You have used GNOME and KDE, but have you ever tried Enlightenment? If not, give it a try and I am sure you won’t regret.

Enlightenment, also known simply as E, is a lightweight desktop manager for Linux which can be used alone or in conjunction with GNOME/KDE.

While most lightweight desktop managers shave out all the graphical effect and provide only a simple shell that perform necessary functions, Enlightenment works hard to distinguish itself from the rest. Not only is it simple, fast and flexible, it is also elegant, beautiful and revolutionary.

If there is only one thing that Enlightenment is different from the rest, then it must be that it gives its users a whole new experience. There are a lot of features (and eye-candy, even without Compiz) that you can’t find in other desktop manager. New users might find it difficult to use initially, but when you get used to it, you will not want to switch to other window managers.

The current stable version is E DR16. Ubuntu users can install it via the Synaptic Package Manager, or simply type in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install enlightenment

The latest version, E DR17, that contains great improvement over the existing version, is still in alpha stage (yes, even after years of development. We’re getting impatient). You will find shelf (similar to dock), desktop icons and a few other things that are missing in E DR16.

For those who wants to install E DR17 on Ubuntu Hardy Heron, here is the howto:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following line to the end of the file

deb http://e17.dunnewind.net/ubuntu hardy e17

Save and exit.

Next, retrieve the key for the repository and install the E17 package.

wget http://lut1n.ifrance.com/repo_key.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add – sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install e17

Once completed, log out of your current session. On the login screen, choose Session->Enlightenment. Upon login, you should be greeted with the screen below. Enjoy!

(click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge)

PS: E17 is still under heavy development and is not suitable for production systems. PS: The above installation only works for a fresh install. If you have installed E17 previously, please remove all instances of E17 files before you follow the above steps

Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.

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