Slashdot Mirror
Enlightenment DR17 On the Linux Desktop
StephenJoiner writes "There's a new review on Mad Penguin of the latest VectorLinux release, which includes the in-development Enlightenment DR17 desktop. As far as I know, this is the first time DR17 has appeared on a production desktop... even as a "technology preview". All I have to say is Enlightenment on VectorLinux is absolutely off the scale." Enlightenment was in Slashdot news earlier for both the involvement with Elive and their use of Epeg bits to deal with thumbnailing.
I'll bite.
Enlightenment is not a flavor of anything.
Enlightenment is not a desktop environment a la MSWindows explorer.exe .
KDE and Gnome are something like that.
Enlightenment is a window manager evolved into a desktop shell and lots more.
Imagine you were not a Windows user, and you didn't feel their metaphor is the natural metaphor for a GUI system.
Enlightenment proposes a different interface, plus a different interaction with objects from the user perspective. You can't really compare enlightenment with gnome, because they are completely different in their own essence.
Aside from that, enlightenment is a project that provides lots of useful general purpose libs, but back in the day, they defined what general purpose meant in many areas (e.g.:imlib, esd).
They are building libs that they think should be available to anyone building next generation stuff. They can be right, like before, or they can be coding useless stuff. We'll see.
I find this strange... Enlightenment is not a product you are paying for. You are not paying people that are writing it. You are not a stock holder in a company developing it. What right to you have to say the people working on it shouldn't?
If you do not like it don't use it. If you want a customizable engine like StyleXP then write it. Nothing is stopping you.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I'm not trying to be snarky, but comments like this regarding "stability" just baffle me.
You've used E17 for the "past few days", and it is "as stable as" or perhaps more stable than any desktop environment you have used.
Therefore you have never used a desktop environment that could run for more than a "few days" without crashing?
I thought "stable" means runs for days/weeks/months/years on end without crashing. Am I wrong? If not, how do you already know that E17 is EITHER as stable as OR more stable than any other desktop environment?
This reminds me of someone telling me that Mandrake 9.2 was more stable than 9.1---the day after it was released! (No, they hadn't been using cooker.)
What you are missing, however, is that no matter how many skins you can toss on XP it is still just XP painted a little differently. Can you get tabbed windows like Fluxbox? Multiple desktops like... err... everything? These different window managers and desktop environments all have different purposes and design goals. For a full desktop, there is Gnome (with its huge collection of themes), for something a little lighter on resources there is XFCE, for bare bones but slick as snot there are window managers like Fluxbox. For a shiny gaudy desktop whose applications all start with the same letter, there is KDE. These different interfaces don't just look different from each other, they also *work* differently.
Well, that's an elitist attitude! This is the EXACT reason why Linux has a rough time on the desktop. Users are used to saying well I like this like that and I wish the taskbar was green instead of blue. Linux developers need to design FOR the user instead of themselves if they want to take market share from Microsoft.
Elitist:
1. The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.
2.
a. The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.
b. Control, rule, or domination by such a group or class.
Ok, now what is there in this definition that matches the developers? Are they expecting favoured treatment from someone because they are developers? No. Are they making demands that they feel they have an intrinsic entitlement to because they are developers? No. Are they attempting to use their developer status to control anyone? No.
Now, lets apply this test to YOU, the user. Are you expecting favoured treatment from someone because you are a user? Yes, you're demanding that the developers should cater to your needs. Are you making demands that you feel you have an intrinsic entitlement to because you are a user? Yes, you appear to think that being the user makes you the King, and apparently you're used to being listened to when you make stupid demands like changing colors etc. Are you attempting to use your "user" status to control anyone? Well, your whole point was that there is some natural order to things that places you at the top of the heap because you are a user.
So, I guess what I'm basically saying is stop being elitist, and go learn what the word means before you use it in public.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth