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DarkStep Makes The News!
5:05:20 AM PDT 9/7/2000
There's a pretty nice article on our very own favorite shell replacement over at the File Mine and written by Chistopher Spera! This guy has literally put months of effort into researching several of the most popular WindowsTM shell replacements, starting out with basically no knowledge on the subject matter what-so-ever: Well, now he's found himself in a position to speak very authoritatively .
BTW: DarkStep has been tied for “Editor's Pick”, along with LiteStep and Ice Sphere... 'Course we all know that's purely subjective, since its obvious as to which shell is the best ! <he, he>
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There's A New Theme In Town!
4:36:04 AM PDT 8/12/2000
Welp, egarage has gone and done it again ! He's just released the latest in his Dark... series of themes, this one being DarkOS, so jump on over to the themes page and check it out!
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MaceX-DS Theme Port Posted!
8:03:25 AM PDT 8\2\2000
That's right! The previously unreleased LiteStep them MaceX by MorpheusX has been ported over to DarkStep .971 {:-) So jump on over to the Themes section, read up on the installation procedure and grab your copy while its hot  !!!
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We're Still Here! <g>
3:03:04 PM PDT 7/14/2000
While there may have not been much happening on the DarkStep dev front (Fahim is obviously *still* swamped with RealLife™ <g>), its been a busy time for support! We have gained a considerable number of new DarkStep users thanks in part to the Smartalec Darkstep distribution, the folks at tweakfiles.com (and their Web board, which is being relocated over to the 3dfiles.com server). Welcome aboard the good ship DarkStep!!! <he, he>
Throughout the course of the last couple of weeks I have been fortunate enough to meet some real nice people, some of which are becoming *very* enthusiastic DarkStep users! ALL of the folks over at the tweakfiles.com Web board are a very nice bunch who spend their time on the board helping each other out and learning from each other, all the while being congenial and just plain *nice* to everyone: There's a lesson to be learned here {:-)
On another front it was brought to my attention that one critical place *much* of the documentation for both DarkStep *and* LiteStep are lacking (for the “newbie”) is the fact that there is virtually *NO* mention that the step.rc file has to be in the same directory as the DarkStep.exe (or litestep.exe, as the case may be)! Thanx go out to Rich (DS Voice Chat) and PokPok (e-mail and DS Voice Chat) for bring this to my attention! I guess we sometimes just get so used to doing some things that we don't even think to mention... Sooo, there is now a bold blurb on both the Usage and the step.rc Explained pages pointing this out :) Thanks guys!
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NEW! Voice Chat Support :)
5:09:00 AM PDT 6/29/2000
I finally got a little time to install\configure a new chat support system {click on the “Voice Chat” link on the left menu} from HearMe.com that actually works quite nicely! If you have a good mic (headset recommended!) and speakers this script application will allow you to talk to in full-duplex, real time just like a phone call; but what's nice about this one is that if you don't have a compatible sound set up (or if you just like to chat the old fashioned way:) you can just use the normal chat window.
Thanx to Smartalec2000's Voyager application for bringing HearMe to my attention; Voyager is an alternative Web browser which has Voice Chat built into the menu bar.
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BIG News On The Web Presence Front!!!
5:11:33 AM PDT 6/27/2000
Well gang, DarkStep.com is once again LIVE! <WOOHOO!> That's right(!), our main man WareWolf has up 'n done it!!! DarkStep.com is now serving off of LiteStep.com's own box
WareWolf has been bustin' his butt to get this whole thing going for a long time now, and the fruits of his labor are now becoming apparent. While there's still a lot of schtuff to be done (tweaking the server up a bit, getting mail services running, etc.), its a B-I-G relief to have good ol' LiteStep.com back on-line and to have this new home for DarkStep.com and DarkStep.net!
Speaking of DarkStep.net: It'll still be a couple of days before we get that domain up again - Just have to wait for the Internic changes to go through :)
Welp, THANX A TON WAREWOLF & CO. for our new home on the Web!!!
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So, What's All This About Another Distribution?!?
5:13:41 AM PDT 6/27/2000
There's been a bit of hubbub going around since about the 14th of June, when Blackwulf mentioned on the Web board that DarkStep was\is being distributed by Smartalec2000.com as “Smartalec Darkstep”. Then, just yesterday the subject was brought to our attention again by KuhnDog via the DarkStep mailing list, along with a suggestion that we should probably post something about it here on the ds.com site; and he's absolutely right! I really should have posted something about this distribution as soon as I found out the particulars, a little over a week ago <g>.
