NOTE: this page was prepared for k-s only because he requested some help in testing and so on. i (sda00) didn't announce this page and NOT sending a links to it.

as a maintainer of a current E-svn for at least openSUSE/SLE* community and the one who uses only E for home and work UI i'd like to put my IMHO here. it's NOT official and could not prove that similar cases are actual for Your distro/(Your case). all mentioned below is only valid for my workhorses ( SOAD project).

Review of a E-svn-revision-41533 (the third "internal" release)
Resume: Awesome! Well done! Keep it up!

Finally we've got the stable snapshot which could stay in our PC's until... whatever. HUGE THANKS DEAR DEVELOPERS!

Some minor issues found unfortunately:

1) modules/gadgets located on EFM toolbar have resise/(remember the state) issues found earlier for the ones used on shelves. probably it's just the question of a proper positioning because last couple of days things seems fine, but i was forced to remove "EFM Operation Info" module otherwise the rest of "EFM" modules sometimes dropped the parameters set via "Able to be resized" + "Begin move/resize the gadget";

2) seems like "Settings" panel/menu require some additional icons (which are absent now) for:

• Settings -> Modes (presentation/online)
  
• Settings -> Input -> Edge Bindings
  
• Settings -> Windows -> Tiling (tiling module in E-svn has outdated "edj" file instead of "edc" and this "edj" is simply out of current eet version i guess)
  

3)  Ticket 386,  Ticket 387 and  Ticket 388 are posted in Trac (#388 is indeed related to E17).

in general the rest is pretty good, except the ETK related stuff. it's a pity. personally just get used to the "Emphasis", "Extrackt", "Exhibit" and others. but the new "Edje Viewer" (based on "Elementary") is great! thanks Dave! thanks Raster!

Review of a E-svn-revision-41098
resume: removed, not valid any more.

Review of a E-svn-revision-41040 (the second "internal" release)
resume: removed, not valid any more.

Review of a E-svn-revision-40831

it'd been a mess with first initial planned "internal release" in May'09. finally i picked the svn revision 40414 and recently (as all folks were quite busy) updated by my own on the regular monthly update policy to the version 40831 (because we ship also  http://en.opensuse.org/Ecomorph and there're strict requirements to match E-version to avoid unnecessary issues).

below is just a review. it's a list of some kind for a components i'm actively use on a regular day-by-day basis and not a measure of E project. may be some results show my misunderstanding of some items, dunno. please send your response to e-mail: sda00 @ himki . net

1) looks like Toma a bit failed with the new entrance theme:
 http://www.imagebam.com/image/d972b138574418
the clock and minutes arrows should be definitely changed. actual time shown is 8:51 and not 10:44

2) in version 40831 modules (may be gadgets also) placed on shelf just forgot how to remember their state, that sucks. just change your theme/(restart E) and you'll get stuff like this:
 http://www.imagebam.com/image/70fcdf38574824
that's my shelf on top of the screen where all modules forgot to restore their "Automatically scroll contents", "Able to be resized" and actual size parameters. 40414 was fine with that and now it's really boring.

3) another long-time boring champ is a  ticket 157. below are results in EFM:

a) grid view:
 http://www.imagebam.com/image/efc58b38575404
b) custom view:
 http://www.imagebam.com/image/c5dd4238575405
c) list view:
 http://www.imagebam.com/image/3f942038575407

as we may see the file names still can be shown only with a single row. far away from a convenient modes a lot of us get used to with "pcmanfm", "Rox", "nautilus" and so on. if you don't get the point - then this shot of the same folder from Rox is for you:
 http://www.imagebam.com/image/9bc8ce38575734
please note the video thumbnails (looks like "ptomaine" has this piece of code for EFM already).

4) addition of a new RSS feed to the "news" module lead to the segfault. any configuration is possible only via manual edition of a binary config files (please refer to the  Wiki Extras page about the details how to do it). this "issue" has a long story and i can't estimate when it started because my feeds are rarely updated.

5) moreover, the  Wiki Extras contain some valuable info just FYI. i put this after long email thread with "k-s" in a hope that some folks will find it useful.

6) there're also a couple of reasons why not to use the new default E theme (it's only my IMHO, guys, as all stated here. don't be abused please!):

a) there're no resize options for a side of a windows

b) below is a shot of a 3 windows stacked one above another and a pager placed as a gadget on a desctop wallpaper. can you tell where the one ends and another starts? i can't (may be due to my age/monitors/etc):
 http://www.imagebam.com/image/76a4c938577126
below is exactly the same case with a theme, which is far away from the new default:
 http://www.imagebam.com/image/a3b78938577468

c) weak set of available borders, no borders for "left-hands", no borders similar to the "pixel" which could be resized with mouse (no adaptation for a style like "tiling" or etc.). probably that's a zero for blame, but others provide a kind of customization in this directions, including KDE.

d) scrollbars cause a kind of overall mess:
 http://www.imagebam.com/image/da571138581105

7) notice about E17'th interface:

• try to open a window with a scrolls, single click without release on a ">", "<", "uparrow" or "downarrow" button and wait. wait longer. tired? open any other app including "etk_test" or "ewl_test" and proceed a similar case. feel the difference? :)

8) modest review for some available modules (with a strange behaviour):

bling - several well known issues. the one which is mostly annoying - it doesn't uncheck "[] Enable Composite" may be because it can't exit without some nasty errors.
connman - pre-requirements are unknown. usage is unknown.
diskio - dunno how about you, but here it unable to manage several instances simultaneously. i.e. sda, sdb, sdc, sr0, etc. plus some issues with configuration. sometimes up to the segv.
drawer - pure proto imho.
efm_path - it can't "return" the state of a "focus". just type some path there, press Enter (you'll move to the destination if all is o'k) and now try to "focus" the main EFM window (just to type a first letters of a desired content and to be redirected there without a long scroll as you can do with a fresh EFM window). bet that "mission is impossible".
mail - i do remember the days when i could check my remote POP/IMAP mailboxes without awesome "execwatch" module...
news - see above. creates segvs.
weather - imho - it's best to remove it, because "forecasts" a head better and works nice.

9) the rest are mostly "nice to have" and described here:
 Ticket 141
 Ticket 142
 Ticket 200
 Ticket 201

regards, sda