…My 3rd time installing Gentoo, this time I decided to go without KDE, and ended up with Enlightenment E17. I must say I wasn’t disapointed, even the CVS package which I installed is extremely easy to build and functions well. The default theme is very clean and professional. Combined with XComposite, I got myself a very nice looking desktop in less than a day 
Now all I need is a matching file manager…
Havent used Enlightenment, although I have been told its a very nice enviroment.
I use e16. I occasionally test e17, but it’s still missing some of the nice things I like from 16. Oh well… I’ll keep checking, I suppose.
As for a file manager… you could always use an Eterm. 
Otherwise you could always try playing with Evidence.
For an awesome File manager try Rox-Filer… it is quite small, and very fast
depending on how you execute it , it can become a toolbar, or your desktop wallpaper manager complete with Icons…
it also is quite sexy and obeys GTK2 themes 8)
with image magic installed you can have all kinds of thumbnail previews as well…
anyways you can probably use emerge to get it…
rox, or rox-filer is what most distros call it…
here is more info…
http://rox.sourceforge.net/desktop/static.html
the link makes it look like it is a completely diffrent window manager, but it is all depends on how you execute it, if you just type rox it is a file manager.
I use it with e-16 and e-17… both on KANOTIX64…
BTW,
if you want to see rox in action before you install it on gentoo… you can try it on Puppy linux Live CD…
it is only a 50 meg download… and they have a bunch of other small and light weight applications as well
Currently running E16.8, also have E17, however I like the composite manager in 16 better (as it works reliably!).
Currently running a custom theme I put together in e16,
(file manager is xfm, but I’m looking to change to something gtk themeable, I’ll try rox, not sure I haven’t already tho… file managers are a problem)
and blue-eye in e17 (so I can use the use the setup menu, milky’s doesn’t seem to do that still…)
Also on Gentoo!
Alex
Neat desktop shots
here is a nice feature :
"
The second unusual feature is drag-and-drop saving. You’ve probably already seen DND loading (dragging a file from the filer to an application) but ROX takes this one step further: you can save by dragging the file back from the application into the filer.
This may seem a bit strange at first (especially if you’ve been using Windows) but you’ll quickly start to wish that all applications supported it!
For example, imagine that you’re producing a report. All the resources you’re using are in /home/fred/Work/July/Report. You create images in one program, graphs in another, and write the text in a third program. Every time you want to save you have to renavigate to the directory using that program’s mini-filer (each one is slightly different, of course). This is annoying! With DND saving you could just keep the directory open and drag files into it from each application. This has the additional advantage that after you’ve saved an image from the Gimp you already have the directory open ready to drag the image straight into Lyx. Assuming that both programs supported DND.
Both of these features are taken from an operating system called RISC OS (ROX stands for `RISC OS on X’) which has had them for years. They proved very popular among the users, although the operating system itself had some other short-comings and never enjoyed much commercial success."
also…
For your viewing pleasure, Rox supports SVG and PNG icons!
from the screenshots the filer looks over bloated like Gnome or KDE file managers, but it is not…
it loads in an instant, and automaticaly will size itself to make sure all your Icons fit inside the window!!! (no more scrolling and resizeing for huge directories)
I wish someone would make a windowsXP and windows XP X64 port of this.
Hmmm… liking rox, it is small (2meg source), very customisable, and has some really nice DND features. Takes a little getting used to, but I’m feeling it!
The ability to set associations for all images or videos together at once, or seperately, is a really nice feature.
emerge rox
…on gentoo
Alex
enlightment kind of ruin the whole idea of being window managers. yes it’s merely a “window manager” and nothing else I suppose, but I saw a demo clip of e17, with moving backgrounds, fancy icons and transparency and stuffs. I don’t know. If I wanted a window manager I’ll go into a light one. At least something like fluxbox.
I like rox too. Fluxbox combined with Rox = killer combo
I think you’d be surprised at how light enlightenment is/can be.
Enlightenment is designed to be able to run on current generation Smartphones and PDAs, it has a minimal memory footprint (80MB total memory used when running DR17 inc. X + some KDE and Gnome libs).
It is flashy, but without bloat, and designed from the ground up to be so.
Just because something looks nice doesn’t mean it is bloated or resource heavy.
Alex
yes but shouldn’t be blackbox derivatives have smaller memory footprints?
Yes… but then comes the question of usability. I may have come to Enlightenment because it was pretty, but I stayed because there are some really nice things about interacting with it that I haven’t seen in other WM’s (or have seen, but only in resource-heavy WM’s). It’s part of the reason I still use e16 over e17. e16 is just more usuable for me, right now.
Yes aesthetically pleasing does not equal bloat. I maintain that E17 (the only version I’ve used so far) is quite fast and definitly a pleasure to use. Here are some numbers to back me up:
http://www.rasterman.com/index.php?page=News
Scroll to the middle where you see a benchmark chart, the window drawing performance of E is simply untouchable.
Wowow. That comparison chart really blow me up.
I do hear about back then at the gnome 1 era, it uses enlightment instead of metacity for its window manager. Is this true?
Yea! E-16 and E-17 are not so big, especially when you compare to Gnome or KDE…
for those who are not fortunate enough to have over 256megs of RAM enlightenment might not be so great for you…
the way it does the scrolling screen transitions is with a lightning fast snapshot of both workspaces , then paints it on the screen, and scrolls away!!!
I think now they even utilize your graphic card 's RAM to speed things up…
the way you can drag the 2 desk tops up or down and see windows in real time still blows my mind
dunno, I have seen enlightenment on crappy systems, and on Virtualizes systems on my own desktop (I use Ubuntu and kanotix virtual machines under VMware to avoid spyware, and viruses, and hackers , all that can be damged is the virtual image… 
)… on the systems with under 512 megs of ram I see significant tearing, and ghosting…
anyways… I like most linux windows managers!! most of my virtual machiene’s have both e-17 and KDE, and IceWM, and Fluxbox, and one of my all time favorites, the GTK based XFCE…
Linux is cool, you can mix and match windows managers, and no re-booting to swap between them 8)
the way it does the scrolling screen transitions is with a lightning fast snapshot of both workspaces , then paints it on the screen, and scrolls away!!!
I think now they even utilize your graphic card 's RAM to speed things up…
the way you can drag the 2 desk tops up or down and see windows in real time still blows my mind
What What?! What are you talking about?! It sounds awesome but I have no clue what you are refering to. Is it a feature in E17? Please enlighten me. (silly pun intended) My E17 installation is incomplete at best, i know that bits and pieces are missing…But what you just descbied blow me away, too.
So the conclusion is enlightment is fast and memory hogger while working. It’s not that I often open up hundreds of windows at once anyway.
Well, some people prefer to keep balance between look and functionality. I’m the type who way fave functionality better. I do love good looking desktop aswell, otherwise I’ll be using TWM instead lol 
Yes. I think that gnome has gone through three different Window Managers.
Enlightenment -> Sawfish -> Metacity
I had used enlightenment quite some time, its a very neat window manager, futuristic look and feel. But later I switched to gnome after v2.8.