Enlightenment 0.16.8.5 review

The version 0.16 of the Enlightenment window manager was released in 2000, along with its dependencies Imlib and Fnlib, and remains i

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 0K Developer: Enlightenment.org

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The version 0.16 of the Enlightenment window manager was released in 2000, along with its dependencies Imlib and Fnlib, and remains in heavy usage today.

While rumors of its death still circulate, DR16.6 was release on Nov 2nd, 2003, and it remains in development today with a long life still ahead of it. DR16 has been the choice of power users and artists due to its low overhead, highly graphical, widely theme-able, extremely configurable, yet unobtrusive interface.

Nearly all functions of the window manager can be handled without mouse input, including application launching via e16keyedit. It also remains highly portable, with ports avalible for Linux on all platforms, FreeBSD, IRIX, Solaris X86 and Sparc, HP-UX, AIX, OS/2, and more.

Imlib has lived a long life, still in heavy usage today, as one of the most popular image manipulation and rendering libs available. Its development was taken over by the GNOME project and used as GNOMEs rendering engine until it was replaced with GdkPixbuf in GNOME 2.0. It's popularity surpasses just development in C thanks to bindings for several scripting languages including PERL, Python, and Ruby.

The Enlightenment DR16 Window Manager is a robust, flexable, highly configurable, graphically rich yet unobtrusive desktop enviroment for the X11 windowing system. It is fully themable and easily configured. There are a wide range of configuration options to suite any taste. DR16 provides an innovate way of managing applications found no where else, allowing for not only virtual desktops, but also multiple desktops (a seperate set of virtual desktops).

A unique snapshoting pager allows for easy management of application placement and even will zoom on on mouse-over of a window in the pager for easily locating applications. Support exists for up to 32 multiple desktops, and virtual desktops up to 8x8 in size! (Thats 2048 possible desktops!) Standard options such as focus settings and autoraise are extremely configurable to fit your individual tastes.

Several diffrent types of move and resize effects exist, including Opaque, Technical, Box, Shaded, Semi-solid, and Translucent, depending on your preference and CPU requirements. "Remember" settings can be assigned to each window allowing it to be placed and configured just as you want on each startup of the window manager without having to edit any files.

Windows can be individually configured to meet any desire, to change stacking payers, border styles, window size, grouping, tab skip, stickiness, and more. And EESH, the Enlightenment Shell, allows for complete remote control of the window manager and easy scripting.

The menu system is flexable, providing easy access to applications, theme selection, documentation, settings, and background selection. DR16 uniquely allows background selection to be done from the main menu system using thumbnailed views of the background providing a quick and easy way to change wallpaper. In addition, desktop "FX" exist that can add a unique flare, including a ripple effect at the base of your desktop.

A simple group of flat text files allow for easy editing of user appliation menus, including the ability to create hierarchical user menus to suite your various needs. At first startup DR16 will even scan for your KDE and GNOME menus to add an application menu for them.

Standard mouseless features such as tab switching exist, but we've built on even more than that. Virtual desktops can be navigated using the keyboard arrow keys and nearly anything including application launching can be keybound via e16bindings making DR16 an excellent choice for users who want a graphically rich enviroment that doesn't require constant intervention of the mouse.

A built in help system called "eDox" provides an excellent resource for learning the wide variety of diffrent methods of interaction and configuration. Graphical Tool Tips can also be enabled to assist normal usage.

Enlightenment DR16 integrates well with both GNOME and KDE. Replace the default window mangers for each with Enlightenment and you'll have the power to leverage the best of GNOME and KDE at the same time, while enjoying the superior windowing interface that Enlightenment provides.

EESH, the Enlightenment Shell, allows for complete remote control of the window manager and easy scripting.

Enlightenment DR16 is highly portable, with binaries avalible for or testing done on all Linux platforms, Solaris X86 and Sparc, HP-UX, AIX, IRIX, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OS/2 and more.