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  XSWEEKLY Shell Related News 23.09.00 - 29.09.00
 -------------------------------------------------

	Why is it that people in the open source community feel as if they
can contribute nothing but expect everything?  This is becoming a more and
more familiar theme.  Now, I'm not expecting everyone who uses an open source
product to go out and learn to code.  I'm not even expecting everyone who
uses an open source soft to pitch in.  I am just sick and tired of seeing
those who don't contribute complain.  Deal with it or help us out here people.
Don't expect us to jump on your problems if you feel as if you don't need
to give back to the community.  Don't like how a web site looks?  Send in a 
new design to the webmaster.  Found a bug in a program?  Code up a patch.  
Don't know how to code?  Send a detailed e-mail to a dev telling them what
you are using, what you were doing, the exact error, os, etc.  Have you been
using the soft for a while?  Pitch in where you have the skills.  Now, I 
can't code to save my life, so I do this letter and help out with the LSDE.

	Why is it so hard for people to take a few min's out of their days
to give back a little to the community?  Sitting around ranting and raving
and not doing anything to help isn't going to solve your problems.  More than
likely, it will make it worse because others will ignore you.  If you fell that
there is an area in the community that you are apart of that needs some work,
pitch in to help.  If there isn't something already set up, set something up.
No matter what you do to help out, it's something.  The coders, webmasters,
themers, etc make no money in these projects.  They do it for the love of the
program or the community.  Show them some respect and help out, please.

	On another note, I had a conversation with Chris Prillio of Lockergnome
about what I said about him last week.  Although I will not retract what I 
said as it was what I felt at the time, I went back through the last 6 months
of his letter's and realize that he does still put a ton of freeware apps
in the letter.  So I was wrong in saying that he is a sell out.  As a matter
of fact, it appears as if he will report on a free program before a pay program.
I noticed this trend a lot in his letters.  What lead me to believe that he
had sold out was the GnomeREPORT in the beginning.  Here, he tends to mention
programs and what not that he is trying out or has just bought.  After that,
the sections mainly comprise of freeware/shareware program made by individuals
or smaller companies.  So let me say here that I am sorry Chris for not giving
you letter the full attention that I should have and calling you a sellout 
for just a feeling that I had with no real substance.

- demigod

  ----------
 [ Mail Bag ]
  ----------

  This weeks mailbag question is:

  How do you feel about the open source community?

  e-mail - demigod@meganet.net
  url - http://www.xsweekly.com/mail.html

  -----------
 [ Spotlight ]
  -----------



 .................................................
               -= Shell Specific =-
 .................................................

  ------------------
 [ Top News Stories ]
  ------------------

- LiteStep.net Redesign Contest (10:21 23.09 ls)

	"Ladies and gentlemen...it's been over a year that our site
	had the same layout. I've decided to change it.  Now, I've
	tried to come up with this and that, and nothing inspired
	me really.  So, here's the deal (even though I offered it
	before).  I'm going to leave this one up to you our loyal
	users.  This is a little contest that I'm going to make.
	
	"So, what do you have to do:

	- Come up with organized, kick*ass layout.
	- Keep it simple and fast loading.
	- Keep in mind information that's on the front page right now
	  + more, because a lot more will come with new layout.
	- Keep in mind that the site needs to be customizable.  Now
	  here's no limits to this...whatever we will chose, I'll
	  adjust my NEW customize code to.
	  
	"What are the rewards:

	- litestep.net/.org subdomain
	- litestep.net/.org pop email

	"Unfortunately I have no money to offer, since I don't
	really get paid myself of this site, but ANY help will be
	appreciated.  Please submit your URL's of layouts, OR
	layouts in archive to c0mrade@litestep.net.  Thank you all
	in advance, and PLEASE do it ASAP, as a lot of things are
	COMING.  I'll post you up on updates as soon as everything
	else I'm working on is officially confirmed."
	
	url - http://www.litestep.net
	e-mail - c0mrade@litestep.net
	(source: http://www.litestep.net)

  ---------
 [ Modules ]
  ---------

- LSQuickBox 1.50 ~ Epsylon (9:53 23.09 ls)

	"This module is a LiteStep Desktop Module which imitate the
	IE4 Quick Lauch Box in Explorer TaskBar."

	New in this version:
	
	- Maybe a NT4 compatible version
	- Advanced Transparency Skin on Win2k

	url - http://www.epsylon3.com/
	e-mail - Epsylon3@ifrance.com
	(source: http://www.epsylon3.com/)

                           +-------<*>-------+

- Grdtray 3.0b2 ~ grd (9:27 26.09 ls)

	Grdtray is a very customizable system tray replacement
	module.

	- Added code from jugg to make sure that ontop/notontop   
     	  should be working correctly.                            
	- Altered some minor things to speed up a cpl things 
	- This version will actually be released.  A more
	  appropriate thanx mess has been added to the additional
	  notes section.

	url - http://modulo.litestep.org
	e-mail - grd@post.netlink.se
	(source: http://modulo.litestep.org)

                           +-------<*>-------+

- ckVWM 0.8b ~ Chao-Kuo Lin (11:58 26.09 ls)

	This is a modified sysVWM using ideas based off of input
	from the LS Mailing List.
	
