A comparision

Well I have noticed that the themes are for the most part not as attractive as the DesktopX themes.
The only reason I'm asking this, is because I've just reinstalled Win98se and I'm enjoying the speed. But I've got to change the look.
OK OK I'll head back to Stardock. It was just a thought.

er if you're considering talisman, why not LiteStep? Its got a lot to offer!

No, Phar0e....you LiteSTEP geeks are all the same...
Nothing but LiteSTEP is ever good enough for you.....

No, Phar0e....you LiteSTEP geeks are all the same...
Nothing but LiteSTEP is ever good enough for you.....

See?...I must really have meant that...I said it twice...

I see a lot of people talking to themselves these days. Must be a sign of the times.

Talisman 2.0 is in beta, you can visit Lighttek's website and try it out for yourself. Then you download DesktopX and see how you like it.

DesktopX isn't a shell though, it extends your existing shell.

I'm beginning to worry a little about Jafo. He's not getting any younger you know

Thank you very much, I've used DesktopX, been using it sence last october, off and on, a greate program, however it seems my system is pron to crash when DX is in use. and there is a bit of a power lose to, with it.
Talisman 2.0 from what I understand can be used two ways, either as a program with Windows Explorer or as a shell replacement.
However DesktopX is very easy to use, has anyone used the New version yet, is any of the above items been fixed?
How does DesktopX, LiteSTEP, Talisman, NextStart, compair.

Unfortunately I can't help you (comparism wize) as I've only used LiteStep of the four products you've mentioned. All four appear to have solid reputations though.

Litestep replaces Explorer as the shell. Current versions are built off the .24.6 core. There are several solid distros available at ls2k.org, shellfront.org and litestep.com.

Litestep has over 200 third party modules available. Over as 1000 themes as well. It has a large userbase and quite a few related websites.

Downsides are: a steeper learning curve than some other products, and a lack of standards for themes.
Although frankly, if I can figure LiteStep out, just about anyone can

I downloaded the new Talisman beta over the weekend and played with DesktopX. I dont' use either very extensively but I prefer DesktopX because it's much more flexible. Talisman takes over the desktop completely. DesktopX can do as little or as much as ya want.

Thanks everyone, I've checked out the websites and forums/newsgroups for DesktopX, HoverDesk, LiteStep at (www.cyclone.litestep.com), and NextStart.
To bad their is not a 'Tom's Hardwae Guide' for shells, where at Tom's Shell Guide, lets go to Shell Enhancements vs Shell Replacements. featuring Installations, and Benchmarks, with Conclusions.
In looking at the forums/newsgroups they all have about the same amount of greates, goods, how abouts, and HELPS. and in all of them the greates, goods, how abouts, outnumber the HELPS.
So its hard to draw any conclusions from them as to the proformance or stability of one over the other.
HoverDesk had no online manual, so I'm not sure about its ease of use. LiteStep wow, looks cool, and it says something about its users, but I'm a terrible speller and all that editing where spelling counts, and all those modules, great online manual. And NextStart has a very good online manual to, and as with DesktopX both will do a lot for you with there program control interface.
I've also have noticed that there are a number of Artist that create themes for more then one of these application, so that rules out making a choice from there preference.
One of the last problems is that you really can't get of feel for these programs by their description, you got to test drive them. But boy can that be dangerus.

Just had an idear, how about a pole?
How many, use what

I know this is getting long and boring, just one more shot.

Thank you very much.

desktopx is the safest except for nexstart which isn't a shell, its a utility. but desktopx is safe becaue if you don't like it you can turn it off. and it works with whatever you already got. talisman made me feel like it was taking over my computer. i don't use desktopx for themes, i just have 1 or 2 objects running on my desktop. i don't go for themes, i want specific functional improvements.