Enlightenment is a window manager. Under an X-Windows environment it is the task of a window manager to manage the location and size etc. of client windows on your screen, by in general adding decorations that allow you to manipulate these windows, and possibly add other features such as buttonbars, menus etc.

Enlightenment is designed to give you MAXIMUM WOW. Rather than being merely functional, its purpose is to make your desktop not only work, but look like a work of art aswell. In addition it is probably the most customisable window manager ever written with this level of power, and is also acessible by the common user.

I have learnt a LOT about X-Windows whilst writing various programs for it, and hacking fvwm a bit, and so have written Enlightenment from the ground up. This allows Enlightenment to start afresh, with a new outlook on managing windows, drawing them etc. It is also written to be portable between display depths, so it handles Monochrome, 16 Color VGA, 256 Color, 15 bit, 16 bit and 24 bit color happily. It has color palette remapping support (via Imlib) and dithering too.

Not only does Imlib handle this, but it also does image rescaling... and FAST. I can improve its speed, and this is planned for later. Currently it is a LOT faster than usign the X server to do scaling, and also makes interactive performance much better, as it doesnt drain the Xserver to do rescaling. Just running the new Enlightenment will attest to what Imlib does.

This is on PC hardware primarily for now, due to the fact I have no access to exotic graphics hardware like Suns, SGIs, Ps etc. (Hint, Hint, Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink), which makes supporting this display hardware optimally, very hard, because I can't do any debugging for it. But I hope to improve support in the future.

Enlightenment is under development. I do what I can in my spare time. My todo list for Enlightenment already stretches as far as my eye can see. If you have always wanted that desktop that just looks different, or is just nicer to use that others, or is more configurable, Enlightenment is for you.

This program is desgined to above all be as good looking as possible and to be as configureable as possible. I have spent countless hours debating on how the config file will work, and how the internal structures and settings behave, just to squeeze the most customisability out of this that I can.

Just take a look at this screenshot. ALL the borders are made up of images. Pixmaps that merely show an image of a pice of a windowborder. Enlightenment arranges these around your windows as it is told to in its configuration file. There is no limit to what you can do. You can have titlebars down the sides of your windows, along the bottom, or anywhere you like. Buttons can be anywhere.. not just at the top. There simply is no limit to what can be done.

The configuration I currently am using is a very "blade-runner"ish one, but there is no reason why you can't develop your own with a little bit of time invested in a few images and a modified set of config file. I hope in future, once the bugs settle down, and most of the features I have planned are in Enlightenment, to begin developing themes, that merely plug in as config files to make your entire deskop change. No need to change window managers. If you like afterstep, why not just use the afterstep config for Enlightenment... if you get sick of it.. use another one. Why change window managers if one can look exactly how you want? If you're already impatient for new looks or dont particularly like the default theme, take a look at the Themes Page for some themes that have already been written or are in development.