Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16

https://iczelia.net/posts/e16-20-year-old-bug/

Article

  • Author tracked down a deterministic hang in E16, a window manager from ~2000
  • Root cause: stale loop logic causing deadlock-like behavior in X11 code
  • Fixed a bug older than the author in actively maintained 25-year-old WM

Discussion

  • Nostalgic flood: commenters recall E16 from late-90s as heavy but beautiful
  • Irony noted: E16 was considered bloated on i486; now considered lightweight
  • Open source longevity praised — you can use and fix software for decades
  • Enlightenment.org appeared down during discussion, possibly hugged to death

Discuss on HN


Type Link
Added Apr 15, 2026
Modified Apr 15, 2026