Commercial Look And Feels

| Tags: dev, java

Some five days ago Incors released the Alloy Look And Feel. It’s based on the famous Kunststoff Look And Feel and adds a kind of theming support. They take $199 for a developer license. I doubt that they will get rich with this, though. It does not seem to have great enhancements above the Kunststoff Look And Feel. The Alloy Look And Feel comes with five themes, but a gifted Java developer could make this without great problems with the Kunststoff Look And Feel as the base.

As far as I know it’s the first time someone tries to sell a Look And Feel lib. I wonder if there is a market for such a thing. There are some good Open Source Look And Feels around (See javootoo.com). I won’t buy it. It’s too expensive. They need to add something no other Look And Feel has, a killer feature. As long as they don’t, I do not see a future for the Alloy Look And Feel