Enlightenment (window manager)

Compositing window manager From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Enlightenment (window manager)

Enlightenment, also known simply as E, is a compositing window manager for the X Window System. Since version 0.20, Enlightenment also supports Wayland.[3] It is shipped with some Linux distributions such as Bodhi Linux and Pentoo.[4]

Quick Facts Original author(s), Developer(s) ...
Enlightenment
Original author(s)Carsten Haitzler
Developer(s)Enlightenment development team
Initial release1997; 28 years ago (1997)
Stable release
0.27.1[1]  / 14 March 2025
Repository
Written inC (EFL)
Operating systemUnix-like
Type
LicenseBSD 2-Clause[2]
Websitewww.enlightenment.org
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Enlightenment is only a window manager at its core; however, with many modules included, it can be extended to resemble a full desktop environment.[5] Since version 0.17 (E17), Enlightenment has been written with the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL), and the Enlightenment project also writes a set of applications with the EFL.

History

E16 and before

The first version of Enlightenment was released by Carsten Haitzler in 1997.[6][7] Originally, it was just a window manager before the addition of the EFL in E17.[8]

With the release of E17 written with the EFL in 2012, Enlightenment went through a major rewrite, splitting the codebase into 0.16 (E16) and the versions after (E17). Some of the community decided to stay with the E16 codebase and continue development of this version, releasing under an independent versioning scheme from E17. It reached the 1.0 milestone and is still actively developed as of 2024.[9]

E17 and later

In 2000, the development of the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries started to create a toolkit for writing applications that interoperate with Enlightenment, as well as other X window managers, too. As the EFL was built up, Enlightenment was rewritten to utilize the EFL, and in 2012 version 0.17.0 was released. As this version was completely rewritten to use the EFL, it is incompatible with E16.[10]

The current version as of January 2025 is E27.[11]

Usage

Bodhi Linux was built around the Enlightenment 17 desktop, but forked it to create the Moksha desktop.[12]

Elive Linux also used a fork of E17 as its main desktop environment until 2019, when the 3.7 series was released. It also features E16 and has future plans to integrate the new E26 version.

Reception

Summarize
Perspective

A 2011 review of E16 found it was highly customisable, featuring per-window configurability, support for virtual desktops with much larger screenspace than monitor size, and that "nearly everything can be done with the keyboard." While the appearance was praised, the desktop environment was criticised as being somewhat unstable due to bugs at the time. While E16 could be used as a window manager for GNOME or KDE, the review found they had poor compatibility.[13]

A 2014 review of E17 found the design to be fast, touchscreen friendly and have a nice appearance, but was annoyed by the small selection area to resize windows. The appearance of the default terminal with the desktop environment, called Terminology, was also praised and the author personally liked the desktop left and right click menus.[14]

A 2017 review found E18 to have lightweight performance, remarking a similar appearance to Mac OS, but also mentioning a steep learning curve due to the desktop left and right click menus.[8]

A 2020 review praised Enlightenment for its high number of keyboard shortcuts, and that it was lightweight enough to run well on older hardware, with low idle CPU and RAM usage. However, it criticised the desktop left and right click menus for having too much complexity.[15]

Release history

More information Version, Code name ...
Major releases[16]
Version Code name Release date Notes
pre-alpha Enlightenment Alpha1 October 1996[17]
0.13.2 DR13 18 January 1998[18]
0.14.0 DR14 18 July 1998[19][20][21]
0.15.0 DR15 12 March 1999[22]
0.16 DR16 27 October 1999[23] Still maintained as of 2024. Preferred by many people, especially as a "retro" desktop.[24]
0.17 DR17 21 December 2012[25] Major rewrite version. Was forked to create the Moksha desktop.
0.18 DR18 22 December 2013[26]
0.19 DR19 15 September 2014[27]
0.20 DR20 1 December 2015[28]
0.21 DR21 1 June 2016[29]
0.22 DR22 22 November 2017[30]
0.23 DR 0.23 24 August 2019[31]
0.24 DR 0.24 17 May 2020[32]
0.25 DR 0.25 16 December 2021[33][34]
0.26 DR 0.26 23 December 2023[35]
0.27 DR 0.27 11 January 2025[36][37] Current release.
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See also

References

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