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Since before all other interfaces, Enlightenment has been making computers look and feel like they're from the future. On December 21, the decade long effort to rewrite Enlightenment will see the first officially stable release. With e17 a few days away, project founder and master of X11 graphics hacking Carsten Haitzler (the Rasterman) has agreed to answer your questions. Ask as many questions as you like, but only one per post please.

An anonymous reader writes "Rasterman, of Enlightenment fame, has responded to Seth Nickell and Havoc Pennington's blog entries, which were in reference to this previous article. about Next gen X rendering. Raster says: 'Well it seems the XDevConf has produced some interesting blogs and discussion. I'm a bit sad I was not able to attend (no funding at all), as there seems to have begin a lot of discussion and moves in directions we in Enlightenment land have been going for years, and are likely far ahead in. I guess this means we haven't been able to share our experience in this. Maybe next year. Anyway the point is that this has started up some musings from Seth Nickell and Havoc Pennington related to this. This is great - finally people are beginning to take seriously what the Enlightenment crowd have been talking about for years.'" (Note: the previous post was about Nickell's post, not the other way around.)

Lisandro writes "As stated by Rasterman on his site, Enlightenment 0.17's window manager is now available on CVS, which means you can build e17 completely from it, as it is, and give it a try. Of course, it's still work in progress, and lacking in several areas, but it is usable, and looks as gorgeous as ever. Also, in related news, the XFCE team, one of the best 'light' desktop environments for *NIX, has released the first release candidate for XFCE 4.2, with a lot of long due improvements." About e17, Rasterman's note says "It's limited in its support for ICCCM, no NETWM support and it has no iconification, virtual desktops, shading, keybindings or button bindings, but it does WORK (just). it's also fast and beautiful."

Neon Spiral Injector writes "Rasterman of Enlightenment fame has finally updated the news page of his personal site. It seems that the behind the scenes work for E is coming along. He is investigating rendering backends for Evas. The default backend is a software renderer written by Raster. Trying to gain a little more speed he ported it to the XRender extension, only to find that it became 20-50 times slower on his NVidia card. He has placed some sample code on this same news page for people to try, and see if this is also experienced on other setups."

Neon Spiral Injector writes "Rasterman of Enlightenment fame has finally updated the news page of his personal site. It seems that the behind the scenes work for E is coming along. He is investigating rendering backends for Evas. The default backend is a software renderer written by Raster. Trying to gain a little more speed he ported it to the XRender extension, only to find that it became 20-50 times slower on his NVidia card. He has placed some sample code on this same news page for people to try, and see if this is also experienced on other setups."

ChrisJones writes "According to rasterman, Enlightenment has hit 1.0! Tarball is available here. Happy building!" And you guys all thought it would never happen! BGDM!

JigSaw writes: "The team consisting of TheRasterman and Mandrake (among others) are hard at work to bring Enlightenment 0.17 to the Linux desktop. E17 will be a lot more than a window manager, something closer to a complete GUI solution for X. OSNews hosts an interesting interview with Rasterman and also features some (unseen-before) screenshots of E17. Some say that E17 will be the next big thing in the GUI design (even if Rasterman states in the interview that Linux won't probably take over the Desktop), with plans to incorporate libraries like eVas, which look very modern in concept, design and implementation."

Every year I pick a new years resolution and ever year it doesn't come true. This year I've opted to set my sights low so I can greatly increase the chance of suceeding for once. This year my resolution is to continue converting oxygen into carbon dioxide. Read on to learn what resolutions RMS, ESR, Jon Katz, CowboyNeal, Mandrake and others have for the year 2000.

