Stardock's relationship with Neowin and its criticizers


Recommended Posts

  • 5 months later...

Because i don't want to get moderated or get hated by Neobond or Frogboy cause im asking to much questions *g* i've edited my post.

As one of the first members of Neowin (this is my second account as i've lost my original one) and a Stardock customer, my hope is, that we're getting even more additions to Neowin.

Frogboy(Brad Wardell) you've got my respect...

Im following your corporate-yourney since im really interrested in the things you and the other selfmade isv-owners do.

Please keep or expand youre open way and tell us (especially me) the secret of success!

Edited by sorlag

I have never had a problem with *anybody* on this forum.

I am extremely thankful for Brad for helping out the community, he doesnt really deserve all the flak he gets, but then I suppose when you are quite high up thats what anyone would get.

We just have to remember, like a few people have already said, everything here is free. I became a subscriber because I liked the site and its content so much, plus I wanted to help out. I'm not saying that everyone should run out and get subscriber status because that would be preposterous lol.

But in close, thanks Neobond, Redmak and all the other staff, as well as Brad/Frogboy. You have gave me a good and peaceful place to come for many years, and I hope this will be able to continue :)

I just saw this thread for the first time and I don't see why there was a problem in the first place

The problem was Neowin was reporting on news concerning Stardock without telling people about this relationship. It was a hit to their journalistic integrity. This was a form of full disclosure.

Stardock still sucks, regardless it part owns Neowin, they didn't CREATE Neowin, so they still suck.

So in your logic they still suck even though they have guaranteed our finances and ensure that we can stay online?

Sometimes I really wonder if some people believe in such things as free money trees :whistle:

But it kinda seems that these real issues we have with stardock's apps that we post about here, may be be labeled as "flaming" and "non real issues" since stardock is god and owns the forum here.

I do love neowin though :) im still a bit weary of the stardock ownership, and wasnt too excited when i found this topic last night.

Do you have examples or evidence to back up the claim which I bolded in the above quote?

Neowin does not censor the opinions of our members if they are within our rules, ever. Therefore, I can assure you, your claim is wrong :)

Also, I suggest you read the first post in this topic describing how much of Neowin Stardock actually owns -

"Neowin is now part owned by Stardock (40%) and the decision to invest in Neowin was a majority vote by its shareholders. The other 60% is shared between myself and (Redmak) Marcel Klum, the site founders. This agreement was completed in February 2005".

How does this make Stardock "god [which] owns the forum here"?

Edited by Calum

Anyone complaining about it can shut up.

Neowin is FREE. It's like people complaining about Messenger Live having ads below it. So frikkin' what... it's free. Don't like it? Make your own IM system.

Same with Neowin. If you don't like it, get lost and start your own tech site ... see how far you get. I run a few websites and I've had the same crap thrown at me ... but it's essential sometimes. People don't understand the cost of running a site ... even a small site that consistently updates it's users and gives constantly.

Go Neowin I say. I come here to read news every day and I know it's a privilege not a right. Neowin wasn't set up with tax payers money.

I personally have no problems with Neowin having corporate sponsership as long as it's values/rules still stay the same.

I sometimes see stuff posted by frogboy/brad but don't tend to pay that much attention to actual member names, only the response so I couldn't say if he posted good or bad replies.

As to Stardock, I used to have a subscription for WindowBlinds on WinXP years ago and I absolutely hated it.

I had loads of problems getting it to work and run how I wanted it to, so used Litestep instead, got it working exactly how I liked on a self made theme AND it was free :yes:

However..... It's my understanding that Galactic Civilisation ans Sins of a Solar Empire are really good, well supported games (I don't know as I've not played due to little interest in spaceship sim stuff) and I'm really looking forward to Demigod and will be buying it.

I see it as every company can make good and bad software, Microsoft made 2k (I loved it) and they also made WinME (it was pure crap), EA made Mirror's Edge (Really fun game) and they also made a large quantitys of rinse-and-repeat sports games and use draconian DRM methods.

