Enlightenment 0.28 ships two years of changes, reviving desktop's release cadence

A release two years in the making

Enlightenment 0.28 is out, arriving on Halloween and carrying what amounts to nearly two years of development. According to Phoronix, Carsten Haitzler announced the release, which is the desktop environment's first major feature update since 0.27 shipped at the beginning of 2025.

That gap broke the project's usual rhythm of roughly one major release every twelve months. With 0.28, all of the accumulated work lands in a single, sizable drop, and the release cadence effectively resumes.

Networking and audio lead the changes

Networking receives some of the most visible additions. Enlightenment 0.28 introduces a NetworkManager module that handles wired and wireless connections as well as VPNs. Phoronix reports that various other network integration improvements ship alongside it.

The release also brings initial support for the NetBSD operating system, widening the set of platforms where the desktop can run.

On the audio side, 0.28 adds native PipeWire mixer support while continuing to support PulseAudio, so users on either sound stack are covered. Phoronix notes a range of further audio-related enhancements beyond the new mixer.

Window management and desktop polish

The desktop layer itself gets a batch of refinements in this release:

• New window actions
• Improved handling of client-side decorations
• Better display mode sorting
• Improved backlight filtering
• Smoother window switching

Phoronix also counts a wide variety of bug fixes and code cleanups among the changes, which is consistent with a release cycle that spent close to two years accumulating work.

Under the hood

Lower-level improvements include better pixmap handling, X connection recovery and proper shutdown of nested Wayland compositors. Enlightenment 0.28 continues to support both X11 and Wayland, keeping the desktop usable across both display worlds rather than forcing a choice.

Downloads and further details are available through Enlightenment.org.

Why it matters

For a project that had visibly slipped off its annual release schedule, shipping 0.28 is a signal that development is active again. Long gaps between releases tend to raise questions about whether a desktop environment is still maintained, and a substantial feature drop answers that for existing users while giving prospective ones a reason to look again.

The specific additions matter too. The NetworkManager module and VPN support bring Enlightenment's networking story closer to what mainstream Linux desktops offer out of the box. Native PipeWire mixer support, paired with retained PulseAudio support, means the desktop works with the newer audio stack without abandoning anyone on the older one. Initial NetBSD support extends the project's reach beyond its traditional base.

Finally, continued dual support for X11 and Wayland keeps Enlightenment relevant during the ongoing display server transition. A lightweight, long-running desktop that works on both, recovers X connections when they fail and shuts down nested Wayland sessions cleanly is positioning itself as a practical option rather than a historical curiosity.