RE: Re: what is it that LiteStep does for the non-programmer?

> From: Roy Gathercoal [mailto:rgathercoal@...] 
> Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 9:27 AM
> To: litestep@...
> Subject: Re: [Litestep] Re: what is it that LiteStep does for 
> the non-programmer?
> 

Hey Roy, you have some good questions. Why do we use litestep? For me it
is easy, I love to tinker, tweak, hack, customize, and just generally
make my computer my own and work the way I like it. I'll address some of
your questions with my own opinions.

> So what is it that LiteStep can do for me that Windowblinds, 
> configurable keyboards, and gadgets from Google or MSN (or others, I
> suspect) can not do?

This is a good one to start with. I personally do not use Windowblinds.
I like some of the themes, I just don't use it. However Windowblinds
primary purpose is eyecandy. Sure they can add rollup windows and pinned
to desktop, but that is about it. Litestep does not enter the arena of
window management (I believe). And there are 3rd part apps that can give
you the same rollup and pinned functions for a much smaller resource
footprint (FileBX is a good one). 

Configurable keyboards load a proprietary driver and/or application to
give you any sort of added functionality. I was just looking at some
ostentatious keyboards on NewEgg and saw that one keyboard actually
needed 100+ MB of memory for all the functionality. With Litestep, I can
configure any plain old keyboard to have the hotkeys *I* want or think
make sense.

Gadgets... Well they all do about the same thing. Their interface may be
easy, but with xLabel and wazup and/or Brians weather script, it can fit
into your UI seamlessly and show you only the inforamtion you want to
see. I personally do not like the gaudy gadgets but I am in the minority
there. Also, there may not be a gadget that does what you want. Scrape
news from a French fansite, or a Russian newsite... You name it and you
can probably scrape the data and present it in a label.

> If I am new to this community and have not yet met the 
> wonderful people who now are doing the work around LiteStep I 
> obviously don't see any benefit in throwing my lot in with 
> those already "here". Once I know them I am pleased (and 
> somewhat humbled for some of my own online behaviors in other 
> communities), but I can't know them until I get here.
> Therefore if I am going to make the move to join (another) 
> online community, I really need a different reason than "the 
> people are wonderful."

I understand this completely. Blackbox (bblean and xoblite) is a great
shell and a wonderful community. However I just could not tinker enough
with the UI to keep me involved with it. So I came back to Litestep. I
think the real reason is that once you understand and use Litestep, it
just fits and does exactly what you want.

> My experience, even in the roll of the newcomer who asks lots 
> of questions, many of which end up being in substantial, is 
> that the level of community-feel and "we expect each other to 
> be civil" cultural elements around LiteStep is higher than I 
> have seen in most other places online.

We may come across as a bunch of grumpy old men (or women), but I have
found most of them to be wonderfully patient. Lord knows I am an idiot a
lot of the time and they deal with me with great tact.

> Brian, in particular you mentioned doing some tasks with 
> greater ease/effectiveness. Would you say that LiteStep's 
> learning curve/efficiency-efficacy ratio is longer and 
> broader than that of others? Why is that?

I think the curve is steep, but I have seen people come into litestep
and just take off running with great ideas and wow me within weeks of
using litestep. There there is people like me who are just slow learners
that just love litestep and take a year to make one theme. But my theme
is just that, everything I wanted.

> Thank you yet again for your patience.

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