Welcome to Neowin 5

By Marshalus
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Grand Master

Marshalus Veteran

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Neowin.net

Where unprofessional journalism looks better

Welcome to Neowin 5

Eight years ago, Steven Parker (Neobond) and Marcel Klum (Redmak) had an idea to create a Windows news website. And so, in October 2000, Neowin.net was born. In the beginning, the site focused mainly on reporting the latest developments on Windows Whistler and thoughts about the layout were second to getting the latest build information out to our visitors.

But as Neowin grew both in visitors and in staff, new layouts came to replace the originals but still, the basics were the same. After Whistler, now Windows XP, came out the focus of the site turned more to the forums, which is now one of the most vibrant technology oriented technology communities on the Internet.

Then came the layout known as Swift -- also known internally as "Neowin 3" -- the same layout but more compliant and much faster. Even though Neowin began moving from the backend it had used for many years to a custom coded CMS, its front page was still the same.

Next came Shift -- aka "Neowin 4" -- the layout that has been active on the site since April of 2006. Building on the performance enhancements of Swift and the continued development of our custom backend, Shift was a change in the way we presented our site, although not a huge departure from the past.

Shift was the beginning of the next era for Neowin, one that starts today.

Since the day Shift was launched, every level of staff and including our veterans and MVCs have contributed proposals, features and design ideas for the next version and we believe we are taking Neowin to the next level with this design.

When you visit the main page for the first time, you'll see that it's drastically different then the old layout and that "Finity" is a radical departure from the way we've presented the site in the past. The #1 focus in the development of this design was how best to present our news in a way that is both pleasing to the user and puts the focus on the original writings of Neowin staffers and contributors.

We have expanded our old sections of Main, Software, Gamers by dedicating sections to Apple, Linux, Microsoft, Hardware, Podcasts, Galleries and Editorials. This allows users to get a Neowin "flavor" that serves them best. While the main page will display content from all sections of the site, if you're a Mac user and want a Neowin that will be your daily Apple news resource, then set the site to display the Apple section and you'll never know we report on anything else.

Every section now has a clear header, so you know where you're going on the site.

2_snag.png

One of the biggest change you'll see is all the originally generated content by Neowin staffers and contributors. This is what drives the new layout and what we hope will drive new and continued readers. But because we know we can't cover everything, we've added an "Around the Web" section to feature news we've found on other sites that we think is interesting, or that is submitted by our members.

We've also condensed the amount of text you see on the page in order to add more features and to make the site flow better. This also has a benefit of allowing you to see more content on the page at one time. But, if you didn't visit the site for a few days and want to catch up, we've drastically improved our archive view just for you.

We've also switched to a fixed page width, so we can make better use of graphics and make sure that we have a site that displays properly in all screen sizes. This has forced us to think about designing a site that is less cluttered and more focused ... and we hope that you feel we've done just that. As a side note, one other feature we know a lot of our web programmers will like is that the the site is now XHTML 1.0 Strict compliant.

So, we would like to welcome you to the next generation of Neowin. Like all of our past designs, this one is always a work in progress and we encourage feedback from our members. We feel like we've listened a lot to the feedback you've given about past layouts and that we've delivered a new layout that will exceed your expectations.

Thanks, and welcome again... to Neowin 5.

Edit: For those of you who want to know, YES, there will be a forum skin to follow this. No official ETA right now though.

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https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/682196-welcome-to-neowin-5/
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Grand Master

Lee G. Veteran

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I love the new layout, it's beautiful. It will take some time to get used it to it, nonetheless.

The main page looks nice but the Forum looks the same to me.

Don't expect the forum skin to change for quite some time. Neowin.net's main page was upgraded to the shift skin in about October 2005, and the forum's skin wasn't upgraded to shift until July 1, 2007. Hopefully this time, it will take less time.

Seeing as the layout is completely different, and the skin chooser has gone, Neowin seems to have ended the ability to use the shift or swift skins.

Grand Master

Sethos

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Will we ever see a matching forum skin?

"Finity" looks beyond gorgeous, that's for sure! But when you then jump to the forums you just get of a feeling of "Meh", like going between two completely different sites. Always liked how Neowin's forum and mainpage had a consistent look.

Grand Master

Antaris Veteran

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Can I just ask what the thought process was behind the news section menu.

Apple -> Microsoft -> Linux, doesn't seem right to me, its not either alphabetical, or Microsoft first (as this was originally a Microsoft centric site).

It may seem a little pedantic, but it just confuses me...

Grand Master

FlishFun Veteran

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Will we ever see a matching forum skin?

"Finity" looks beyond gorgeous, that's for sure! But when you then jump to the forums you just get of a feeling of "Meh", like going between two completely different sites. Always liked how Neowin's forum and mainpage had a consistent look.

The forums will be updated next... don't you worry. :D

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