Installing LS before the Installer distribution became available was kind of a hassle. You had to manually edit your system.ini file so it started LS as your shell, and not Explorer. With the arrival of the Installer that problem is in the past. Installing LS is quite easy now. The installer lets you decide if you want to install the configuration utilities (such as the Evars configuration utility), if you want the creator's standard theme installed (I would select yes, it is gorgeous!), if you wish to have a theme selector (I would say 'yes' to this one as well). After this the Evars configuration is started. This utility will try to find your system's default mailer, browser, mp3-player and so on. You can run this utility afterwards at any time, for example when you install a new mp3-player. This is very important, since many themes feature buttons linking to these applications, and they look up the executables by looking at the Evars configuration file. This file is manually editable as well, obviously.
Talisman is as easy to install as any other (regular) program. It is all automated, no configuration necessary. The only thing you have to specify is whether you want to run Talisman in application mode or in shell mode. I think these terms speak for themselves. You can switch between the two modes at any time. I would advise, especially for the novice user, to start off with the application mode. This gives you the opportunity to explore the different possibilities Talisman offers you.
Talisman seems, without a doubt, easier to install, since you do not have to specify any default programs (difficult for the beginner). But, and this 'but' is major, this is all kind of a farce; in Talisman, you will have to manually edit the application button's paths to point to your default programs for every theme. So, at first glance, LS seems more hardcore, more expert-orientated than Talisman, but in the end they really do not differ that much from each other. I would say that configuring your default applications during install makes more sense than doing it manually for every single theme, even though it is quite easy to do say in Talisman. LS wins the 'Easiest-to-install' award.
Themes for LS
Giving a proper judgment about the looks of a theme is of course impossible; everybody has their own preferences when it comes to that. Minimalistic, functional, beautiful, Aqua-like, Crystal-like and so on. Anyway, that is not what this paragraph is about.
When it comes to LS themes, there are some things worth mentioning. For starters, LS is open source. This led to the fact that there was not a theme standard from the beginning; every theme had its own manner of installation (some even consisted out of entire LiteStep directories), dependent only on the author's wishes. This was unacceptable, according to some of the top LS designers/programmers etc. That is why they created the OTS (Open Theme Standard). This was really a giant leap forward for LS. But, as with any open-source based software, there is more than one standard, but, OTS seems to be gaining the most appreciation by the LS community. Look for the 'OTS compliant' tag when downloading a theme, it saves you (some) time.
LS is based on AfterStep (http://www.afterstep.org), but nowadays LS bears more resemblance to Enlightenment (http://www.enlightenment.org), in my opinion. Themes for LS tend to have a minimalistic touch, and they are often very functional, with the various objects/buttons using as little desktop-space as possible. LS themes are 'squared', not 'rounded' (you may have no idea what I am talking about, but this is the best description I can give you).
When it comes to quality, LS themes sometimes just aren't made for 'every computer on the planet'. This is something that sometimes annoys me. You see a screenshot of a really beautiful theme, you download it, you unzip in the ~\LiteStep\Themes\ directory, you open LSTS (LiteStep Theme Selector), you 'recycle' (reload) LS, and you get--Well, you get nothing. Maybe you get your system tray to work; you might get the theme's wallpaper. And then it is up to you: it might be a missing module, it might be a missing file, it might be the fact that Jupiter aligns with Neptune, it might be anything. Then you remember the solution: shortcuts! LS has shortcuts! You press your keys a hundred times, but nothing happens. Oh yes, every theme has its own shortcuts. Damn.
Installing LS themes is easy, as long as they are OTS compliant. It is really like I stated above; download, unzip, run LSTS, select your new theme and recycle. There is not much to be said here. Just hope for the best when selecting a new theme. As time progresses, though, and you become more of an expert at configuring LS by hand, you will be able to solve the problems new themes give you. But, in the beginning, it can really annoy you. Trust me, I know.
You can get the themes at practically every theme and/or skin site, and they are quite numerous. Remember that downloading/unzipping/recycling is not all you have to do for a new theme: when you get your theme up and running, the fun just started. Many themes come with preconfigured menus/buttons, containing shortcuts to the author's favorite applications. That's right, the author's. This means you will have to edit several .rc files in order to have working shortcuts/buttons. A piece of advice: make a directory, call it 'menu' for example, and inside that folder, create directories named 'apps', 'games' and so on. Place your shortcuts in those directories, and the only thing you will have to do is link your new theme to the 'menu' folder.
