Updates for Aquatint Black, Aero, and Aero Silver are now ready at http://www.virtusdesigns.com
The rest are on their way when I have some time, hopefully this weekend.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Website and Theme Updates
I am currently updating my website along with my themes. There will be significant changes to my premium themes that I hope you will enjoy.
Some of the things that I am working on or have improved:
I have been extremely busy with work so I apologize to those who have emailed me. I will be working on responding to emails in the next couple of days to get caught up.
Some of the things that I am working on or have improved:
- The ability to get automatic updates so you will not have to purchase a new version every time.
- Improved toolbar usability allowing the height of the toolbar to increase/decrease depending on the mode you decide to use.
- more detail such in things like preference windows and skinned buttons.
- better functionality with extensions like Tab Mix Plus, Colorful Tabs, and AIOS.
- More.
I have been extremely busy with work so I apologize to those who have emailed me. I will be working on responding to emails in the next couple of days to get caught up.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Aero Fox for Mac is Available
I have put the link to download Aero Fox for Mac users on my site at http://www.virtusdesigns.com
This is the first to be released specifically for Mac and the rest are on their way.
This is the first to be released specifically for Mac and the rest are on their way.
Friday, July 18, 2008
mac versions this weekend?
My goal and hope is to have my theme ready to go on Mac this weekend.
********Update*********
I have Aero Fox for Mac 95% complete. I have to go through and make sure everything is looking alright.
As for things that I was able to improve
I was hoping to get them all done by the end of tonight but I had more things to fix than I realized. Look for their availability on my main site (http://www.virtusdesigns.com) in the next few days.
********Update*********
I have Aero Fox for Mac 95% complete. I have to go through and make sure everything is looking alright.
As for things that I was able to improve
- Scroll Bars look like they should on Mac OS
- Main Toolbar is narrower and takes up less space (this will be included in my Windows version update as well)
- popup windows will not have invisible text
- It should be compatible with Tab Mix Plus (Another included update for Windows version)
I was hoping to get them all done by the end of tonight but I had more things to fix than I realized. Look for their availability on my main site (http://www.virtusdesigns.com) in the next few days.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Downloading on Torrents
Just for fun, I searched for Frank Lion's Blue Moonlight Vista theme to see if it was available on torrent sites to download. According Frank, this theme is donationware was available for free if you donate money to him for his projects. He mentioned that the theme was no longer going to be offered because of people who were abusing the system. I figured that meant people were able to download on torrent sites without having to donate to him. I found this theme on several torrent sites and tried to download it to see how easy this was.
I found that some of the sites you had to be a member so I passed. Then on a couple of sites I was welcomed to the site with a bunch of naked women and links to sex sites.
How nice to see what the people who take our themes are doing with their time. That isn't much a of a shocker. These people that are bashing me and telling me that I am contributing to the demise of open source software load my themes and distribute them without my permission are connected to the porn industry. One person tried to justify doing this by saying the GPL allows them to distribute my work. While this may be legally true (I need to read it more carefully) it does not coincide with the intent of the GPL that they so vocally claim to be defenders of. The intent is not to distribute another person's work just to spite them because you don't think their time is worth anything and you feel that you are entitled to take things for nothing.
I received an email from seme European college student who called me names and told me how his professor used me as an example of how people are going to destroy open source. Sorry Mr. European college professor, the people that destroy open source are those who take the hard work of others and attempt to render it useless. It is these people that lead to companies putting such strict and limiting restrictions on their work such as all the major software comanies like Adobe, Microsoft, and the others. Work is worth something. The idea behind open source is that it is just tha, open. It is not free of charge but freely available to look at and use for your own projects.
When people start taking that work and spitting on it because they feel they are entitled to do so, that is when open source will go down. Open source is about the ability to be creative and then do what you want with it. That could mean to charge for it or give it away for free but it is naive to think that open source is about the greater good of all mankind. There is too much money behind the giant open source corporations to be so idealistic.
