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Disclaimer: Microsoft is my employer. This post is provided as-is with no warranty and confers no rights.

Can you explain then how come then the website linked on your posts http://floach.pimpin.net/visigoth redirects to search411.com which very is advising people to use "The browser you can trust Firefox" & NOT Microsoft IE?

Hey? Explain that one to us Mr Microsoft man!!! Something is fishy here and I don't mean your mum who's still naked on my bed!

One extremely bored weekend, on a win2k box..

VMware with redhat linux running UAE
Vmware with Win98SE for games.
BaliskII with net access running os8
WinUAE playing .mods

Then,
Running VNC to my linux box with IceWM with qnx theme.
Running VNC to my wifes 98se box
My linux box mounting my Win2k drives with sharity
My win2k box mounting my linux boxes with samba
Xwin32 running a file manager on the unix box that was looking at my win2k mounted drives.
Netscape exported back.
Running eFX with enlightenment skin.
Exporting Gimp back and viewing pictures on my local drives.
Mirc in desktop mode with transparency.
tclock for looks and to replace the start button.
econsole - I use dterm for win32 now.
And when not listening to mods, Sonique with background visuals.

Lots of cool stuff out there, emulators for almost everything, mame/consoles/64/amiga/atari/mac/apple/etc..
And tons of programs to make windows look the way you want, or even go wild with litestep/graphite/etc..

If your interested in tweaking and shell enhacements check out Shell City daily updates with new programs.
Customize.org and Floachs site are a must visit also.

If you are bored with the look&feel of the windows shell/desktop/taskbar you could replace it with i.e. litestep or some other shell replacement. check this nice site for a list of shells and other related stuff & news about the subject.

Don't think it's something you would deploy company-wide, but with a good theme it sure would impress your co-workers and it's also great for *nix people that are familiar with i.e afterstep, windowmaker and the like.. Last time I checked lots of the shell replacements (if not all) are open source in some form or other..

Now, the point: Litestep does nothing to your system. Nothing! If anyone ever has any problems with their system because of Litestep, it's because they didn't properly read the docs. The installation of LS only requires that you unzip LS into its own directory within the root dir and then set Windows' default shell to the path where the LS executable is. If you don't want to run LS as your shell anymore, then all you need to do is set the default shell back to Explorer.exe and delete LS' directory (if you want).

Of course! there are some problems with LS on Windows though. Microsoft despises the idea that a 3rd party (GPL'd software at that... yes, LS has been GPL'd for a few years now and has been in very active development since) development group has been at all successful with creating a new GUI for Windows. Do you really expect it to work perfectly? I sure hope not. The biggest problems are with xceed, hotline (both the respective developers (acknowledged) problems), and Wise Installer (which really isn't an issue anymore -- there was a fault in the installer that made it look for Explorer as the shell each time it installed an app). The other major known problems are in nt5 where MS decided to have Explorer itself render some of the important system tray icons (such as dialup, network, printer, etc.). Therefore, any alternative shell on Win32 won't be able to show these icons. That's MS' fault.

Most of the other problems with Litestep usually involve a module (aka plugin) here or there that has been coded poorly. Litestep's functionality comes from the hundreds of 3rd party modules available (see Modulo).... and what keeps the shell going is its 1000+ themes (now even available via themes.org). There is bound to be problems with LS with so many variables involved. Is Linux somehow different than LS in this way? I don't think so. Either way, just like *nix, LS has great 3rd party support available. There's the LS Mailing List, several IRC channels (on efnet - mirrored on openprojects.net via a linkbot), and several online forums, as well as online tutorials and docs (all linked from FPN).

The good points of Litestep and other shells are endless however. Who would dare say that Explorer does not crash? ... or that it uses up too many resources in Windows? This is the first advantage to an alt. shell in Win32. Litestep is especially very light on resources compared to Explorer (uses about 1.5mb on my nt5 box). Litestep also helps to bring added funtionality to your Windows box... the main functionality being: virtually unlimited hotkeys, amp controls, shortcuts, wharf, multiple popup menus, etc., etc. Litestep adds a ton of funtionality to Windows. Think of an interface that you'd like, and you can probably create it using Litestep and its modules. The configuration is completely text based (uses a step.rc -- LS was originally modeled towards mimicing afterstep) and, as of the 11/28/2000 build, supports includes. It's not exactly a themer's paradise... there's a decent learning curve, just like Linux... but it is extremely customizable, and is usually very stable. I myself have not had LS crash since April00 (and I've used 100% of the time).

Anyway, as I mentioned, there are ton of LS and shell-related sites out there, all linked from FPN. There's also a decent installation/upgrade tutorial available.

