Why I love Bodhi Linux
I’ve written about Bodhi Linux a couple of times before, but I’m back today to tell you why I absolutely love Bodhi (now at version 1.1.0) more than ever.
I had been using earlier versions of Bodhi Linux for a few months on my ‘experimental’ computer upstairs, and have learned a lot about configuring Enlightenment. But last month I installed Ubuntu 11.04 to try out the new Unity desktop manager, as chronicled here. After a week or so I decided Ubuntu’s Unity was not my cup of tea. There are just too many things lacking, compared to when Ubuntu used Gnome 2.3. Though every week it seems there are more third-party hacks posted on-line for making Unity more configurable and to behave more like the way Ubuntu worked before Unity. Which is why I stopped using it. Why use an operating system that you have to keep adding fixes to, just so it works like the old operating system? Plus, it just felt a little too simplistic for me.
So I installed the newest version of Bodhi Linux again on that computer (I’ve already been using it for a while on my old Dell laptop) and I’m increasingly impressed at what a fully-functional and beautiful operating system Bodhi is, and at how much Enlightenment has progressed in the past year. The Enlightenment desktop manager has grown from something experimental and arcane to a stable, light (as in system resources) and visually beautiful user experience that is a joy to use on a day-to-day basis. In fact, due to the many unfavorable reactions to the Unity and Gnome Shell desktop managers, I think Enlightenment is looking like a much more attractive alternative. And Bodhi Linux, in my opinion, is the most polished and user-friendly distro out there that uses Enlightenment.
I continue to be impressed by how much work Jeff and the entire Bodhi team put into this distro! They’re constantly improving the website, artwork, upgrading software, updating the repositories and adding tutorials and informational resources that make learning to use Enlightenment so much easier for the new user to Enlightenment or Linux in general. I’m beginning to change my opinion that Bodhi Linux is only for people with Linux experience, but for anyone who wants a sleek and feature-packed open-source operating system. Pictured is my current desktop using one of the pre-made Bodhi themes called ‘Japan’ (Thanks to Agust). I usually use my own desktop picture, but I just love what comes standard with this theme.
And unlike some Linux distros, Bodhi can easily be configured into anything you want it to be. The user has complete control of looks and functionality, so you can be as minimalistic or as way-out as you can imagine! By default the distro comes with minimal installed applications, leaving the user to install whatever they need quite easily. But check out the Bodhi links below for everything you need to get going and create your own ideal computing environment.
Bodhi Linux: The Power of E17 Profiles
Bodhi Linux incredibly good, lightweight, very minimal Ubuntu derivative
Update March 17, 2012: I’ve decided to create a new blog here on WordPress strictly dealing with Linux and Open Source Software for the average desktop computer user. Please check it out at: TheFearlessPenguin. Thanks!
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Dragonfly Dreaming 
I installed Bodhi Linux (1.1) for the first time the other day on my vintage IBM with 1.2GHz processor and 512MB ram. I had given up completely on PCLinuxOS after a kernel upgrade once again balled up the system. Am I glad to tried out Bodhi. It’s fast, stable, elegant and easily configurable. The Bodhi team really did a good job. Congratulations,
>>>>>>I had given up completely on PCLinuxOS after a kernel upgrade once again balled up the system
And when Bodhi kernel upgrade balls your system, you are going to use ….what ?
Stupid remark.Sorry.
If you are not happy with a new kernel, reboot into the old kernel. You won’t see the difference anyway.
About Bodhi, yes it looks very attractive. It’s a little slow on my 375 Mb ram / 11 year old laptop, but it’s very usable and I think it will stay on.
Another nice thing about Bodhi Linux is it doesn’t force a kernel upgrade; you have to do that yourself. Plus it’s based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.
Nice article utherpendragonfly! Thanks for posting it!
At the risk of tooting my own horn, as I’m the Head of Documentation for Bodhi, I’d would like to respond to this comment of yours: “…adding tutorials and informational resources that make learning to use Enlightenment so much easier…”
There is no reason that you should have been aware of this already because it’s not been “officially” announced yet, but the doc team at Bodhi has created “The Bodhi Guide to Enlightenment” at http://www.bodhilinux.com/wiki/doku.php?id=e17_-_the_bodhi_guide_to_enlightenment
The goal is a comprehensive e17 user’s guide, and while it’s not 100% complete (and may have various typos/misspellings) it’s pretty close and has loads of good info. Feedback is welcome on our Documentation sub-forum: http://www.bodhilinux.com/wiki/doku.php?id=e17_-_the_bodhi_guide_to_enlightenment
cheers
mark
I am very impressed with Bodhi Linux. It is quite comparable to what Sabayon has done for Gentoo. Definitely a good distro for a beginner and those of us long timers as well.
I need to help get them a repository here in Asia so we can increase the download speeds. This project has a good future ahead of it.
I like hearing this. Though why couldn’t you just install enlightenment on ubuntu instead of reinstalling the whole OS? (though I am always going back between debian and ubuntu)
I guess you could; but for me that would be more difficult and probably would not work as well as installing Bodhi. It only takes about 15 minutes to install (with minimal default applications), and the Bodhi developers put a lot of work into beautifully integrating Enlightenment and Ubuntu. Plus it’s incredibly easy to install whatever extras you want through the Bodhi Software web page. Check out bodhilinux.com for all the information.