i've installed litestep with the default shell...
i've lost about 5% of my performance in 3d games.
and ram usage is higher then bevor...because of the shell...
my computer needs 10 seconds longer to boot...
but why?
my old distribution was faster!(a bit)
If you are using XP you could try switching to the classic logon and the delay on bootup should go away.
About the question "litestep=slow?"... If you can define Litestep then I can tell you if it is slow. :) It all depends on the theme, you can certainly create themes that are slower than explorer, but you can also create themes that are faster.
It may take longer to log on due to the theme you are using, or some app that is getting annoyed with not having Explorer. Try a different theme (shameless plug for minimal theme, Hymn 43) or dozen.
i've noticed 3d performance is generally lost if you use a theme with transparency effects or many many many modules.
And if all else fails, it's very easy to quit litestep when you start a game, and then (if you're using 2000 or xp) restart it with task manager when you're done.
is there any performance shell?
uh...what? performance shell??? come again?
ok, let's try this AGAIN. in big letters this time. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY PERFORMANCE SHELL?? do you mean a litestep theme that is very minimal, or do you mean a different shell that is more minimal than litestep, or do you mean something completely different?
You can add to your popup a 'switch to game desktop' entry to switch to a theme with only jdesk and shortcut2 when you want to play games...
...and if you want to do the thing in a better way, launch fastdefrag2 (freeware) with '-silent' as parameter to really clean your ram after theme switching
Man, Smurth: You freakin rule... I just downloaded fastdefrag2, and it looks great. Lots of extra info with a nice UI. Is it stable? Oh, this may sound strange, but would it be a good idea to run it on startup with the -silent option? ... my thinking behind this is that there is probably some stuff loaded into RAM on start up that really isn't needed any longer (for example my shell switcher).
I guess there's no real problem except you have to be sure it is run as the very end of startup sequence; but as you might have seen, it'll make startup much more longer...
The problem with 3D performance and transparency effects is discussed here many times over and I complained about it before I knew what it was about. Most probably caused by invisible shortcuts, which just stick to the desktop and don't go away in GL apps.
Get a better theme or rig it so that whatever is causing this stuff goes away.
I'd think that LS's built in !hidemodules would solve any issues with transparent shortcuts on the desktop. I'm building a theme with nearly all desktop graphics simi-transparent and not had any slow downs in Quake 3 Arena. (My addiction of choice) ;)