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Enlightenment Lives
Anonymous Coward writes "The Enlightenment Project, far from dead, is pleased to announce the DR16.7.1 release of the Enlightenment Window Manager. With tons of fixes, a massive overhaul of the internals, and several new features this release is a must try for those who haven't run E in a long time. The window manager that redefined the way a desktop can look is still going strong."
DR16.7.1 has been released!. This is the biggest release since DR16 first debuted! In this release dependencies have changed from Imlib/FreeType to Imlib2/FreeType2. The old default themes (which made the distribution almost 18M in size!) have been replaced with "Winter" by rephorm. The distribution has been split into 3 diffrent packages: programs (source), docs (Edox), and themes. A long long list of bugs have been fixed (including some very old nagging ones that weren't easy for kwo to squash). And probly of most interest to the end user: "Theme Transparency". Get the files source and RPMs in the usual place.
If your wondering what happened to DR16.7.0, it was halted last minute by several bugs that were only reproducable by a small number of us but were major bugs none the less. You can see the changes since the initial release here.
Ports for Solaris are avalible now and the DarwinPorts port is ready. Gentoo Portage will be updated shortly.
Yes, GNOME once ran with Enlightement, then that was changed to Sawfish, and now we have the current Metacity.
Though in reality, since all these are just window managers, you could replace them with anything you want.
Anyone interested in what rasterman and crew have been up to should really check out and compile the EFL (Enlightenment Foundation Libraries)
Some really neat stuff is on the way, of particular interest is the edje/evas/evoak stuff. Eventually this work will lead to an improved themeing system, for E and anything else that ties in to the EFL.
Rasterman has even given a glimpse of the power these libs will bring to the programmer with his own version of a DVD player, using the EFL, in just 17 lines of code!
so no, contrary to popular belief...E is NOT dead!
--
Society has traditionally always tried to find scapegoats for its problems. Well, here I am.
The theming can completly transform E's look. I've noticed alot of people say they're not too keen on the look - alot of people who use it are into dark/gothic themes. I actually wasn't too keen on the original default themes either. But there are literally hundreds of themes available, everything from dark/gothic to abstractly artististic to clean/bright themes.
Chances are if you have a certain preference, then there are others who also have and have made a theme for it.
I think one of E's primary motivations is to design a desktop that's not constrained in any way. Every piece is designed to be as customisable as possible - to leave the end choice about how the desktop should look to the user. Nice philosophy.
As for reasons to use it?
Well lets see....
The themes change not only the look, but the functionality and behaviour. (See the Aqua themes)
Window Grouping
Virtual/Multiple Desktops (Yes, there is a difference)
More options than you can shake a /. troll at
Easy to use
I could go on, but I really hate telling people why they should use a product. Since you had the motivation to ask, find some motivation to try it out. Most people that have the patience to tune E to their liking will never go back to anything else. If they do, its usually to a minimalist WM like ratpoison or fluxbox (both ends of the scale I suppose). If you don't think its worth your time to enhance your productivity, then stick with what you know. Otherwise, give it a shot and be prepared to get lost in the immense selection of themes!
When encryption is outlawed, ou++1!@(93j++js-d9298yIUH(*Y24JKB!~
If I recall correctly Mandrake (of http://www.mandrake.net fame) worked with rasterman (of http://www.rasterman.com fame) at VALinux (the software area) long ago.. they've all parted ways from VALinux now. But since SF is run by VALinux these guys were some of the first to have access to it and all that. hence the group_id of 2 :-P
I believe Rasterman worked for VA... but my brain is a little fuzzy
Kyle
http://www.unlogikal.net/
Yes, back when we hacked up SF, Raster and Mandrake were just down the hall, so E became one of the first projects. IIRC mainly because at the time they were hosted on openprojects which was broken/down.
- U
They didn't take posession for some time, as they resisted moving off their own hardware, but they eventually gave in.
Chris DiBona
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
Gentoo users, this is now in portage.
PCB
free ipod and free gmail!
Seriously, if you don't like it, vote with your mindshare and your wallet.
Want unix without the X hassle, the 4 different environments you need to run all the programs that you use, the different desktops, etc, etc, etc?
BUY A MAC.
Mac OS X is the only affordable commercial unix workstation. And as a bonus, it's based on FreeBSD (quite heavily) - which means almost any unix program will work on it with relative ease (mostly a compile) - and if you need X protocol support, you have that too, without the hassle.
Use linux or FreeBSD on your server where you need the real horsies. Get an OS that's actually addressing your desktop needs for your workstation - and manages to support OSS as well; perhaps not in the way that some people here would like it, but it works for me.