It balances out as far I'm concerned

Do you have examples or evidence to back up the claim which I bolded in the above quote?

Neowin does not censor the opinions of our members if they are within our rules, ever. Therefore, I can assure you, your claim is wrong :)

Also, I suggest you read the first post in this topic describing how much of Neowin Stardock actually owns -

"Neowin is now part owned by Stardock (40%) and the decision to invest in Neowin was a majority vote by its shareholders. The other 60% is shared between myself and (Redmak) Marcel Klum, the site founders. This agreement was completed in February 2005".

How does this make Stardock "god [which] owns the forum here"?

I believe the point being made is that as long as Stardock are bankrolling Neowin's survival, the site staff are more likely to obey their wishes than risk coming into conflict with them, and although I don't see anything on here of particularly bad quality due to Stardock's inolvement, I would like to hazard a guess that this point is probably valid

I believe the point being made is that as long as Stardock are bankrolling Neowin's survival, the site staff are more likely to obey their wishes than risk coming into conflict with them, and although I don't see anything on here of particularly bad quality due to Stardock's inolvement, I would like to hazard a guess that this point is probably valid

Well I am saying I find it despicable that members would assume such a thing.

Neowin's rules are clear and state nothing which bAsKeT cAsE assumed. You are all going on assumptions and not facts. No one has examples to back up bAsKeT cAsE's claim so how can people assume it is true?

I have examples to back up the fact that we don't and the main example is our community rules. The staff and members go by the community rules always and there is nothing in those rules to give any truth to bAsKeT cAsE's unfair assumption.

To all the haters of Stardock, How many times have you tried to make Windows Look like a mac?.. I will wait here until you answer my question.

So, didn't take you long did it? Objectdock, Windowblinds, Objectbar, CursorFX, IconPackager - Are amazing apps! they did exactly what I wanted. What is the big deal that Stardock is in relationship with Neowin? Some of you say the themes are not good.. well guess what? it's not their fault, Its the creator of the theme's fault I have seen stock themes that came from Stardock in Windowblinds and They looked simply amazing.

I bet that most hate is because most of the apps by Stardock are not free.. Boo Hoo, well here's your solution: GET A JOB!

Neowin, Well done in teaming up with Stardock (Y)

Well I am saying I find it despicable that members would assume such a thing.

Neowin's rules are clear and state nothing which bAsKeT cAsE assumed. You are all going on assumptions and not facts. No one has examples to back up bAsKeT cAsE's claim so how can people assume it is true?

I have examples to back up the fact that we don't and the main example is our community rules. The staff and members go by the community rules always and there is nothing in those rules to give any truth to bAsKeT cAsE's unfair assumption.

You say it is an unfair assumption, but people are always going to have their opinions, and until someone provides the proof those misgivings will continue to exist. The nature of life is that people will always doubt things, and you accusing us of being despicable just because we doubt the "official" story is a little bit sad to be honest. I am not making my point in a way intended to flame any particular member of staff, I was merely stating an opinion.

To all the haters of Stardock, How many times have you tried to make Windows Look like a mac?.. I will wait here until you answer my question.

I am not a hater of stardock, I use LogonStudio, but... Never... I like Windows to look like Windows

