Litestep [that alternate shell] ....10 years of...

Published on December 1, 2007 By Jafo In WinCustomize News

Recently Zoomba posted he had just reached 5 years with Stardock...and it got me thinking about when I started fiddling with OS Customizing [originally on sites such as Customize.org and Litestep.com ...and later skinz.org].

The first 'release' of Litestep I came across was called 'b21' or more accurately 1.0 b21 dated 25 March, 1998 ....though the first I actually messed with was b23 a little time after that....but probably just on 10 years ago.

Litestep was thought up by a guy called Francis Gastellu, aka LoneRunnr, from France.

There are snippets in the 'readme.txt' ...you know, the R.T.F.M. that is a MUST for people messing with shells....that are 'interesting' in the Firefly sense...

What is LiteSTEP ?
------------------

LiteSTEP is a shell replacement for Windows95 (NT not fully supported) that will give
your Windows the AfterSTEP look&feel.

It consists in a Wharf toolbar, a popup menu and some modules.

The Wharf toolbar is used to organize your applications & modules.

The Popup menu will automatically gives you access to installed applications via its
start menu.

The Modules are used to their particular function: Clock, Temperature monitor,
WinAMP plugin, Virtual Window Manager...

Your reasons for using LiteSTEP :
---------------------------------

- If you come from the LINUX world and are used to AFTERSTEP.

- If having multiple desktops would make your work easier.

- If you dislike Microsoft's Shell or find it eats too much memory, CPU and that it is
not always stable.

- If the aspect of your desktop is important to you.

- If you like to have something different from your friends.

Or simply to try a cool & stable alternative to Microsoft's Shell.

Origins....

1.0 ß1 - 12/14/97
            - First beta out (private)
            - Lot of bugs
            - Not fully usable

LiteSTEP is still in beta stage.

LiteSTEP is freeware. Use it at your own risks! I cannot be held responsible for
any damage (software or hardware) happened while using LiteSTEP.

You know, 10 years on and it's STILL in beta .... works a heck of a lot better...does more .... but still in beta.

I am yet to fire up a Vista OS to give it a try...but apparently it still 'works' [or can be made to work], though I have run it in every other MS OS from 95 onwards ....though it did nothing to 'help' Win ME ....that OS was a lost cause....

Comments (Page 1)

Hankers

on Dec 01, 2007

Good post Jafo and an interesting read.

LightStar

on Dec 01, 2007

Very nice read Jafo, and you are right, Windows ME was a lost cause. In a year or so though you may have to change that line to read.... "Win ME and Vista... they were a lost cause....".

Timoleon5

on Dec 01, 2007

I remember back in the "old days", I would look forward to logging onto litestep.net and litestep.com each day to see the new desktops that were rapidly appearing. It was a thriving Litestep community for several years --- I think at one time there were over 3000 desktop submissions on litestep.net alone!

In some ways, Litestep is the "grandfather" of things Stardock related --- although Brad W. (he was still in diapers at the time --- what a prodigy!) had created his wonderful OS/2 Shell for Windows 95, which really got the ball rolling (at least for me) at the start.

Long live Litestep, and long live Stardock!

HG_Eliminator

on Dec 01, 2007

Ahh the old days when I was known under a different nick...

I remember Beta testing LS v0.24.0 ..what a time that was, crashes and other issues.. but man, once you got it dialed in... it was a dream...

Good post Bro

GregII

on Dec 01, 2007

I love Litestep. Always have. Problem: I can't use it now because I am on Vista. Jafo, if you can get it running, please let me know. I want it back! Thanks.

BoXXi

on Dec 01, 2007

You may remember Paul, that I was an early user of Litestep. It was Litestep that brought me into customisation, and I made quite a few themes for it back then. I really did love using it, but DesktopX dragged me away kicking and screaming. After using DX's more modular method of theming, writing a step.rc for Litestep seemed too much of a pain (I never was one for coding), and I never went back.
I have tried the newer versions, and it still looks good, but I doubt I'll make any more themes for it.
But for anyone who is confident with the workings of their computer, I strongly recommend giving it a try. You can set Litestep up as a seperate user account and boot into it at log on, which is handy.

Good article....... Thank you!.

Jafo

on Dec 01, 2007

You may remember Paul, that I was an early user of Litestep.

Yes, many current [and past] skinners dabbled in Litestep, and other shells/GUIs ...just as with the various Media players, etc ....anything that was 'skinnable' or could be made to be different from the standard 'Windows' look.

Enhancements/addons for the standard Explorer shell overall would be more common/popular in use than full shell replacements because the latter can often be a pain to setup.

GregII .... if you Google 'litestep'...then search within results for 'vista' there's a few hits that indicate it 'works' after a fashion ....

on Dec 01, 2007

Wow. Litestep indeed.

I was one of early users, but didn't use it for long.

gef

on Dec 01, 2007

It's where it all began for me

As said previously, don't think it will work on Vista but it was the 'begining' of skinning for most people.

Still got one up but I don't know if it will still work.

https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=135&libid=6

freezejeans

on Dec 01, 2007

Awesome read, Jafo! Many fond memories of LiteStep...one of the things I liked was that you could make the pop-out menus look cool by adding a long background image. In fact, I still have a screenshot taken March 18, 1999 while on IRC trying to convince a buddy to give it a shot!

Ah, the good ol' days...

http://i7.tinypic.com/6y5k18j.jpg

Drop125

on Dec 01, 2007

Only good if you have hours and hours of time t waste coding out all the bugs...Ivemneverbeen able to get any of the stuff to work well enough to use it to any extent...you always gotta tweak it to death....better off they just give it up and use ODesktop..but then again some people just like to waste time trying to make something work then actualy doing work on there PC...

GregII

on Dec 01, 2007

The latest installer (3.02 - November 2007) says it is Vista compatable. It isn't.

Jafo

on Dec 02, 2007

The latest installer (3.02 - November 2007) says it is Vista compatable. It isn't.

I saw that...my bet is it's a simple standard 'list' on Download.com, etc ....that no-one bothered to verify as pertinent.

One link/hit mentions an issue with auto-load on boot....as being the [only] problem...

GregII

on Dec 02, 2007

Does that mean I can get around this?

Fenek100

on Dec 02, 2007

Heh, i'm on Litestep from january 2001 and still fixed on it.

Great article.

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