Jason Haas from LinuxPPC has the following resolutions: "248x768 @ 85 Hz, Merge my world domination plans with Linus's tree, Kawasaka W650:It will be mine (a Virago would be ok), Restart akido, and mv competition to /dev/null

Jon Katz , Slashdot's favorite gasbag says " I wish for Walt Disney to thaw himself out, climb out of his Cryogenimatronic Vault, show up at Walt Disney World and wreak havoc on the corporate weenies who desecrated EPCOT, his model city of tomorrow. Maybe join with the Seattle protesters and touch off a war against corporatist weenies everywhere. "

Emmett Plant is the latest editorial addition to the Slashdot Authors roster. His resolution is "to start a company called 'EmmettLinux,' which will be responsible for creating no product whatsoever. We will employ a highly-paid staff of fifty people who will show up every day and start throwing money into a furnace. I hope to IPO by March and use the cash to hire 2,000 more moneyburners and open an office in Hong Kong. I will leave soon after, selling all of my stock and retiring to the Bahamas."

Chris J. DiBona , Linux Community Evangelist for VA Linux Systems, President of SVLUG, and Grant Chair for LI, has resolved the following: ".Sleep is high on my list, but I really just like to have more time to read, this year has been pretty hard-core. I'd also like to spend more time learning power supply electronics, dc-dc transformers and such. I'm already pretty good with the digital side of things, but this is a big gap in my knowledge. Can I give more than two? I'd also like a puppy. A puppy with an X10 Cam mounted on its collar so I can put a "puppy cam" online."

Rusty Russell , kernel hacker and mad genius wishes to Learn to cook. Or trade kernel code for food. Or buy a fire extinguisher.

Eric S. Raymond is perhaps better known simply as esr... and if you don't know who he is, well, ouch. He resolves to " Catch up with my email and cut down on my traveling. It's nice to be needed, but 50% time on the road is getting ridiculous..."

Raster aka "That Enlightenment Guy" who is the only living person with more typos than me resolves simply to use procmail to allow more sleep time.

Mandrake resolves "I really need to start taking better care of my body. I haven't really worked out in about a year - and I eat too much garbage (junk food / fast food), and I REALLY need to stop drinking coke. I go through 2liters like most people drink cans of coke. I don't think it'll happen any time soon - but hopefully I'll at least be a little healthier by the end of the year."

Trae McCombs , aka X, aka MC, aka 'That Linux.com guy' resolves to "Learn to eat more foods, Incorporate working out into my lifestyle, Work less than 14hrs a day, Be kinder to others, Listen more, Talk less, Learn to code, Read more, Keep true to my ideals..."

Scott Draeker , the President of Loki Entertainment Software resolves to release a first tier Linux game which is not available for windows. Hard to argue with that one.

Kurt DeMaagd , aka The Pope, aka Rob's Roommate and the BSI number cruncher has the following:

1. Combat bimetallism and establish the gold standard for currency.
2. Negotiate the DeMaagd-Hay-Pauncefote treaty, allowing the U.S. to unilaterally construct an isthmian canal.
3. Establish an American protectorate in Cuba.
4. Suppress the Boxer uprising.

Mind you if you look closely at Kurt's resolutions, you might notice that they look strikingly similiar to President William McKinley's adminstration's high points. I'm going to have to up kurts medication.

Illiad , creator of the ever popular User Friendly comic strip says "I resolve to only take responsibility for those choices that I have control over. That means I have to give up on the idea of educating the technically-resistant, the doublespeak-inclined, and the village idiot."

Richard M. Stallman , founder of the Free Software Founding and the GNU Project gave us suggested resolutions for Slashdot readers: They are 1. Do not install any non-free software your computers and 2. Do not buy from Amazon until they stop using software patents for aggression.

CowboyNeal , the man, the myth, the legend. The guy who responds when users can't figure out how to login. The guy who maintains the slashboxes. And the guy who inhabitants the living room in the Geek Compound, resolves that he shall "Shower Every Week, whether I needs it or not." All of the co-workers in this office who have orafactory functionality thank him. It doesn't matter to me much either way.

Jim Jagielski , aka jimjag or jim@apache.org or jim@jaguNET.com, resolves to call sleep(28800) a lot more often.