That does not make them bad. Mozilla and Firefox, Ubuntu, Flock, Red Hat, Suse by Novell and so many others are using open source to give users alternatives in software. However, their goal is still to make a profit and that is good. Capitalism, while considered so evil by many, brings competition and competition leads to better products and better products lead to happier users. Some of it may be free to the users, some may not. That should be the decision of the developer and not for a group of unhappy users who don't like the developer's decision.
With that being said, I am working on updates and should have them available shortly. Major issues addressed are display issues with Mac OS and Tab Mix Plus.
Oh yeah, go see Wall-E. I thought it was pretty funny. I thought it could be Pixar's first bomb but it definitely did not come close to that. You may like other Pixar films better but you will laugh. It is worth seeing.
I found that some of the sites you had to be a member so I passed. Then on a couple of sites I was welcomed to the site with a bunch of naked women and links to sex sites.
How nice to see what the people who take our themes are doing with their time. That isn't much a of a shocker. These people that are bashing me and telling me that I am contributing to the demise of open source software load my themes and distribute them without my permission are connected to the porn industry. One person tried to justify doing this by saying the GPL allows them to distribute my work. While this may be legally true (I need to read it more carefully) it does not coincide with the intent of the GPL that they so vocally claim to be defenders of. The intent is not to distribute another person's work just to spite them because you don't think their time is worth anything and you feel that you are entitled to take things for nothing.
I received an email from seme European college student who called me names and told me how his professor used me as an example of how people are going to destroy open source. Sorry Mr. European college professor, the people that destroy open source are those who take the hard work of others and attempt to render it useless. It is these people that lead to companies putting such strict and limiting restrictions on their work such as all the major software comanies like Adobe, Microsoft, and the others. Work is worth something. The idea behind open source is that it is just tha, open. It is not free of charge but freely available to look at and use for your own projects.
When people start taking that work and spitting on it because they feel they are entitled to do so, that is when open source will go down. Open source is about the ability to be creative and then do what you want with it. That could mean to charge for it or give it away for free but it is naive to think that open source is about the greater good of all mankind. There is too much money behind the giant open source corporations to be so idealistic.
That does not make them bad. Mozilla and Firefox, Ubuntu, Flock, Red Hat, Suse by Novell and so many others are using open source to give users alternatives in software. However, their goal is still to make a profit and that is good. Capitalism, while considered so evil by many, brings competition and competition leads to better products and better products lead to happier users. Some of it may be free to the users, some may not. That should be the decision of the developer and not for a group of unhappy users who don't like the developer's decision.
With that being said, I am working on updates and should have them available shortly. Major issues addressed are display issues with Mac OS and Tab Mix Plus.
Oh yeah, go see Wall-E. I thought it was pretty funny. I thought it could be Pixar's first bomb but it definitely did not come close to that. You may like other Pixar films better but you will laugh. It is worth seeing.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Mac Version of Aero Fox
I have a test version of the Aero Fox basic for Mac. You can download it here.
For any Mac users of Aero Fox, it would help out of you could test this out and let me know if you notice any issues.
Right now this is not the fully skinned version and has the standard Mac scrollbars and gray status bar. The Windows structure and Mac structure of the default themes are very different so I had to rebuild a lot of the theme in order to get it to display correctly on Mac OSX.
I am sure there are some issues but I will take care of those as I hear feedback. I know now that the drop arrow does not display on the back/forward buttons. It does display when icons and text is selected but not with icons only. I think there is an issue with the throbber but I may be wrong.
To those of you who will help out with this and those of you who have purchased my themes this week, thank you very much. I appreciate your help and support.
For any Mac users of Aero Fox, it would help out of you could test this out and let me know if you notice any issues.
Right now this is not the fully skinned version and has the standard Mac scrollbars and gray status bar. The Windows structure and Mac structure of the default themes are very different so I had to rebuild a lot of the theme in order to get it to display correctly on Mac OSX.
