I will use the next three screenshots to illustrate one of E17’s weakest points. Left-clicking near the left-side of the desktop, you should see all available menu and sub-menu items.
Menu items from left of desktop
That should also be true when clicking around the middle of the desktop.
Menu items from center of desktop
Here is what happens when you click very close to the right side of the desktop.
Menu disappears
The Shelf settings manager. There are three active Shelves (Shelf 1, 5, and 6) by default
Shelf settings
The Gadgets manager, shown below, is used to add gadgets to the desktop.
Gadgets manager
This is the iBar application manager. It is used to add/remove applications icons from the iBar.
iBar
Final Thoughts: If the only achievement of this review is to discourage you from downloading and installing it on your computer just to see how good it is, I think the time spent in doing the same on my computer would not have been wasted. When the Sabayon teams dubbed this an “Experimental Spin,” it truly is. The Enlightenment desktop environment is clearly not ready for the desktop.
Resources: To learn more about the Enlightenment desktop environment, click here. Still feel like taking Sabayon 5.4 E17 out for a spin? Download it from a download mirror closest to your location.
As pointed out by a couple of others, the functionality when you click near the right edge of the Desktop is the way Enlightenment 17 is supposed to work: if you then move the mouse pointer further to the right then the menus move to the left and completely into view. Another interesting feature of E17 is that, if you move the mouse pointer past the right edge of the screen, the current Virtual Desktop scrolls leftwards and the next Virtual Desktop to the right is displayed. Similarly, if you move the mouse pointer past the left edge of the screen then the current Virtual Desktop scrolls rightwards to display the next Virtual Desktop to the left. I.e. the virtual desktops are like a long ‘strip of canvas’ and the PC screen is a ‘window’ onto that long ‘strip of canvas’. E17 is very configurable, and the look and feel can be changed from the minimalist to the ornate: click on ‘Start’ > ‘Settings’ > ‘Settings Panel’ to reach the configuration menus.
You’re right, it does click over, however it’s not very elegant behaviour for a supposedly elegant DE.
Every year or so I give Enlightenment a spin… I like the idea, I liked dr16 and used it for many years back in the day. E17 however is constantly a disappointment. There’s certainly some very clever stuff, and some very talented coders, however it always feels so very alpha despite the years that have gone into it.
I think unless E17 falls under some talented management, it will become a cautionary tale of what Open Source projects NOT to sink your precious time into.
I tried to install this today but because I have the ATI graphics card I was not able to. A lot of Linux Distributions can not handle ATI which is a shame. My nvidia card bit the dust so had to use what I had. What is amazing is the debian handled it with out any issues. I used Sabayon and liked it for the most part but will have to wait for a newer version.
So let me get this straight… we should not use the E17 spin of Sabayon because the menus don’t move over? Other than that I don’t see anything wrong with the screenshots. Also let me add that the menus do move over once your mouse is over them. What a POS review.
For a really nice E-17 desktop check out.
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,82087.0.html
Reviews when the reviewer is not biased and actually does a review are only good but to make assumptions when you obviously don’t know what you are talking about, then try to dissuade through your own lack of knowledge is a total waste of time
Practically only screen shots I can hardly call a review. Why bother just use Opensuse!
The menu should move over when you mouse over it that is what usually happens with E17.
I also think reviews like this a a total waste of time and effort.
If all it achieves is help somebody decide that this Sabayon spin is not worth using, then it’s not “a total waste of time and effort.”
Btw, that is one of the goals of these reviews.