Nitrozac is the creator of After Y2k... which as best as I can tell means she's about to work herself out of a job. But regardless she says "If civilization manages to hold on to its tenuous existence, I'd like to find a cure for Agalmatophilia, and have others join me to rid the world of this illness that causes so much needless suffering. If civilization crumbles, my Post-Apocalypse Resolution is to learn how to do 16-bead graphics on my abacus, so I can continue the comic. ;-)"

And finally (thank god because my wrists are tired) is Jeff "Hemos" Bates , a man who needs no introduction (but he does need a solid smack to the head).He says "With the coming of El Ano Neuvo, I resolve that I'm going to continue my battle against the dread forces of The Krull Invasion. I think that I might also try to learn some grammar. Per'aps. And maybe I'll learn how to spell a few more words as well".

WebMaven writes "Well, acording to his page, Raster will soon join Mandrake as an employee of VA Linux. Congratulations, Raster, we can't wait to see what you'll code next! "

poohbear_honeypot wrote in with the full text of Raster's letter to the mailing list, which is below. Essentially, Raster has left Red Hat for greener pastures, and (surprise, surprise) is headed West. He asks that people hold off on e-mailing for the next week or so. For the gory details, click below. "From Rasterman on the Enlightenment Mailing List:

Well I thought I'd send this mail out now...

The short and curly:

As of friday the 28th of May I no longer work at Red Hat Software. The story is along ad will be explained sometime later - it's been brewing for months though.

I am now officially unemployed.

I am as happy as chickens in a seed farm.

As of tomorrow , June 1, 1999 I will be leaving North Carolina and moving west. I currently have no other employers.

This is all good for E and E development.

I am so glad to get out of ths creativity-stifling environemnt of RHAD LABS - away from certain people there who see E and its userbase as what I can literally quote them saying a "festering crowd".

I've tolerated this attitude towards E users for way too long. I do not envisage much future support from Red Hat for Enlightenment - they have been itching to get rid of E and will as soon as they can. I don't much care. They can do whatever they like - and I wish them all the best but I do not fit in there. E does not fit in there. They want a windows clone distribution and OS. I do not. They don't believe users really count - corporates and "partners" count and what they percieve as the "business world that wants an exact windows clone" counts.

I am not advocating changing distribtuions, but I am saying that this is onyl good for E - I will be freed up to concentrate on it and associated projects (that includes working on X and extensions to X). This also means i will be able to develop E free of GNOME. E is NOT GNOME's Window Manager - GNOME does not have one. Infact E will be workign to becoming its own desktop shell (I separate Desktop and Desktop Shell here for a reason) in its own right as time moves on - but unlike GNOME I won't make a vaporware publicity stunt out of it until there's something concrete there. E is getting on and a lot of important backend code is in place. After a few more necessary features it will start to grow into a desktop shell (a desktop shell is what I term the combination of Filemanager, Window manager and a Panel app launcher and an "applet/dock" holder). This means E is independant of whatvere desktop apps you use - you can use KDE apps, GNOME apps, GTK apps, X apps, Motif apps, CDE apps - whatever apps you like - but your desktop shell will be consistent and configurable to exactly how you want it. You alreayd knwo E's memory footprint is pretty small - especialyl compared to those of gnome and KDE (when you add the memory use of all the applets, panels, programs, wm etc. of each they add up to much much much more than E). E can absorb much of the functionality of these with very little overhead since it's already got the backend code there in E. Once the desktop shell for E is compleyte, debugged, optimised and so on E will hit 1.0 - but I'mnto setting a time limit on this - this happens when it's done and not before.

If you want to help: sit tight and stick to E - send good feedback and bug reports - We DO listen to them. Send patches to E if you want features. When the new dock applet apiu is done you can all scrutty off and write 5000 loadmeters, cd pplayers etc for E's new dock applet api (yes non square 64x64 dock apps - any size, anywhere (in the dragbar, in small windows, on the desktop istelf). all "dock applets" for E will follow the theme of the WM. This has yet to be worked on but will be - as well as adding in the iconbox again (that comes first).

Expect E to go far.

For the next week I'll be driving across the USA so dont' expect much response from me - after that I'll be moving into a new home, but therafter expect things to move along again.

I do hope we are doing things right by the majority of e users out there. You are my priority - not commerical interests, not political games, not a windows clone, not GNOME, not KDE - users come first. Those that help wiht the project get their wishes often done sooner than others becuase there aren't many working on E.

