--- title: Enlightenment 0.28 Released With Many Improvements description: Enlightenment 0.28 has been released, nearly two years after version 0.27. Carsten Haitzler released it with initial NetBSD support, a NetworkManager module... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/enlightenment-0-28-released-with-many-improvements-43piegm5m twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Enlightenment 0.28 Released With Many Improvements | daily.dev og:description: Enlightenment 0.28 has been released, nearly two years after version 0.27. Carsten Haitzler released it with initial NetBSD support, a NetworkManager module... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/enlightenment-0-28-released-with-many-improvements-43piegm5m og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/43pIeGM5m.png og:image:alt: Enlightenment 0.28 Released With Many Improvements og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Enlightenment 0.28 Released With Many Improvements **[Phoronix](https://daily.dev/sources/phoronix)** · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Enlightenment 0.28 has been released, nearly two years after version 0.27. Carsten Haitzler released it with initial NetBSD support, a NetworkManager module for wired and wireless networking and VPNs, and native PipeWire mixer support alongside continued PulseAudio support. The update also brings new window actions, improved client side decoration handling, display mode sorting, backlight filtering and window switching. It continues to support both X11 and Wayland. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What's new in Enlightenment 0.28? Enlightenment 0.28 adds initial NetBSD operating system support, a NetworkManager module for wired and wireless networking plus VPNs, and native PipeWire mixer support while still retaining PulseAudio. It also includes new window actions, improved client side decoration handling, display mode sorting, backlight filtering, window switching, plus low-level fixes like improved pixmap handling and X connection recovery. _Track window manager releases like Enlightenment's as you plan Linux desktop upgrades on daily.dev._ ### Does Enlightenment 0.28 support Wayland? Yes, Enlightenment 0.28 continues to support both X11 and Wayland, including improvements to nested Wayland compositor shutdown handling. This maintains the window manager's dual display server support alongside the other networking and audio improvements introduced in this release. _Developers weighing X11 versus Wayland support follow desktop environment updates like this on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 32 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-10-31). **TL;DR:** The discussion mixes nostalgia for Enlightenment's early desktop innovation with practical gripes about theme compatibility and a long tangent on whether tiling/scrollable window managers like niri suit real workflows. **Sentiment:** 35% positive · 45% mixed · 20% skeptical **The case for** - Some recall Enlightenment as a genuinely impressive and influential desktop environment in its heyday. - It's seen as one of the more complete UI ecosystems written in C. - Its Wayland and X11 support is noted as still intact. **The pushback** - Backwards compatibility with old themes has broken repeatedly, leaving very few usable themes. - Its C API has historically been criticized as messy. - Some dismiss it as bloatware not worth continued attention. - It historically had a reputation for being heavyweight/resource-hungry on older hardware. **By community** - hackernews (mixed): Nostalgia and appreciation for the project's history sit alongside complaints about broken theme compatibility and a lengthy side debate about tiling window manager philosophy. **Hottest debate:** Whether tiling/scrollable window managers like niri better match real desktop workflows than traditional overlapping-window layouts. **Open questions** - Will more themes be updated to work with newer Enlightenment versions? **Highlights** > Sadly enlightenment broke backwards compatibility with old themes so often basically nothing works anymore. You have to search for themes specifically made for the new versions, of which there are very few. Quite a problem since the default theme (of the prior version at least) was a mess. > — [onli on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50318622) > The question is whether most people use a screen like a desk. Nearly everyone I know has a window maximized all the time, and occasionally floats a window to drag or something extremely temporary (e.g. calc). Niri has a significantly lower impedance mismatch with that workflow (and it can temporarily float windows). Where they could improve is hotkeys: they are all heavily reliant on them, which is unreasonably hostile to non tech users. Humans aren't very good at identifying what they need from tech. The earliest example is the spreadsheet: no average user would have asked for it because there was no skeomorphism to draw from. We would have had graph paper with a single char per cell if we went with skeomorphic. Cascading window managers are objectively terrible. Obviously we don't force better solutions onto people, but they have very few redeeming qualities. > — [zamalek on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50319542) > E16 was the height of cool when it came out. I would have people see my desktop and wonder what the hell I was running. > — [jghn on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50318994) > Yet not without its detractors. I still remember this brutal roast of its C API from over a decade ago.[0] [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20150308153847/http://what.theda... > — [TFNA on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50318658) > More than GNOME? > — [LeFantome on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50317747) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50317534) · 26 points · 32 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Port the Enlightenment desktop environment to NetBSD](https://daily.dev/posts/port-the-enlightenment-desktop-environment-to-netbsd-dmht9kopm) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [GStreamer 1.28.1 Adds Whisper-Based Speech-To-Text, AV1 Stateful V4L2 Decoder Support](https://daily.dev/posts/gstreamer-1-28-1-adds-whisper-based-speech-to-text-av1-stateful-v4l2-decoder-support-njs5v7ce9) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Linux App Release Roundup \(December 2025\)](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-app-release-roundup-december-2025--ghs6b7prm) · omg\! ubuntu\! · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AV Linux 25, MX Moksha land with Enlightenment desktops](https://daily.dev/posts/av-linux-25-mx-moksha-land-with-enlightenment-desktops-ynxlvxl8z) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [deepin 25.2.0 Release Note – Deepin Technology Community](https://daily.dev/posts/deepin-25-2-0-release-note-deepin-technology-community-a4r8cxdmo) · Deepin · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/enlightenment-0-28-released-with-many-improvements-43piegm5m) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Enlightenment 0.28 Released With Many Improvements","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/enlightenment-0-28-released-with-many-improvements-43piegm5m","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/enlightenment-0-28-released-with-many-improvements-43piegm5m"},"datePublished":"2026-10-31T14:53:56.396Z","dateModified":"2026-10-31T20:19:47.209Z","description":"Enlightenment 0.28 has been released, nearly two years after version 0.27. 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