Introduction

Desktop environments suck.

This can't really be argued with, They have a number of fantastic features and functions but if you way what they really do / provide with their system footprints they are pretty god damned awful.

I think this is in large part down to the hobbyist nature of F/OSS development. Many projects are created using rather low standards of engineering. This can usually be attributed to either a lack of understanding of Software Engineering principles (Yes CompSci's I'm pointing at you) OR more typically an unwillingness to stand on these standards for a number of reasons. Typically a desire to get the project into the open or just plain laziness.

I'd like to point you at an interesting article and video on the subject here: http://lca2007.linux.org.au/talk/101
http://mirror.linux.org.au/pub/linux.conf.au/2007/video/talks/101.ogg

My good friend Tim [c4llidus] and I have been looking for a decent DE for quite a while, so much so that we had started a few ideas about developing our own using decent software engineering principles (It fits well, I'm a Software Engineer and he's a games programmer). So on we went, looking at options and the design methodologies to be used, trying to find a way to build an extensible framework that could be extended by the hordes of other programmers that must be frustrated by the offerings of KDE, Gnome and others of that ilk.

At this point I stumbled over enlightenment I was aware of its existence and had briefly used e16 at some point in the past. E17 is the new Enlightenment, its under *heavy* development and as such I wouldn't recommend it for all but the most competent of Linux users. However it is fantastic to use, well built, designed and thought out.

"Great!" I thought, "now how can I contribute?"

Direct involvement in the code of E17 seems like a bad idea to me, my work schedule is hectic and I don't want to get into a position where people are waiting to work with / break my code. So I had another chat with Tim, he agrees that E17 is awesome but that it would be nice to see more applications that are based on the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries....

Next Post: What we are going to do to help and how you can too!

-Rob