Here's to a bright future for Enlightenemnt and for all who use it.

-- --------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" --------------------
The Rasterman (Carsten Haitzler) raster@rasterman.com Raster's Page raster@linux.com "

It's official: After approximately 17 years of delay and hype, Raster has released Enlightenment DR 0.15. Get it and check out tigert's new theme. Look at the ripples. Play with all the little gizmos. Waste clock cycles and memory with reckless abandon. Its fun.

Raster wrote in to tell us that he has released another preview of E14 to FTP. He says this one is getting usable (actually, the last one was pretty usable for me, but I can't function without keyboard shortcuts for some stuff :) So anyway, I'm gonna go get my copy now...

Raster has been busy over at RHAD. He has a screenshot available on the Themes for GTK Page where you can see his themified button widget. This is definately cool for all of us complete control nuts.

Here is something to think about. A friendly war is being waged over what your X desktop will look like in the years to one. Hit the link below to read about the two major contenters, KDE and Gnome, what I think about them, and why they need to work together.

The Battle for the Unix Dekstop is on. It's pretty much accepted that nobody cares about CDE anymore, and the future lies along another path. But what path is that? Two have emerged now. The major contendors for our future are Gnome and KDE.

There are many similiarities between the two standards. Both feature good looking, extensible widget sets. Both provide a unified look and feel accrossed applications. And both have an army of passionate supporters.

But the differences are where the problems lie. KDE has been criticized for it's use of Qt, Troll's popular widget set used in numerous applications. The problem is that Qt isn't "Free" in the RMS definition of the word. People beat on K for this. Realisticly, Qt is 'Free Enough' for all but the most hard core user, but many people are opposed to the tool kits we rely on being anything less than Free. I don't think that this alone is reason to shelf KDE, but it looks like public opinion is headed that way already.

The second major opposition to KDE is the similiarities that it has with Windows. Hard core unix users often use unix to get away from the interface that KDE has tried so hard to emulate. The similiar widgets, and the start-button like cascading menu however are a good start for new users seeking handholding as they adapt to a new OS. I think it's important that the veteran Unix users realize that, and just remember that this interface is for the newbies.

Gnome doesn't have license issues- the G in Gnome stands for GNU, and the whole package is under the GPL. Gnome is the younger of the desktop options, and it shows. While K has a full Window Manager and numerous applications showing off slick integration, Gnome is all rough edges. But these rough edges are being smoothed at an amazing rate as GTK gets closer and closer to one point oh. And don't forget the premiere Gnome Application, The Gimp. A new desktop won't drive installation for many systems, but the Gimp will. And since you already need GTK, why not throw the rest of Gnome on too? This reasoning will drive Gnome forward.

Recently RedHat opened up their Advanced Development Labs and announced that one of their major projects was advancing the X desktop. To that end, they snagged Raster, one of the talented programmers largely responsible for The Enlightenment Window Manager. Soon after, Raster ported E's image library (imlib) to work with Gnome's GDK.

But now KDE has released beta 3, and while the stability is a bit lacking, and there are holes you could drive a family sized sedan through, it is a cohesive product that is getting very close to it's goal of producing a standard X based desktop that looks good, is easy for a new user to adapt too, and is reasonably customizable and extendable. Some distributions have decided that K is already strong enough to ship.

But what now? I wish I had a simple answer here, but I don't. I see 2 groups of people working on amazing software. But I don't want this whole effort to result in the need for every modern unix system to install 2 more sets of libraries to run a few more applications. And I don't want to see programming efforts duplicated by multiple people around the world.

I don't mind diversity, it really is what makes Unix the cool thing it is today, but this time we need to work together. Both KDE and Gnome have a web browser. This can't be efficient! Both will have status indicators, irc clients, panel applications, task viewers and text editors. And each of these programs will have a couple of talented coders hacking away on them.

So I don't know what the answer is. Perhaps a set of C++ wrapper classes that allow KDE applications to compile under GTK? There must be away to bring together these 2 wonderful products in a way that allows both of them to accomplish their goal of a better UI for X in less time.

What do you guys think?