Enlightenment
More info
- Creator
- Carsten Haitzler
- Released
- Type
- Window manager
- Website
- enlightenment.org
The window manager that proved Linux could look good — and whose next version took twelve years.
Carsten Haitzler, better known as Rasterman, released Enlightenment in 1997, when most Unix desktops were still resolutely grey. Everything was skinnable: title bars, buttons and menus were built from images, and the early themes looked like brushed metal and glowing glass. It was the default window manager in GNOME 1.0 in 1999, until GNOME switched to the more restrained Sawfish.
The E16 branch is still alive. Work on E17 began around 2000 and finished only in December 2012 — one of free software's more famous waits. Along the way the EFL libraries took shape, and they ended up in Samsung's Tizen on watches and TVs, which makes Enlightenment's code far more widespread than its desktop ever was.