I am sure there are some issues but I will take care of those as I hear feedback. I know now that the drop arrow does not display on the back/forward buttons. It does display when icons and text is selected but not with icons only. I think there is an issue with the throbber but I may be wrong.
To those of you who will help out with this and those of you who have purchased my themes this week, thank you very much. I appreciate your help and support.
Side note to those who continue to criticize me and provide links for people to download my premium versions for free. This is why I am offering two versions. The basic version is for people who only care about the main toolbar and nothing else. I have spent 4 days trying to get this to display correctly on Macs since my Windows theme has issues. It is now almost midnight on the 4th day and I am just getting it ready to have people test it out. In a few hours I have to get up and go to my real job. Then, after they test it, I will have to spend many more hours getting it ready to upload to AMO before I start on a fully skinned version that I can call a premium version.
That is just for this theme. Then I have to create a Mac specific version for Aquatint Black, Abstract Black, Abstract Zune, Aquatint, Abstract Classic, Purpletint Black, Greentint Black, Abstract Amethyst, Abstract Emerald, Aero Fox Silver, and others.
So, before you go around accusing me of being greedy and unethical because I have the audacity to think my time and efforts are worth something and start taking my work and distributing it on other sites without my permission, you should take a long look at yourself and question why you are so upset with me and why you are entitled to have my work for free when honest people are paying $0.99 for it.
It is very easy for your to get outraged and steal my themes while I am doing all the work to make sure my themes are high quality and were ready to be used for the release of Firefox 3.
Misidentified Pirate
It has come to my attention that Danny was misidentified as the person who uploaded my theme to a software download site for pirated materials. While Danny was thanked as the person who uploaded my themes and shared them for people who feel my time and efforts are not worth anything and don't feel they need to pay, the credit should have gone to armedking.
I apologize to Danny for the misunderstanding because he has purchased a couple of my themes and was not the one responsible for uploading them.
As for armedking, apparently he does not believe in the intent behind free open source software and the general public license as he claims. He, and those who are very critical of me, like to claim that they are the ones who really understand and stand up for the principles of open source software and that is why they are obligated to take my work and distribute it on piracy sites.
Yes armedking, my work is done under the GPL and is open source but that does not entitle you to take my work and distribute it as you are. It is this exact license that allows me to create my work and distribute it as I see fit, not you. The license says that you can use my theme's code and build your own themes off of it without having to pay me license fees or royalties.
You have rationalized that what you are doing is for the common good of the Firefox community at large but you are doing nothing but demonstrating your lack of real ethics and a sense of immature entitlement.
Obviously there is little I can do to prevent people from doing what armedking has done other than hope and rely on the common decency of people who want to do the right thing and use my free version or support me in my efforts by giving $0.99 for my full versions.
Again, to Danny, I am sorry for identifying you as the person who did this.
I apologize to Danny for the misunderstanding because he has purchased a couple of my themes and was not the one responsible for uploading them.
As for armedking, apparently he does not believe in the intent behind free open source software and the general public license as he claims. He, and those who are very critical of me, like to claim that they are the ones who really understand and stand up for the principles of open source software and that is why they are obligated to take my work and distribute it on piracy sites.
Yes armedking, my work is done under the GPL and is open source but that does not entitle you to take my work and distribute it as you are. It is this exact license that allows me to create my work and distribute it as I see fit, not you. The license says that you can use my theme's code and build your own themes off of it without having to pay me license fees or royalties.
You have rationalized that what you are doing is for the common good of the Firefox community at large but you are doing nothing but demonstrating your lack of real ethics and a sense of immature entitlement.
Obviously there is little I can do to prevent people from doing what armedking has done other than hope and rely on the common decency of people who want to do the right thing and use my free version or support me in my efforts by giving $0.99 for my full versions.
Again, to Danny, I am sorry for identifying you as the person who did this.
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