	New in this version:
	
	- VWMHideTaskOnSwitch
		This will cause the sysvwm hide the tasks from task
		bar if  its window is not on the current screen.  It
		will not hide the minimized window from task bar,
		and it'll carry it to different desktop.  So when
		restored, the window will be in the current desktop,
		and not in the old
	- VWMWrapScreen
		This will allow your desktops to be kind of circular.
		Let's say the you are in the first desktop. When you
		use !VWMLeft, this config will allow you to move to
		the last desktop.
	- VWMReturnToFirstScreen
		For those whose sysvwm will behave weird when not
		recycling in the first desktop, this config will
		force the sysvwm to go back to the first desktop.
		(I don't know about most of the people, but i guess
		you won't experience this kind of problem)

	Added Bang Commands:

	- !VWMTOGGLEHIDETASKONSWITCH
		(This is for toggling the VWMHideTaskOnSwitch config)
	- !VWMTOGGLEWRAPSCREEN
		(This is for toggling the VWMWrapScreen config)

	*Note: In this version of !VWMDesk #, the # will start from
	1 and not 0

	url - http://cklin.cjb.net
	e-mail - chaokuo@iname.com
	(source: http://www.ls2k.org)

                           +-------<*>-------+

- jukeys 1.0 ~ MrJukes (13:03 26.09 ls)

	"jukeys is a replacement for hotkey.dll.  It has pretty much
	the same functionality except that is has hotkey groups.
	This means you can have multiple functionalities assigned to
	the same hotkeys depending on the current group."
	
	url - http://modulo.litestep.org
	e-mail - mrjukes@purdue.edu
	(source: MrJukes via irc)

                           +-------<*>-------+

- Systray 1.05 ~ Maduin (14:12 29.09 ls)

	Maduin's systray replacement is a very versatile systray
	supporting skinning and icon placement.
	
	New in this version:
	
	- Shows Win2k icons without NeXTer's stand alone executable.
	- Restores icons on LS crashes (ala Traysaver)

	url - http://modulo.litestep.org
	e-mail - maduin@dasoft.org
	(souce: http://www.litestep.net)

  -----------
 [ Web Sites ]
  -----------

- Mystep.org coming back? (12:05 26.09 na)

	I got an e-mail the other day via my site stating that
	Mystep.org will be coming back.  Apparently their was a
	fall out between WareWolf and GodzillaMK awhile back and
	that brought the production of mystep.org to a halt.  Their
	is no word on a release date or a current url but I will
	try to keep you up to date on happenings.
	
	(source: GodzillaMK via XSWeekly.com)

  ----------
 [ Programs ]
  ----------

- Carapace 1.5b ~ Pixol (11:10 25.09 na)

	Carapace is a shell swapping program.  It boats a number of
	very useful features such as supporting an unlimited number
	of shells, dynamic shell swapping, and crash protection to
	name a few.

	New in this version:
	
	- Fixed CP:Task for NT/W2k
	- Added Minimize Button
	- Added an option to turn off the flashing loop

	url - http://www.dtop.org/pixolpod
	e-mail - lcgreen@pixolpod.fsnet.co.uk
	(source: Pixol via irc)

                           +-------<*>-------+

- LS Theme Selector ~ Galois (9:25 27.09 ls)

	This is one of the best theme changers for LS that I have 
	seen.  Not only will it changes themes for you, it gives
	you a preview of what it will look like and a nice gui 
	interface to work with.

	New in this version:
	
	- Redesigned the GUI as suggested by qwilk
	- Added "Load On Startup"
	- All settings now editable from within program (step
	  location, wallpaper etc)
	
	url - http://www.ls2k.org
	e-mail - galois@techie.com
	(source: http://www.ls2k.org)

  ---------------
 [ Latest Builds ]
  ---------------

- LiteStep
     o 24.6 build 090400
     o http://builds.litestep.net/builds/ls-0246-dev-20000904.zip 

- DarkStep
     o 0.971
     o http://www.darkstep.com/files/DarkStep971.zip

- geOShell 
     o 4.6.5a
     o http://news.geoshell.com/Plugins/Download/geoshellr465a.zip

- PureLS
     o 052900
     o http://209.46.69.134/purels/binaries/00-05-29r.zip

 .................................................
               -= Alt OS Specific =-
 .................................................

  ----------
 [ Programs ]
  ----------

- BadSeal pre-release 0.43 ~ BadSector (12:55 29.09 sel)

	Bad SEAL is a redistribution of SEAL with a lot of addons
	and other GUI updates by Bad Sector.

	New in this version:
	
	- DOS Support
	
	url - michalopoylos.tripod.com/seal/index.html
	e-mail - michalopoylos@hotmail.com
	(source: http://pub8.ezboard.com/bsealsystem)

                           +-------<*>-------+

- SFA beta3 ~ Florian (13:55 29.09 sel)

	SFA is a format api lib for supporting different types of
	sound files.
	
	New in this version:
	
	- Won't shut down SEAL
	- LNF drivers not needed
	
	url - http://www.seal.de.vu/
	e-mail - dos.fire@aon.at
	(source: http://pub8.ezboard.com/bsealsystem)

  ---------------
 [ Latest Builds ]
  ---------------

- SEAL
     o 1D (042900)
     o http://www.home.sk/public/seal/sealexe.zip

- V2_OS
     o 0.70
     o ftp://vp.dyn.dhs.org/0.70/v2_os.img

 .................................................
            -= Beyond the Specifics =-
 .................................................

  -------------
 [ Interesting ]
  -------------

- QNX Realtime Platform OS

	I have downloaded and been playing around with the Win9x
	version of QNX and it seems really nice.  After getting
	some additional packages to allow xapps to compile and run
	in it, it is a pretty full featured OS.  If you like to play
	in new OS's like BeOS, I would suggest giving this one a 
	shot.  It's free and worth the download imo.
	
	url - http://get.qnx.com

  ----------
 [ Programs ]
  ----------

- Custom Eyes

	This is a freeware windows skinning application.  Although
	it doesn't skin everything like WB, it is still a nice little
	program if you are into totally changing how your desktop
	looks.
	
	url - http://dabder.free.fr/CE/index.htm

....................................
 
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