Themes created for our second contestant are just as easy to install, but they do not have any problems with starting up. As far as I know, they all work. Talisman themes do have another major malfunction: about seventy percent (or so) of the themes are created for the 1024x768 screen resolution, and using them on a higher resolution will leave you with quite a messed up desktop. I do not know whether there is a solution to this, like a convert program of some sort, but I do not believe there is. So if you run 1280x1024, you are in trouble. About thirty percent of the available themes will work, drastically reducing the number of available themes. Since I do not know how many people use a resolution higher than 1024x768 I am unable to tell how serious this problem is.
Talisman themes are a whole different ballgame compared to LS themes. LS themes have this professional look, while Talisman's are more, how shall I put this, cartoony, colorful, more sugar cane. No, no it does not mean they look childish, not at all, but my knowledge of the English language restricts me in these sorts of terms.
The conclusion is that both shells have their problems when it comes to themes. Their availability is, in both cases, quite good. The general look of the themes is just something that is a matter of taste; or, a matter of what you use your computer for. I would still say that Talisman is the winner here, since themes for this shell at least all work.
Ease Of Use
I have said it a few times before already, configuring LS mainly goes through manually editing .rc files. Luckily, shortcuts to these .rc files are placed during install in your 'popup.rc' file (this file describes the contents of your right-click menu, say the 'Start Menu'), so finding them is quite easy. And even though it seems tricky, editing them is often made easy by the authors; they place descriptions in the .rc files themselves, stating what this and that line is for, and so on.
Talisman, on the other hand, has wrapped the editing up, putting an application around it that they call the 'Object Editor.' Instead of manually typing something like: '!popup folder c:\LiteStep\menu' all you have to do is type the directory's file's path, and choose an icon for it. The Object Editor is, in my opinion, a really good program. Its usability is high, with help buttons everywhere.
I think it depends on what kind of user you are, when it comes to this point. The more hardcore user will like LS because of the editing that needs to be done. But someone who really isn't into computers will like Talisman more. It's the same as with Linux distributions: one will find Mandrake quite satisfying, while others want Gentoo or Debian.
Overall Conclusion
Well, you probably got the point already: there really isn't a winner when it comes to these two shell replacements for Windows. They both have their good sides, and their bad sides (as with anything, right?). All I can say is: do you want Eye-candy, or do you want functionality? Go for LS for the latter, and go for Talisman for the former.
