Software Alternatives & Reviews

KDE VS Enlightenment

Compare KDE VS Enlightenment and see what are their differences

KDE logo KDE

The KDE® Community is a free software community dedicated to creating an open and user-friendly computing experience, offering an advanced graphical desktop, a wide variety of applications for communication, work, education and entertainment and …

Enlightenment logo Enlightenment

Enlightenment is not just a window manager for Linux/X11 and others, but also a whole suite of...
  • KDE Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-23
  • Enlightenment Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-29

KDE

Categories
  • Linux
  • Desktop Environments
  • Operating Systems
  • Window Manager
Website kde.org

Enlightenment

Categories
  • Linux
  • Window Manager
  • Desktop Environments
  • Operating Systems
Website enlightenment.org

KDE videos

KDE Plasma 5 Deep Dive (Late 2019) | Linux Desktop Reviews

More videos:

  • Review - Review - Manjaro KDE
  • Review - Debian 10 KDE review

Enlightenment videos

The Enlightenment [AP World History Review] Unit 5, Topic 1

More videos:

  • Review - APUSH Review: The Enlightenment
  • Review - Enlightenment Review
  • Demo - Enlightenment Desktop Environment Demo

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to KDE and Enlightenment)
Linux
71 71%
29% 29
Operating Systems
74 74%
26% 26
Desktop Environments
68 68%
32% 32
Window Manager
47 47%
53% 53

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare KDE and Enlightenment

KDE Reviews

6 Best Linux Desktop Environments to Try in 2022
KDE is also popular as the Plasma desktop. KDE is a very lightweight desktop and highly customizable. Now you can connect your phone with the computer via KDE Connect. KDE’s browser integration connects your phone to your browser to establish a smooth communication fast.
Top 10 Best Desktop Environments in 2020
I call it the super DE for a reason. If you compare KDE with a group of people, KDE is the richest and the heaviest one. In terms of UI customization, KDE has it all. From transparent windows to blurred backgrounds, glass-look, to animations, and much more.
The 12 Best Linux Desktop Environments
KDE Plasma is one of the best Linux desktop environments for those who want to play with their system’s interface. KDE offers various features, but some users always complain that it is not stable enough, and it is also a bit heavier. Apart from it, all on-screen components work as a widget, which is movable and resizable.
Source: linuxhint.com
The Best Desktop Environments For Linux (We Tested Them So That You Don’t Have To)
Some Linux distros using KDE as the default are openSUSE, Kubuntu and KDE Neon. You may also refer to one of our tutorials to install KDE on Ubuntu, if that’s what you want.
Source: itsfoss.com

Enlightenment Reviews

9 Best Linux Desktop Environments to Use in 2023
This Linux desktop environment acts as a rendering engine that can launch apps, manage the user interface, and even change system settings. The Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL) are used to build an Enlightenment environment.
Source: geekflare.com
Top 10 Best Desktop Environments in 2020
Though you won’t see this desktop environment a lot, people who use it, don’t want to give it away for anything else. Enlightenment allows for very high configurability making it loved by the original Linux lovers.
The 12 Best Linux Desktop Environments
Enlightenment has grown so much, and now it includes a full desktop environment, wearable, TV, and mobile user interface platforms. This Linux desktop environment was started over a decade ago, and initially, it worked as a windows manager project for the x11 system. Enlightenment is not much reputed among Linux users. This Linux desktop environment’s art style is a little...
Source: linuxhint.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, KDE seems to be a lot more popular than Enlightenment. While we know about 77 links to KDE, we've tracked only 4 mentions of Enlightenment. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

KDE mentions (77)

  • Anyone using the KDE webchat?
    I am trying to use the KDE webchat on element at https://webchat.kde.org/#/login. I made an account at identity.kde.org, but it does not let me log in to the chat client. Create an account does not work and asks me to create an account at kde.org. Does anyone know how this is supposed to work? Thanks. Source: 5 months ago
  • Looking for user-friendly personal computing oriented distro
    This is a hard one, but after giving it a decent amount of thought I've narrowed it down to openSUSE Tumbleweed with either GNOME or KDE as the desktop environment. Source: 9 months ago
  • KDE/XMonad work laptop
    You need to be running xorg, not wayland, first of all. You can follow the tutorial at kde.org: https://userbase.kde.org/Tutorials/Using_Other_Window_Managers_with_Plasma. Source: 10 months ago
  • Should i switch?
    I'm glad to hear that you use Krita (and I may assume you use Blender for animations). Both are free and open source software that is available on Linux (even better, Krita is made by the KDE project, makers of all sorts of open source projects, including Plasma, one of the most complete user interfaces for Linux out there). Source: 10 months ago
  • KDE publishes the new "KDE for developers" page, where you can find advice on and links to tools, frameworks and libraries that will help you build powerful and cool-looking apps using KDE technologies
    I like the concept of these "KDE for ..." pages, I think the whole https://kde.org/for/ collection should be promoted way more prominently on the front page https://kde.org/. Also, a lot of regionalized "/for" pages lists only 3 (out of 4) subpages, and some even list only a single one, this seems like a major oversight (at least list them in English if their entries weren't translated to other languages). Source: 10 months ago
View more

Enlightenment mentions (4)

  • Enlightenment Desktop 0.25.0 released
    As for modern and sleek - isn't the default flat theme that's there now just that. It's what everyone wants? Flat? Sleek? Minimal shadows where needed for some borders/depth. Is the problem that it's dark? You can just select one of the light color palettes in the palette selector if that's what you want. Look at enlightenment.org and all the screenshots there now or just try the latest. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Enlightenment Desktop 0.25.0 released
    Don't give up too fast - it may be the thing you want exists and it just isn't where you expect it or there's a feature you just don't know is there. It may be it does something differently and it's odd at the start but then you get used to it and then suddenly you can't go back. This happened to people early in the E-0.17 rewrite where E would separate each screen and virtual desktops are switched separately per... Source: over 2 years ago
  • Enlightenment Desktop 0.25.0 released
    Hmmm... Not really. e uses about half the memory. I just updated the the about-enlightenment page on enlightenment.org with some numbers I took from an actual installed vm comparing e, xfce, gnome, kde, lxd, and lxqt. e is about 1/4 the mem of kde and even less than lxqt. You might find e is actually more customizable than kde if you dig into themes and how they work. They are sheer mountains of power if you want... Source: over 2 years ago
  • Follow-up to: I want Linux from Win as soon as I wake up, spent hours over the past days reading and watching videos about various Linux distros and have found 4 that might suit me. Also, I am afraid that my PC (Windows 10) might break down again, and I'd like to move to Linux before that happens.
    You could try Enlightenment, an old, forgotten gem. I use a distro designed for it (Elive Linux) but that's optional especially since the betas which are the only supported versions not using Debian Wheezy are using an "outdated-looking" (personally I like it) E16 desktop. Source: about 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing KDE and Enlightenment, you can also consider the following products

Xfce - Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.

GNOME - An easy and elegant way to use your computer, GNOME is designed to put you in control and get things done.

i3 - A dynamic tiling window manager designed for X11, inspired by wmii, and written in C.

KDE Plasma Desktop - Plasma Workspaces is the umbrella term for all graphical environments provided by KDE.

LXDE - Why will you like it? Less resource needs. You can use it on your less-pricey embedded board or salvaged computer. Component-based design. Don't want something in LXDE, or you don't want to use LXDE but only part of it?

LXQt - The LXQt team is proud to announce the release of qtermwidget and qterminal, both in version 0. 8. 0. Read more..