Daiwa said:
warreni -I think you'll need to reinstall Theme Manager to handle the .suite files. Just a guess on my part.
I have reinstalled Theme Manager, Daiwa; I was just under the impression that MyColors would be handling both .suite and .mycolors files from here on in.
Except for some weird issues getting registration numbers for the themes from WinCustomize, which I resolved by having the support page email me my reg numbers, the handling of the .mycolors files has been seamless. However, when I redownloaded the Pirate suite, it installed into Theme Manager (after I closed MyColors), which isn't the behavior I was expecting; while MyColors was running, whenever I double-clicked on the .suite file, it kept popping up to the front of my screen as though it were about to do something, but then it just sat there, looking at me.
Jafo said:
Activation limits, time limits, OR file encryption.
The file encryption of commercial content is a MUST.
I don't disagree with this at all. It seems to me as though (with the exception of people having issues getting .suites/.mycolors to behave properly in Vista) when you buy a license for a "package" like, say, the Pirate suite or MyColors theme, you're buying the ability to apply that "as is," while being able to add or remove certain elements as you see fit (example: I hardly ever use analog clock widgets/gadgets). So encrypting the content so that it can't be used outside of the programs designed to make it work on YOUR system doesn't seem unreasonable in the least.
As an example, I recently used TrialPay to get a license for Roboform at home; to do this, I signed up for a GameTap trial. As I understand the service, GT installs the player software as a kind of security device that ensures that a) in the case of Gold membership, you have the privileges to run the game, and
you can't run it outside of the GT player "interface." The files needed to run PC games (I have no idea how/if this works with consoles) are downloaded to a local directory and stored in an encrypted format that prevents them from being played outside the player client. It's actually a pretty neat idea that never would have gotten off the ground (i.e., the company would not have been able to acquire licenses from the game developers/publishers) had there not been some sort of effective security scheme in place to prevent the service's use as a method of game trading or piracy.
Daiwa said:
it would be nice to have a tryB4Ubuy option to know if there were issues with a particular theme before committing $$ to its purchase. Seems SD may have the technology to make such an option work & that might address some of the issues raised in this thread.
I actually think this is a great idea and I think SD has the tech know-how to implement "theme demos." This fits in with Jafo's comment about time limits. This or some better preview options would, in my opinion, go a long way toward selling more themes. I guess this begs another, related question, which is this: is Stardock moving away from creating suites and focussing its efforts in the arena of premium content only or primarily on MyColors themes?
