I've been thinking, just as many others have before me, of creating my own 'user-friendly' installation process-come-distro or at least a brain-dead user's step-by-step guide to getting LS at least running 'something' on 'anyone's' computer.

Perhaps I should...

Jafo:I really think that would be a good idea.The reason I stopped at Stardock was the WC Browser and it's ability to manage the delivery of it's content.Most of what is available here is click to dload then click to apply.This,IMHO, is the single most important feature that will make this site and company grow.

Jafo: the minute you do, they'll change something and you'll have to start over. I actually had a couple of pages done on a tutorial for LS when they changed it. I also had a sonique tutorial half done when they announced that the next format was gonna be totally different. Then there was my ICQ Plus tutorial that was valid for a couple of months. You have no idea how much stuff I deleted when I got fed up.

Don't you guys ever get tired? Honestly it is hard to get started back. I'm pondering a few things that might help, but this is so much work for such a transient artform and fickle audience. I was in my beloved art store the other day, and I just stopped and stared at the newly stretched canvases. It was dumbfounding how wonderful it would be to make something, and then just be done with it; no uploading, no idiotic comments tacked the wall under it, no fixing it every time the canvas company decided to change the format or added a 'feature'.

My problem right now is that there is always a reason to wait for a week or two, until something is fixed, or something comes out of beta. Then, when you are about to get started, you find out that the next beta will change a bunch of stuff and it will be out in a few weeks. I feel old...

And you will, and I want to hear from YOU!

brazil...a shell replacement should NOT be something that you DL with a browser and auto-install.
This is the problem.
People think it is just another proggy, and have no idea how to reverse the changes made, and assume that LiteSTEP [or some other shall] has trashed their system when it is their own ineptitude which has caused it.
In my ReadMeFirst.txt in my themes, I comment 'LiteSTEP doesn't kill computers, people do.'
And it's true, but a few simple 'rules' to abide by and it is a painless experience [usually].

The sad thing is that in '97-'98 when I first started playing with shells, no-one much was around to hold my hand and walk me through it, but I survived...without pickling any OS. Sure, I got into lots of fun over the years attempting stupid things, but you expect that when you are messing with something still in beta, sometimes oddly buggy, and continuously evolving, but that is all about what skinning/themeing is all about.

It's a 'young' industry in constant development...


At one stage, I toyed with various propietary 'installer' creating proggies and made my own self-extracting, self installing Litestep shell, but I continually got lost 'making' it install new system fonts at the same time and got a bit peeved. Also, there can be more 'issues' with a non 9x Windows, eg. registry settings, which I was loathe to include in an installer just in case it fragged someone's OS. Now it's gathering dust somewhere. [It DID work, though]...

In the next few weeks, I'll put together a 'basic' OTS-compliant theme and shell along with a blow-by-blow description of how and what to do to make it work.
I'll upload it here as a complete functional shell, not just a theme, and I'll include the most important part.....an 'RTFM'.....'TFM' that everyone 'needs' to 'R'...

Jafo: yeah, you're right. I'm just tired. I'm gonna take this glass of rum and my last cigar and go sit out on my porch and blow smoke rings until my feet freeze. g'nite

JM...is that you, or has a younger sibling logged in with your account?
Comments appear strangely out of character...