On weekend I was giving some Enlightenment-based distros a try, such as Elive and Bodhi Linux. Elive project seems iddle and Bodhi seems a bit new for the time being. Then I wondered if it was possible to install Enlightenment on openSUSE.
I thought at first that Enlightenment was another desktop environment, but after a research I found that its a window manager that could be used either in conjuction with GNOME or KDE, or as a substitute for a full desktop environment (from Wikipedia). But in the website it’s said that it’s not only a window manager, but also a whole suite of devel libraries to create interfaces. I don’t know if Elive or Bodhi had those devel libraries installed or if they’re needed, but I’d only be interested in the “window manager”…
I liked the way Enlightenment looked in the other 2 distros, that’s why I’d like to give it a try on openSUSE.
Is there a repo to install Enlightenment from or must I build all packages from the website? Do you think this could be a good idea? How should I use it, along with GNOME for example or as a single desktop environment?
Assuming I use one of the above repos for openSUSE 12.1 x86_64, how should I install, along with KDE/GNOME or alone? Is it possible to to install Enlightenment as a single DE from the installation DVD without selecting KDE or GNOME?
Yes, you can go for the ‘minimal x installation (?)’ instead of Gnome, KDE, Xfce etc, and add enlightenment manually later on.
NB
Enlightenment is both a Window Manager, the E16, and a more comprehensive DE like, E17. E16 is available from the standard repo -oss, E17 from the repo you picked out
In the second repo I mentioned there are 2 subdirectories: Nightly and Staging. Are these some kind of “unstable” betas? What’s the difference with first repo?
And, if I installed E16 from Software Manager (I think the package is called just “enlightenment” from -Oss, around 2 Mb size) how would it be installed? In some way “along” with KDE or GNOME, an additional option in log-in after reboot…?
Is E17 the one with all that developing stuff the website mentions?
Sorry, I don’t know what Nightly and Staging means. But I don’t think the E17 has been considered stable yet, though I’m not sure.
If you are experimental you could try E17 and see how it goes:)
If you do a fresh install you could ignore to install KDE, Gnome etc all together. Just pick the option ‘minimal x window’ and choose E16 from the software list.
If you just want to try it out alongside your current DE it will be an alternative in the display manager/login manager to log-in to. Just pick the package, install it, log out and choose Enlightenment from the ‘sessions (I believe it’s called)’ list.
I’m experimental, but not that much yet. Do you really think E17 is not stable yet?
Also, reading the website, I noticed this:
“Enlightenment DR16 integrates well with both GNOME and KDE. Replace the default window managers for each with Enlightenment and you’ll have the power to leverage the best of GNOME and KDE at the same time, while enjoying the windowing interface that Enlightenment provides” (Enlightenment 0.16).
So it really can integrate with KDE or GNOME. Though I don’t know if this is what the “enlightenment” option in log-in list would do… Guess I’d need to try…
I think it simply means that you may use any KDE and Gnome apps you wish alongside Enlightenment. Which is the same as using Gnome apps with KDE and vice versa.
I know of only one distro which has shipped with E17 as default DE, JAD which was based on OpenSuSE, but then again I’m not too orientated in the Linux world. But I do remember some criticism on the use of an ‘unstable’ DE.
I have an old computer which I mainly use as server (extra storage), but I also play around testing different WMs and DEs for better performance, and things can really improve in this respect. I am using Openbox which I suppose is even simpler than E16, and there are some things to get used to when only using a thin WM on the desktop. I have avoided using KDE at all and as little of Gnome as possible to have it as slim as I could, I landed on using Openbox, Rox-filer as file manager and an extra panel called Tint2, xterm and Rox-Editor, that’s it. With this set-up I have had to configure a lot of settings by hand, and I haven’t managed to have Rox-filer to auto-mount cdroms/DVDs yet so it has also involved some command lines operations. However, if I had installed Dolphin, Konqueror and thus made use of KDE, things would have got a lot more automated.
I suggest you just try Enlightenment 16 alongside your current DE, there are few dependencies and it should be easy to remove if you don’t want to have it any longer. Just install it, log out and back in again on Enlightenment. If you later decide you wish to have it as your default DE/WM you can change the settings here: Yast > System > /etc/sysconfig Editor > Desktop > WindowManager.