2 replies to this topic

[pitkon]

tres ‘ni (Brian Hartvigsen) is something of an almost mythical figure in the history of Blackbox. He was there to help Blackbox for Windows right after the shell’s first steps, being an advisor in the team, along with some mean core coding. He is also listed as a CVS/SourceForge Maintainer, he developed some excellent plugins like bbicons and he helped to lift off Bluebox, the first ever BB flavor to use window skinning, but the community knows him and owes him as the creator of two sites that were fundamental in the amazing popularity of the shell: boxshots.org and lostinthebox.com

 

 boxshots1.JPG   117.24KB   0 downloads

boxshots, the famous BB site

 

[color=#ff0000;][font="arial, sans-serif;"]1) When did you start your acquaintance with Blackbox?[/color][/font]

 

I started using it soon after the first public release (good old rtfm switch).  I'd been involved in shells for a while (core, Litestep, geoshell and a few others). 

 

 tres'ni screenie 1.jpg   181.52KB   0 downloads

Tres 'ni's first screenie on boxshots, many years ago. He had this to say:

This was my home desktop.. It's changed a little, but as I am just testing the functionality of the notes and the info screen it doesn't really matter Um.. Not sure what all to put here

A new line is always a good idea though..

Plugins:

BBIcons

MultiAmp 

 

[color=#ff0000;][font="arial, sans-serif;"]2) What was/is your contribution (developing builds/plugings, sites, styles)?[/color][/font]

 

My first contributions back were in 2003.  I released BBIcons which let you make shortcuts that would apply stylized backgrounds.  Also setup what eventually became boxshots.org after bb.joeblade org shutdown.  Kept going from there, BBSlit (which loaded plugins into a container and idea heavily influenced from bluebox and fluxbox), Tcl4bb, broambox and even working on the dev team for a while (0.0.90 betas.)  I then went over to the Bluebox side of things (0.50 betas) and did most of my time there.  I developed slitapps that allowed loading BB4Win plugins in bluebox as well as a number of other things.  I co-administrated a number of community websites with people like NC-17, qwilk, snkmchnb, and Jesterace until 2009 when I switched to OSX for work.  I haven't used a PC on the day-to-day in almost 5 years and today have no involvement really in most of the sites.

 

 tres'ni screenie 2.jpg   360.34KB   0 downloads

"The background is a rootCommand that I think qwilk sent me: "rootCommand: bsetroot -mod 2 3 -fg #06496F -bg #2D87BB" Works really well with the theme

Plugins:

BBBin

MultiAmp bb4

nWeather

BBWorldTime

BBSystemBar

BBIcons

BBColors 

 

[color=#ff0000;][font="arial, sans-serif;"]3) What are the main advantages/disadvantages of the shell?[/color][/font]

 

Never really looked at it that way.  I liked the ease of use and simplicity of approach I guess.  Unlike Litestep that required you skin and set everything, you could get up and running with BB4Win (or bluebox) in no time flat.

 

 tres'ni screenie 3.jpg   112.66KB   0 downloads

5/8 Nightly of BB4Win

BBDDE

BBSlit

BBSB

BBSysmon

BBColor

BBAnalog

 

[color=#ff0000;][font="arial, sans-serif;"]4) What do you think is lacking?[/color][/font]

 

Having been out of the loop for so long, I don't think I can give a fair answer to this.

 

 tres'ni screenie 4.jpg   350.56KB   0 downloads

Teaser of BBSlit 

 

[color=#ff0000;][font="arial, sans-serif;"]5) What do you think of the shell and the community today?[/color][/font]

 

The heyday is definitely over.  There are still some hardcore people still around, but I don't feel like any of the shells have really evolved with the newer operating systems.  With EoL approaching for XP and a fairly stagnant development cycle, I'm not sure what the future holds.

 

 tres'ni screenie 5.jpg   197.86KB   0 downloads

"For some reason this style (like most of PovRayMan's others) reminds me of a comic book.. Not sure why but I love it! You see at work:

BBColor

BBBin

BBPager

BBWorldTime

BBIcons 2.0 (unreleased)

BBStyle

BBSystemBar

Multiamp

The wallpaper is the bsetroot for Silvange".

 

 lostinthebox1.JPG   35.56KB   0 downloads

The final chapter of lostinthebox. The end of an era...

 

[sed]

[font="'comic sans ms', cursive;"]Fine works!! FINE artist! [/font]

[scruffty]

I think the failure of the newer operating systems to provide a more personal experience, leaves an epic opening for this shell..Like the glory days when 

Skinz.org was in its prime and litestep and blackbox filled a void our best days may be ahead.We have the right mix of people to create something awesome

and the right time has come.Microsoft dropped the ball with the windows 8 abortion.People want to set up their computors their own way.Everyone here shares

in that desire and appreciate the work all of you are doing for this community...