The design seems to feel like they were designed by someone with no aesthetic taste but has just made things they think will look bling. I'm sure that it does something very impressive, but I can't see why everyone raves about it.
Well, back 10 years ago when Gentoo worked like Ubuntu does now except it was n^2 slower and came with 3 difficulty modes for installation, e16 was the bee's knees window manager. You could edit your own GUI menus by configuring a text file! everything was infinitely customizable. EVERYTHING. not to mention having transparent eterms with really cool backgrounds. In this context, e17 was the shang-ri-la of desktop environments and also perpetual vaporware. I looked forward to e17 for years but they never seemed to make progress. Just a screenshot here and there, tantalizing us. then Compiz came out and I forgot about it completely. The allure has to do with the fact that it had great potential and it was being made by uncompromising perfectionists. Like the novel that the fans were begging to be released but the Author refused because it wasn't quite perfect yet. Well now, after so many years, the progenitor is ready to reveal the creation. I am ready to see the vision.
Well, you say that, but really it's had rather stable and public development, and it was my main desktop for a long time in 2005 and 6. I think part of the reason it became so drawn out was that it was already more or less a release product without the release numbers.
