What is the value in upping my OD subscription?
Will Stardock Continue to Develop new features for ObjectDesktop under Windows XP?
I have been using Stardocks ObjectDesktop (OD) components since about the year 2000. Then OD supported Windows 98 and Win2K. Now I have been using Windows XP for a few years now, and have become extremely familiar and satisfied with XP. It suits all my needs, and is well configured to my taste.
I have beta-tested Vista for a few months as well, and while it’s a fine OS, and sports many new and cool features, I find that not only does it push my PC to the limits of its resources, but really does nothing more for me than Windows XP.
So I weigh all this out, and I do not feel the need to shell out for the cost of Windows Vista at this time. Why should I? After all, I have pretty much the same GUI, many of the same features which happen to be provided by 3rd party developers, and my PC runs everything I want quite sleekly.
Now, as you might already know, Stardock has been porting its ObjectDesktop suite of programs to support Windows Vista. For many years, most OD components have been in beta, but have now become in the past month or so full release versions. Basically this is the case with most of the OD components I typically use: DesktopX, WindowBlinds, IconPackager, RightClick, EnhancedFileDialog, SkinStudioPro, StardockVirtualDesktop, ObjectZip, ObjectEdit, and ObjectDock+(which is not a component of OD). Of all these components, all are now full release versions with the exception of ObjectEdit, a text editor.
I have the feeling all these OD components are now full release versions, because Stardock may be finished for the most part supporting ObjectDesktop under Windows XP.
So, now my subscription to ObjectDesktop is up for renewal. I have to wonder if I need to shell out another $35.00 for another year of support, if Stardock is not really going to do much with ObjectDesktop for Windows XP.
I imagine Stardock will put at least some effort into ObjectDesktop, at least until it works well under Windows Vista. But what improvements will there by under Windows XP?
In other words, what can I expect to see for improvements in Object Desktop components over the next year for my $40?