The Bodhi Guide to Enlightenment
Introduction
This Bodhi Guide to Enlightenment is intended to be your resource for using Enlightenment (E17) and getting the most out of it. New Bodhi Linux users may also want to check out our brief introduction, the Quickstart Guide, which is available online and locally on your system, accessible via the Main Menu.
One of the beauties of a Linux system is the plethora of choices for a Window Manager, and Bodhi Linux uses Enlightenment as its default. But what exactly is a Window Manager?
According to Wikipedia, “A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface … They work in conjunction with the underlying graphical system which provides required functionality such as support for graphics hardware, pointing devices, and a keyboard, and are often written and created using a widget toolkit.”
Basically a Window Manager controls the way you interact with your computer, at least in the Graphical User Interface (GUI). Over time, many Window Managers have been extended to become full-fledged Desktop Environments. A Desktop Environment is generally considered to be a Window Manager that integrates common applications and services, which are often built using the same widget toolkit, into the GUI.
Enlightenment is known as a Window Manager, but provides most of the functionality found in much more resource-hungry Desktop Environments. You could say that it straddles the line between a Window Manager and a Desktop Environment.
The first version of Enlightenment was released in 1997. In December 2000 it was completely re-written using the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL), and remains in active development to this day. The current incarnation of Enlightenment is 0.1.7, often referred to simply as E17.
In the Fall of 2010 lead developer Jeff Hoogland began working on the idea of a new Linux distribution utilizing a current and stable version of Enlightenment as the Window Manager and with an Ubuntu Long Term Support release as its base. (Note that a completely independent version of Bodhi Linux is in the works)
Enlightenment and Bodhi Linux
Enlightenment is the natural choice as a Window Manager in Bodhi Linux, as it fits in perfectly with two of the most important Bodhi Linux ideals:
- Minimalism - A default install of Enlightenment will run in less than 100 MB of RAM. That is FAR less than most modern Window Managers, not to mention complete Desktop Environments. But it doesn't come at the expense of great looks or functionality. Enlightenment is one of the most elegant Window Managers available, and is highly extensible through the use of Modules. Which brings us to the second ideal …
- User Choice - Enlightenment is probably the most highly configurable Window Manager in existence, so you can make your system look and work the way you want.
There are other Linux distributions that use Enlightenment as their Window Manager, but none (that we know of) deliver such frequent updates, ensuring that you always have the best Enlightenment has to offer.
Another great advantage of using Enlightenment in Bodhi Linux is that two active E17 developers (Stephen “okra” Houston and Christopher “devilhorns” Michael) are also active developers on the Bodhi Linux team. This relationship benefits both parties. Any issues that appear in the E17 version that Bodhi Linux is using can be addressed and corrected quickly. And those fixes can then quickly go “upstream” to the main E17 development and out to the wider Enlightenment community as a whole.
We hope you find this guide useful. Feedback is welcome at the Bodhi Linux Documentation sub-forum (online link).
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