So, here's the scoop (to the best of my knowledge):
Smartalec2000 (and co.?) have been (and are) releasing their own distribution of DarkStep with the knowledge of and permission from Fahim, “as long as we don't have to support his distro and it is kept freeware.”. Somewhat in spite of the support issue, I have spent some time on the tweakfiles.com Web boards trying to help out some of those completely new to the shell replacement scene to get DarkStep installed and running properly on their systems; which has actually been a lot of fun! I have found the folks on that board to be a very nice bunch and quite enthusiastic at the prospect of getting their systems running as efficiently as possible:) As for the Smartalec distribution; it is currently *still* being released as a beta installer, so there are some bugs to be worked out . The beta release is now up to version 1.3, but I have only had the time to actually install the first release which was based on DS .960 - I believe the newer versions have been upgraded to .971:)
The Smartalec distribution consists of an InstallShield installer, DarkStep .971, a minimal number of modules and a very minimalistic “theme” (which is apparently a Smartalec2000 original). The installer for the version that I tried out was actually only for Win9x systems as it only edited the system.ini file, making DS the default shell right off the bat (no option offered). Nearly all of the included modules were LiteStep mods (no DarkStep native modules), but the shell, as “run out-of-the-box”, only runs a task, systray, shortcut and popup mods - No VWM and the shortcuts are merely graphical background(s) for the systray :( Still, there may be some potential there :) Good luck Smartalec2000...
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Usage Page Updated (FINALLY <g>!)
7:36:37 AM PDT 6/9/2000
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I have finally updated the usage page with the newest documentation for DarkStep (version .971)... I know(!), its been a while <g>, but its done now so you all have yet another source for the DarkStep .971 docs on line {:-)
Read and enjoy :)
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New Theme Release By KuhnDog :)
4:00:50 PM PDT 6/8/2000
Here it is! The much anticipated Corroded theme is now available over on the themes page :) This is a very nice, resource friendly, minimalist theme that KuhnDog has apparently been using on his system for a while now (at least the screen shot has been up on Floach's site for a few days :)
I have Corroded installed on my main machine now, as you can tell by the screenshot du'jour to the left... Very nice! Jump on over to the themes section and grab a copy while they're still hot out of the oven!
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And Yet Another Release of DSPopup 2.0 Beta !
12:58:49 AM PDT 6/3/2000
Yup, that's right folks! Fahim is just pumpin' these puppies out <WooHoo!>.
Due in part to the great feedback both on the mailing list and Web board (and a little breathing time at work <g>!), Fahim has been able to do some serious coding on the newly recreated DarkStep Popup module :)
Take a look at the text file and\or grab a copy from the menu to the right, load it up and enjoy!
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DSPopup 2.0 ß2 Released
5:48:13 AM PDT 6/1/2000
Just released...
Beta 2 of the DarkStep Popup 2.0 module! Fahim has made the time to fix ALL of the reported bugs that were found in ß1 of DSPopups and has released the new version :) I've taken a couple of minutes to load it up and all seems to be working as advertised <WooHoo!>, so grab your copy from the download section to the right, load it up and have fun!
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Beta Releases Explained :)
6:16:01 AM PDT 6/1/2000
It seems that some sort of explanation of the thought process behind DarkStep beta releases may be of some help to those who use them, so Fahim has posted a few comments on his intentions with these releases over at his dev site. Here's a clip:
“That reminds me of something else that I've been meaning to clarify for a while. Now those of you on the DS mailing list know that I've already mentioned this and I would like to mention once again that this is not a rant at anybody specific (or even at all those nice people who are kind enough to report bugs to me ...) but simply a clarification of the program status descriptions I use. I use three different status classifcations:
- Beta : This means that the program/module works out of the box but different settings and options haven't been tested too much and there probably are quite a few bugs in there :-)
- Pre-release : This means that the program has been tested quite a bit and is almost ready for release but I'm not certain that all the bugs have been discovered.
- Release : This is the very stable and usable version of the program. I won't say that it is completely bug free as those nasty bugs have a tendency to hide in the darkest corners but all reported bugs have been fixed and I can't find any more :-)”
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What Is DarkStep ?
DarkStep is a new shell replacement for WindowsTM 9x\NT\2K which is compatible with most LiteStep themes and modules but has been written from the ground up with the original intent of LiteStep: To be fast, resource friendly and ultimately configurable.
The shell itself is a mixture of public domain code that has been revised
and assembled by Fahim Farook to represent his perception of the ever illusive
“perfect shell” replacement :) While everyone's view of this “perfect shell” most certainly will differ, there is no denying the speed, ease of use and configurability, combined with a very flexible interface.
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