena. In 2003, Stardock became a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with their "Designed for Windows" certification of WindowBlinds.

Stardock's games have had more mixed success. The Corporate Machine sold reasonably well, but LightWeight Ninja was not as popular. In an echo of Stardock's previous experiences with games publishers, Strategy First appears not have fulfilled all its contractural obligations for the distribution of Galactic Civilizations. However, several games from the Strategy First lineup have appeared on Stardock's TotalGaming.net service, so it may be that some payment was made in kind. More recently, The Political Machine (timed to coincide with the 2004 U.S. presidential election) and Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords have both sold well, the latter becoming a niche phenomenon.

[edit] Litigation

Stardock has been involved in litigation in relation to their business:

  • In 1998 they were sued by Entrepreneur Magazine for use of the trademark name "Entrepreneur" for one of their games. Stardock claimed that their use of this word was not related the magazine's business, but did not have the money to fight the case - the name was changed to Business Tycoon; a later version was rebranded as The Corporate Machine.
  • In December 2003 TGTSoft sued Stardock and Brad Wardell with a tort for declarative relief, claiming that they should be able to use the IconPackager .iptheme file format without charge. Many open source programs do read and write proprietary file formats without paying royalties - for example, OpenOffice.org reads and writes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft Office files. However, Stardock maintained that they should be entitled to royalties or a license fee on such software, particularly as TGTSoft was charging money for their products and because it was considered likely that their users would use the WinCustomize libraries, which are run with help (monetary and otherwise) from Stardock. The case was eventually settled out of court, with TGTSoft licensing the format for use with their products.
  • Apple Computer have on several occasions threatened legal action unless content was removed from Stardock servers. They were particularly displeased to see ports of the Mac OS X user interface (Aqua) appearing months before the software was released. In contrast, Microsoft has not objected to the use of its work in derivative works, and many skins and themes are based on their designs; one of the big selling points of ObjectBar was the ability to emulate the Windows XP taskbar. Recently, however, Microsoft has shown itself to have a problem with themes designed to emulate the GUI of Windows Vista being available a year before its scheduled release. A particular example of this is a user, known as "kol", was forced to remove a Vista-like theme from WinCustomize because it bore an uncanny resemblance to the actual Vista.

[edit] Future Projects

With the release of Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, Stardock's next projects are rumored to be a massively-multiplayer real-time strategy "Society", an as-yet unnamed 4x fantasy strategy game, and they are publishing (but not developing) Sins of a Solar Empire.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Neal Haldane. "Software firm adds school spirit to PCs", The Detroit News, 2007-01-25.

[edit] External links

Stardock line of products
Object Desktop Products DesktopX | IconPackager | ObjectBar | SkinStudio | WindowBlinds | WindowFX
TotalGaming.net Games (developed, published) BreakQuest | Chrome SpecForce | Corporate Machine | Disciples II | Earth 2150 | Flatspace | Galactic Civilizations | GalCiv II: Dread Lords - Dark Avatar | Gish | Jets'n'Guns | Knights and Merchants | O.R.B | Pizza Frenzy | Political Machine | Reaktor | Society | Trash | Uplink | WordWars | Xeno Assault II
WinCustomize & Other DirectSkin | Stardock Central | TweakVista | StyleVista | ThinkDesk (Multiplicity) | DeskScapes | BootSkin | Desktop Pet | ObjectDock
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