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • I was expecting the end of the world to happen before this game or elder scroll 6 to come out.
    • OpenAI and Broadcom unveil Jalapeño, a new AI chip built for LLM inference by Pradeep Viswanathan Image by OpenAI Thanks to the exponential growth of ChatGPT and other LLM-based applications, NVIDIA has grown from a $200 billion company into the first public company to reach a $5 trillion market cap. Even though hyperscalers such as Google and Amazon have their own mature AI accelerators, NVIDIA still dominates the AI infrastructure market with multiple generations of GPUs. Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta remain among NVIDIA’s largest customers, while Google and Amazon continue to be significant NVIDIA customers as they serve AI workloads for customers on their cloud platforms. Today, OpenAI and Broadcom announced Jalapeño, OpenAI’s first custom “Intelligence Processor” designed specifically for large language model inference. The new chip is the first product from a multi-generation compute platform being developed by OpenAI. OpenAI highlighted that Jalapeño was built from the ground up for current and future LLM workloads, rather than being a general-purpose accelerator adapted for AI. Despite heavy competition from Gemini, Claude, Copilot, and others, ChatGPT remains the most used AI platform in the world. OpenAI mentioned that it leveraged its knowledge of how its models and products run at scale, including ChatGPT, Codex, the API, and future agentic AI systems, to design this new chipset. Its chip architecture reduces data movement while balancing compute, memory, and networking resources. Jalapeño will be deployed in production systems starting in late 2026; however, engineering samples are already running machine learning workloads in OpenAI’s labs at production target frequency and power. According to its internal testing, OpenAI claims this chip can deliver “substantially better” performance per watt, and a detailed technical report is expected in the coming months. While OpenAI designed the chip, Broadcom handled silicon implementation and networking technologies, including Tomahawk networking silicon, and Celestica is assisting with board, rack, and system-level integration. OpenAI pointed out that Jalapeño went from initial design to manufacturing tape-out in just nine months, which it claims is the fastest ASIC development cycle achieved for a high-performance advanced semiconductor. The company attributed the speed of development to its own LLMs, which were used during the chip design and optimization process. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan stated that the company's plan is to deploy the Jalapeño platform at a gigawatt scale with Microsoft and other partners starting in 2026. With Jalapeño, OpenAI joins Google, Microsoft, and Amazon to become a full-stack AI player. The company already develops models and products, and is now moving deeper into infrastructure, including chips, kernels, networking, scheduling, and deployment systems.
    • I'm aware. That information should have been included in the article, making it more complete and information.
    • Converseen 0.15.2.5-2 by Razvan Serea Converseen is a free and open-source batch image converter and resizer. It supports over 100 formats, including DPX, EXR, GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PNG, SVG, TIFF, WebP, HEIC/HEIF, and many others. Users can convert, resize, rotate, flip, and compress multiple images at once. It can also transform entire PDF documents into individual image files. Powered by the ImageMagick library, Converseen features a user-friendly interface and is available in both installer and portable versions. Here’s a list of all the features you can find in Converseen: Batch image conversion (supports 100+ formats) Resize images in bulk Rotate and flip images in bulk Compress images to reduce file size Convert entire PDF documents into image files Support for multiple image formats (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PDF, BMP, GIF, and more) Customizable output settings (quality, resolution, etc.) Image effects and adjustments (such as brightness, contrast, etc.) Convert images to PDF User-friendly graphical interface Support for drag-and-drop functionality Extract an image from a Windows icon file (*ico) Supports adding watermark to images Portable and installer versions available Leverages ImageMagick for processing power Allows renaming of images in bulk Supports EXIF data editing (for JPEG images) Easy-to-use GUI for non-technical users Command-line support for advanced users Free and open-source software Cross-platform availability Available in multiple languages Download: Converseen 0.15.2.5-2 | Portable | 32-bit | ~40.0 MB (Open Source) View: Converseen Homepage | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Regarding the AI photo, I LOVE AI in that regard, you ask it what you want and it gives you a lovey photo in under a minute, that would taken me an hour to make in photoshop and it wouldn't have looked nearly as good. 2 nights ago I spent a couple hours collaborating with AI.  I did not say write me an article. I would write one or 2  paragraphs, then I would ask it to clean it up so it read better but still keeps the information I was trying to convey.  Rinse repeat.  
  • Recent Achievements

    • First Post
      Tom Schmidt earned a badge
      First Post
    • One Month Later
      D0nn13 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Rookie
      +ChiefOfNeo went up a rank
      Rookie
    • One Year In
      Tom Schmidt earned a badge
      One Year In
    • One Month Later
      Tom Schmidt earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      453
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      176
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      123
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      81
    5. 5
      Xenon
      75
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!