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Bodhi Linux was recommended to me as a possible solution to try after I mentioned having system resource issues with Ubuntu One. I have to admit I’ve been rather curious about Bodhi as I have read several rave reviews on it.
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Bodhi Linux was recommended to me as a possible solution to try after I mentioned having system resource issues with Ubuntu One. I have to admit I’ve been rather curious about Bodhi as I have read several rave reviews on it.
Bodhi Linux describes itself as a distribution that pushes user choice and a minimal environment. True to its aim, Bodhi comes with very few programs pre-installed and offers the user a choice of desktops as well as wallpapers during installation.
The Live CD
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
As you can see above, the Bodhi Live CD starts out just like the Ubuntu Live CD, asking the user to select whether they want to boot in to the normal Live environment, graphics fail safe mode, or the first boot disk.
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
The Live CD then allows you to select what theme you would like to use. In this example I choose the netbook/tablet theme.
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
The Live CD then allows you to choose what wallpaper you would like to use, as you can see above.
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
The default netbook/tablet screen is very pretty but partially useless to me, mostly because some of the buttons link to an on-screen keyboard and full-screen application menu. However, if I was on a tablet PC and not a netbook, I would think this layout was great (and plan to try it out should I get a tablet PC in the future).
The Installation
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
The installation option is not an obvious one on the netbook/tablet theming, which can present issues for users completely new to Linux. However, it can be found in the Desktop folder. The installation is exactly like the Ubuntu installation. On this screen I’m asked to select my preferred language.
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
On the screen above I’m asked to select my time zone.
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
On this screen I’m asked to select my keyboard layout.
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
On this screen I’m given the choice between installing the operating system alongside the existing operating system installation (helpful if you’re already running a different Linux distribution or Windows), formatting the current partition and installing the operating system from scratch, or specifying partitions manually.
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
Next is a screen where I can enter in my desired username and password information.
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
Finally the Bodhi Linux operating system is installed.
After installation, the operating system asked me to reboot. Following a reboot it walked me through selecting a theme again (this time I chose the laptop theme), selecting a wallpaper again, and selecting what software I wanted installed by default (I checked them all off). After that I was greeted with a desktop that looked like this:
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
I was pretty pleased with the Laptop theme layout. I found the gadget bar at the bottom annoying, but it was easily turned off via right clicking.
The Pre-Installed Software
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
Bodhi Linux comes with Midori web browser by default. It seems like it’s a mostly basic, low resource consuming, decent web browser.
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
Bodhi Linux comes with a full set of system configuration tools, including LXAppearance, which is quite reminiscent of Ubuntu’s Appearance system settings menu.
xjonquilx | Mepis, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, Oh My!
Bodhi Linux also comes with the Synaptic package manager to provide easy access to installable/installed software.
Conclusion
Bodhi Linux appears to be a very fast, clean distribution that focuses on giving the user as much choice as possible. It is my observation that it has been quite successful in this endeavor. While I don’t think it will be replacing Fedora 15 on my netbook any time soon I do think that if I acquire a tablet I will probably be installing Bodhi Linux on it.
Congratulations to the Bodhi team for pulling off a very clean, fast, aesthetically pleasing distribution. Full Story |