Now, the point: Litestep does nothing to your system. Nothing! If anyone ever has any problems with their system because of Litestep, it's because they didn't properly read the docs. The installation of LS only requires that you unzip LS into its own directory within the root dir and then set Windows' default shell to the path where the LS executable is. If you don't want to run LS as your shell anymore, then all you need to do is set the default shell back to Explorer.exe and delete LS' directory (if you want).

Of course! there are some problems with LS on Windows though. Microsoft despises the idea that a 3rd party (GPL'd software at that... yes, LS has been GPL'd for a few years now and has been in very active development since) development group has been at all successful with creating a new GUI for Windows. Do you really expect it to work perfectly? I sure hope not. The biggest problems are with xceed, hotline (both the respective developers (acknowledged) problems), and Wise Installer (which really isn't an issue anymore -- there was a fault in the installer that made it look for Explorer as the shell each time it installed an app). The other major known problems are in nt5 where MS decided to have Explorer itself render some of the important system tray icons (such as dialup, network, printer, etc.). Therefore, any alternative shell on Win32 won't be able to show these icons. That's MS' fault.

Most of the other problems with Litestep usually involve a module (aka plugin) here or there that has been coded poorly. Litestep's functionality comes from the hundreds of 3rd party modules available (see Modulo).... and what keeps the shell going is its 1000+ themes (now even available via themes.org). There is bound to be problems with LS with so many variables involved. Is Linux somehow different than LS in this way? I don't think so. Either way, just like *nix, LS has great 3rd party support available. There's the LS Mailing List, several IRC channels (on efnet - mirrored on openprojects.net via a linkbot), and several online forums, as well as online tutorials and docs (all linked from FPN).

The good points of Litestep and other shells are endless however. Who would dare say that Explorer does not crash? ... or that it uses up too many resources in Windows? This is the first advantage to an alt. shell in Win32. Litestep is especially very light on resources compared to Explorer (uses about 1.5mb on my nt5 box). Litestep also helps to bring added funtionality to your Windows box... the main functionality being: virtually unlimited hotkeys, amp controls, shortcuts, wharf, multiple popup menus, etc., etc. Litestep adds a ton of funtionality to Windows. Think of an interface that you'd like, and you can probably create it using Litestep and its modules. The configuration is completely text based (uses a step.rc -- LS was originally modeled towards mimicing afterstep) and, as of the 11/28/2000 build, supports includes. It's not exactly a themer's paradise... there's a decent learning curve, just like Linux... but it is extremely customizable, and is usually very stable. I myself have not had LS crash since April00 (and I've used 100% of the time).

Anyway, as I mentioned, there are ton of LS and shell-related sites out there, all linked from FPN. There's also a decent installation/upgrade tutorial available.

Now, the point: Litestep does nothing to your system. Nothing! If anyone ever has any problems with their system because of Litestep, it's because they didn't properly read the docs. The installation of LS only requires that you unzip LS into its own directory within the root dir and then set Windows' default shell to the path where the LS executable is. If you don't want to run LS as your shell anymore, then all you need to do is set the default shell back to Explorer.exe and delete LS' directory (if you want).

Of course! there are some problems with LS on Windows though. Microsoft despises the idea that a 3rd party (GPL'd software at that... yes, LS has been GPL'd for a few years now and has been in very active development since) development group has been at all successful with creating a new GUI for Windows. Do you really expect it to work perfectly? I sure hope not. The biggest problems are with xceed, hotline (both the respective developers (acknowledged) problems), and Wise Installer (which really isn't an issue anymore -- there was a fault in the installer that made it look for Explorer as the shell each time it installed an app). The other major known problems are in nt5 where MS decided to have Explorer itself render some of the important system tray icons (such as dialup, network, printer, etc.). Therefore, any alternative shell on Win32 won't be able to show these icons. That's MS' fault.

Most of the other problems with Litestep usually involve a module (aka plugin) here or there that has been coded poorly. Litestep's functionality comes from the hundreds of 3rd party modules available (see Modulo).... and what keeps the shell going is its 1000+ themes (now even available via themes.org). There is bound to be problems with LS with so many variables involved. Is Linux somehow different than LS in this way? I don't think so. Either way, just like *nix, LS has great 3rd party support available. There's the LS Mailing List, several IRC channels (on efnet - mirrored on openprojects.net via a linkbot), and several online forums, as well as online tutorials and docs (all linked from FPN).

