Why I don't like enlightenment

By default, Enlightenment pops up with annoying help windows whenever you stop moving the cursor for a few seconds. Although it is easy to disable this, it is just idiotic to put this as the default, as the windows that pop up even pop up when the cursor is just over the desktop, and the window takes up a large part of the screen.

It automatically runs it's own Esound daemon when starting, even if you have Enlightenment sounds disabled. There isn't any way to easily stop it from doing that with a command line option.

Enlightenment takes much longer to load than most other popular window managers. While many load in less than a second, Enlightenment can nearly to a minute to load on some computers.

In addition to loading slowly, the graphical effects of most of Enlightenment and most of it's themes are so intensive that the whole window manager runs much slower than others. Running Enlightenment without delays between switching workspaces requires a very fast computer.

I'd like to mention that Enlightenment is fine for people who have never used Linux or X before, and don't want to spend any time learning how to use a different window manager. Also, Enlightenment is mostly fine for people with very fast computers, or those who value cool looking themes above everything else.

enlightenment is a fine window manager with quite a few faults in my opinion. Rasterman's idea of what a window manager should do is not close to mine.

The newer versions are taking over the things that should be left to the desktop environments (gnome,and kde). I believe that the winow manager should really stick to managing windows (hence the catchy title).

The themes while very cool are hard to install. If you aren't all that comfortable with editing the theme files by hand then stick with the preloaded ones. I have noticed that all of my friends who run enlightement have the same theme running (bluesteel). Maybe they all have the same astetic sense or maybe they couldn't get the more pleasing themes they found to install.

I ahve found that enlightenment is also more of a memory/cpu hog than most other window managers. I don't really mind on my current system because I can take a bit of a load and not notice, but on my previous system running enlightenment meant that it took forever to do anything so I ended up running windowmaker instead. I ahve since switched to sawfish (previously sawmill) and never once have I looked back and thought about running enlightenment.

When I was just a kid hanging around the monastery on weekends, enlightenment seemed pretty cool. I mean, hell, look where it got the Boddhisatvas! Universal conciousness seemed like the best thing since sliced bread to me back then.

So I did the whole contemplation thing. I contemplated like nobody's ever seen. Koans? I was all over that. I did things methodically. I've got a polaroid of the face I had before I was born. I've even got the Beastie Boys remix of the sound of one hand clapping. I would meditate like a madman. One time, back in college, I went on a three day meditation binge. Those were the days, man.

So a few years back, I'm sitting in rock garden, just kicking back after a hard day of chopping wood and carrying water, when it hits me. It felt a little like an itch, on the back of my head, at first, but pretty soon I realized it was actually complete serenity and compassion for all living things in the universe. So, okay, I'm enlightened. Good deal, right?

Not so fast. Try to order a pizza and ask for a discount because you've achieved the Buddha nature. Take my word, it works pretty rarely. The picture in the workplace wasn't much prettier. I mean sure, total enlightenment looks impressive on your resume, but I've found most employers in today's job market prefer a few solid years of Photoshop experience. And at home? In my experience, if you try to avoid doing the dishes because it would only further your link to the illusory cycle of Samsara, your mother's only going to ask you to move out of the basement.

My advice for enlightenment is to give it a pass. If I choose to be reincarnated, I think next time I'll opt for salvation, or maybe oneness with the Tao.