DistroWatch Weekly #412

There are two lightweight distribution highlights in this issue of Distrowatch Weekly:

• Lightweight Portable Security (LPS) 1.2.1. This is supposed to be a secure live CD that allows military members and others concerned about privacy and security (it's available to the public for download) to surf the web and work on confidential documents without worrying about compromising vital information. Ironically, LPS automatically logs its user in as root.
• Bodhi Linux for ARM processors. Jeff Hoogland has announced an alpha release of a version of Bodhi Linux for touchscreen devices running ARM processors. Unlike the standard version of Bodhi, this spin is based on Debian, not Ubuntu.

DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 412, 4 July 2011

Bodhi Linux Review on Techworld

Rohan Pierce of TechWorld Australia has posted a review of Bodhi Linux. He's not impressed:

In the end we were somewhat underwhelmed by the end user experience
though. Bodhi can be very pretty to look at, and you can make it even
prettier if you take the time, but these days I find myself longing for
super-minimalist desktops with a focus on staying out of the way (of
course, Bodhi can be made to be this as well, if you are interested in
learning the ins and outs of Enlightenment). The simplicity of the
default installation is great — I don't like being overloaded with apps.
But there was just not enough there to hold my interest — I'd rather
install CrunchBang and customise Openbox.

It seems to me that Pierce didn't pay much attention to the instructions when installing Bodhi. When you are prompted to select your starting profile, one of the choices is a minimalistic setup even leaner than Crunchbang's default Openbox configuration. You can start with nothing but one gadget -- either a clock or system monitor; I can't remember which -- and build your desktop from scratch, with or without a single panel.

To be fair, Pierce does complain about a few egregious bugs and some problems with Bodhi's default laptop layout on a netbook. Most of these problems are probably hardware related, but a reviewer is limited by the hardware they have available for testing. But the main reason he lists for preferring Crunchbang (though it is an excellent distro) over Bodhi seem strange.

Bodhi Linux review - ubuntu, open source, Linux - Open Source - Techworld

New Built-in Screenshot Feature in Enlightenment Desktop

Jeff Hoogland blogs about a new tool in the Enlightenment desktop, the default graphic interface for Bodhi Linux. Enlightenment users no longer have to download a third-party application to take screenshots. Instead, they can install a simple tool, similar to the screenshot tool in desktops like GNOME, to get the job done. This feature will come in handy whenever I get around to my review of Bodhi Linux 1.1.0.

Thoughts on Technology: HOWTO: Easily Take Screenshots in the Enlightenment Desktop

Bodhi Linux Introduces Windows-style "Service Packs"

Bodhi Linux lead developer Jeff Hoogland explains Bodhi's "Service Pack" system, which allows users to download kernel and distro updates and then install them offline without using a package manager. I'm not sure whether this is good or bad, since automatic package updating is one of the best features of Linux. Are there enough converted Windows users who are more comfortable with this arrangement?

Thoughts on Technology: Bodhi Linux Service Pack 1 Ready to Go

Distribution Release: Bodhi Linux 1.1.0 (DistroWatch.com News)

According to Distrowatch, Bodhi Linux 1.1.0 has been released. I enjoyed version 1.1.0, despite a few minor issues with the Enlightenment desktop, so 1.1.0 joins my ever-growing list of distros to review.

Distribution Release: Bodhi Linux 1.1.0 (DistroWatch.com News)

A Couple of Links

Reading over the current DistroWatch Weekly, I came across a couple of interesting on-topic articles:

First up is an interview with Jeff Hoogland, the lead developer of Bodhi Linux, at TechRepublic.com. Bodhi, despite a few little kinks, is neck and neck with CrunchBang as my favorite lightweight distro of the moment. That's pretty impressive for an OS that just saw its first stable release within the last couple of weeks. The interview is a nice intro to the idea of Bodhi Linux for people who aren't familiar with it.

Second, Jos Poortvliet writes a review of the new Xfce 4.8 desktop for the official OpenSuse website. It looks like not much is new in 4.8 (except possibly the visual appearance of panels). The most noteworthy thing about the article was Poortvliet's observation about Xfce's performance, which matches up with my assessment:

XFCE saves you a little bit, although it won’t really save you in the face of modern, memory hungry applications like Chromium and LibreOffice. More noticeable are start up time and responsiveness of applications. XFCE apps start up instantaneously and feel very fast while you are using them.

Bodhi Linux's Special April 1 Announcement

I thought my first post to this blog would be a review of a distro, but this was too interesting to pass up.

Visitors to the Bodhi Linux homepage today were greeted with a new color scheme (blue instead of orange) and a stunning announcement:

Since I can't display the screenshot in its original size without messing up my blog layout, here's the text of the announcement for those who can't read tiny print:

News
Bodhi Linux 1.1.0 PRE RELEASE NEWS 1.1.0 JEFFS BIG PLAN REVEALED - Bodhi Goes Blue

We would like to take a moment to thank everyone that has helped Bodhi 1.0.0 become the success that it is today. With our dedicated development team and our ever growing community we would not be where we are today. Looking to the future, a Bodhi 1.1.0 release is on the horizon. This release will have two prominent features – first we will start shipping the 2.6.38 kernel with this release. Second, while we at Bodhi think Enlightenment makes a great desktop – after much discussion in closed door meetings – the Bodhi team and I have decided to make the move to using the KDE desktop with Enlightenment acting as strictly the Window manager for this next release. We feel this should improve Bodhi usability over all and give Bodhi a “fuller desktop feeling” as it will now require at least 1gig of RAM to fully utilizes it's KDE desktop.
proposed release date MAY 22 2011
Bodhi Linux 1.0.0 Stable released 26 March 2011.Find out more here Bodhi News Page.

They had me going for a little while. I was prepared to go to the forums and ask what the heck the developers were thinking, giving up the entire lightweight philosophy of their young distro in favor of one of the standard, bloated Linux desktop environments. Then I got to the bit about how 1.1.0 would have a "fuller desktop feeling" because it would use more resources, and I remembered what day it was. My hunch was confirmed by clicking on the link to the Bodhi news page. It turns out that this item was only on the main page and not on the news page (though the blue color scheme is site-wide). I must admit that I like the combined KDE-Enlightenment logo for some strange reason.