The good points of Litestep and other shells are endless however. Who would dare say that Explorer does not crash? ... or that it uses up too many resources in Windows? This is the first advantage to an alt. shell in Win32. Litestep is especially very light on resources compared to Explorer (uses about 1.5mb on my nt5 box). Litestep also helps to bring added funtionality to your Windows box... the main functionality being: virtually unlimited hotkeys, amp controls, shortcuts, wharf, multiple popup menus, etc., etc. Litestep adds a ton of funtionality to Windows. Think of an interface that you'd like, and you can probably create it using Litestep and its modules. The configuration is completely text based (uses a step.rc -- LS was originally modeled towards mimicing afterstep) and, as of the 11/28/2000 build, supports includes. It's not exactly a themer's paradise... there's a decent learning curve, just like Linux... but it is extremely customizable, and is usually very stable. I myself have not had LS crash since April00 (and I've used 100% of the time).

Anyway, as I mentioned, there are ton of LS and shell-related sites out there, all linked from FPN. There's also a decent installation/upgrade tutorial available.

The website's unfortunatly all Flash 5, so you can find a summary (and the beta binaries) here if you're flash-intolerant.

But if you want my opinion, everything pales in comparison to Litestep :)

***JUMP PAD ACTIVATION INITIATION START***
***TRANSPORT WHEN READY***

Anyway, I've mirrored the ad over at FPN: http://floach.pimpin.net/msad.jpg

Anyway, I've mirrored the ad over at FPN: http://floach.pimpin.net/msad.jpg

Remember when you couldn't even change resolution or colour depth without a reboot? Well, that time has passed.

I used to think that if a program crashed will using the sound card I wouldn't be able to get a peep from the PC until I rebooted, but go into the system control panel and click on "refesh" and you'll probably get the device back.

Remember, Win9x is an OS for personal PC. It expects to be shut down at night. I have a PC at home I keep running that will often go for weeks without needing to be rebooted, but I don't do much on it and it's the exception.

Actually, nivenh is working on a 3d shell for windows using OpenGL called Dimension (yeah I know it's windows, but I think litestep has gone a long way in GUI development, further than linux window managers). Here are a couple links to sites about it:

http://floach.pimpin.net/dimension.shtml
http://desktopian.org/dimension.html

Maybe it's just vaporware, but it looks cool.

Looks like it will be fun to mess with. Screen shots/info up at: http://floach.pimpin.net/dimension.shtml

If you look at my site, you'll see that Chunkey Monkey licenses the name of their company/character to Ben and Jerry's to use as their ice-cream flavor.

So, no dice there :(

Please read my letters at my own site here. You will see what that woman is trying to do. After I got the company to the point where they saw they would lose, they decided to send the site that letter stating that "we will *allow you* to use the domain". The point is - it was never hers to allow CM to use it.

I should have included that link in my original post as well. Sorry that the whole story isn't told on CM's front page.

Beyond the 2600.Com Cease and Desist controversey, another one (though less popular) has risen on the internet...

ChunkyMonkey.Com, a children's site owned and operated by a nice old woman who owns the trademark to the name "Chunky Monkey" (a lovable little monkey cartoon character) sent a cease and desist letter to ChunkyMunky.Com, a site devoted to desktop customization.

This is eToys vs. eToy all over again! E-mails sent back and forth between myself and ChunkyMonkey's lawyer are posted at my website here. I don't own the chunkymunky.com domain or anything, but I'm part of its community, so I took a stand :P

"Shell" has a much different meaning here than it usually does in Unix. Litestep and its competitors (Geoshell, EVWM, Darkstep, etc.), as well as the Windows Explorer, are more like the "desktop shell" the the Enlightenment guys are talking about.So we're not dealing with CLI shells, but alternative GUIs for Win32 platforms, mostly inspired by different window managers for X. There's more information at floach.pimpin.net and Tin Toys.

"Shell" has a much different meaning here than it usually does in Unix. Litestep and its competitors (Geoshell, EVWM, Darkstep, etc.), as well as the Windows Explorer, are more like the "desktop shell" the the Enlightenment guys are talking about.So we're not dealing with CLI shells, but alternative GUIs for Win32 platforms, mostly inspired by different window managers for X. There's more information at floach.pimpin.net and Tin Toys.

Try floach.pimpin.net, under the "Shells" category.

Actually, There is a variant of the standard Litestep, called "litestep Now!" that is easier to install and looks more like windows, i don't have a link though.

You can find other options at http://floach.pimpin.net

Litestep is good, powerful, flexible, no more unstable than Windows Explorer, and best of all, GPLed.
---(litestep.net)---
Litestep info at Floach.pimpin.net

If you run LiteSpawn as well, Litestep becomes even more stable than Windows Explorer.
http://www.litestep.org/files/fi les/litespawn.html

----

Actually, although I'm unsure what would happen had you deleted everything to do with IE, if you run something such as LiteStep, you can run basically IE clean. Best of all, it'll even seem a bit X-like. :)