Enlightenment (software)

E16 provides features that you don't even see in many "advanced" desktop environments to this day. It allows the user to create a grid of workspaces known as "virtual desktops". Switching between them is achieved by hurling the mouse cursor to the edge of the screen, after which the desktop appears to slide across to reveal the next. All the desktops are connected, meaning that if a window is too big for the screen size you can go to the adjacent desktops to find the rest of it. You can have up to 8 by 8 desktops in a single grid, and up to 32 grids are possible (each can have a different background), making 2048 possible workspaces. Users can enable a sort of "map" of the desktops, called the pager, in case they get lost. It also provided the ability to put windows in groups (so they can be removed, resized, closed, etc all together), "iconification" which is similar to minimizing but are stored in "iconboxes" that can be moved, the ability to change the type of or remove completely the borders and title bars, advanced keybinding settings to allow use of Enlightenment solely with a keyboard (e16keyedit is a GUI program simplifying this process), a scriptable command-line interface that works with most if not all of E's features, and (with newer versions) a compositor with effects such as fading and transparency,

One of the aims of the window manager is to be as configurable as possible, and to this end, it includes customization dialogs for focus settings, window movement, resizing, grouping and placement settings, audio, multiple desktop, desktop background, pager, tooltip and autoraise settings. It also includes a special effects dialog, with two effects, one of which being a desktop 'ripple' effect.

DR17 with former default theme Bling-bling. The theme was superseded by Black and White

E17 is fully themeable with both a menu-based and command-line theme-changing interface. It boasts a built-in file manager, adds icons to the desktop (for example, anything in the user's Desktop folder will show up), and a virtual desktop grid feature similar to that of E16. It also has a modular design, enabling it to load external modules. Examples of available modules are the Pager, the iBar (a sort of taskbar), an iBox holding minimized applications, a dock, a compositor, and more. E17 also adds one or more shelves to manage gadget placement and appearance. Animated and interactive desktop backgrounds, menu items, iBar items, and desktop widgets are also possible, as are window shading, iconification, maximising, sticky settings, customisable key bindings, internationalization, and a screenshot menu. Finally, E17 conforms to all needed standards (NetWM, ICCCM, XDG, and so on).

E17's data files (such as configurations and themes), unlike E16 (which uses JSON) are in a binary format, making them significantly faster than their JSON counterparts.

• Greatly improved Wayland support
• New gadget infrastructure
• Wizard improvements
• Video backgrounds

• Greatly improved Wayland support
• Improvements to new gadget infrastructure
• Added a sudo/ssh askpass utility GUI
• Meson build system
• Tiling policy improvements
• Integrated per-window volume controls

• New padded screenshot option
• Meson build now is the build system
• Music Control now supports rage MPRIS dbus protocol
• Add Bluez5 support with totally new and redone module and gadget
• Add dpms option to turn it off or on
• Alt-tab window switcher allows moving of windows while alt-tabbing
• Many bug fixes, compile warning fixes, etc.
• Massive improvements to Wayland support