What first strikes you about Bodhi Linux 1.1.0 Stable is how beautiful it looks. From the outset it is well crafted and pleasing on the eyes. The loading screen is nice and bright with leaves floating from the left to the right of the screen in a very calming manner. And that seems to be the focus of Bodhi, a pleasant looking, pleasant feeling distribution that uses Enlightenment to ensure even on the oldest hardware things run smoothly.
Upon loading (Bodhi, by the way is one of the fastest loading Linux distributions I have used) everything is very minimal. There is a status bar at the top of the screen which is rather huge compared to others. This includes power management, network settings, workspaces and some a couple of other items. The default items look rather large compared to what I am used to, but I'm sure that with a bit of tweaking things can be toned down a bit. At the bottom of the screen is a dock with just Midori Browser ready to use, again this can be added to at will.
The first thing I wanted to do is see what is installed, and as a Pinguy OS user I was shocked... no... stunned at the lack of included applications. This really is a bare-minimal Linux OS, so if you want a blank canvas to start with, this could be a good thing. Adding software confused me to start with, I found no Ubuntu Software Centre or similar and instead the Software link opened up a page with Midori Browser. This page presented a selection of software that you can install through the browser. It is simple enough, just click on the install button and everything is downloaded and installs. The choice of software was adequate if you don't expect too much from your Operating System, although maybe it might be because I always spoilt for choice with other Ubuntu variants and Ubuntu itself.
As I've mentioned, everything looks brilliant, and great thought has gone into the icon and theme designs. The wallpapers are all very nice and I actually prefer them to a lot of wallpapers found in Ubuntu, Mint and Pinguy. Changing the preferences and using the whole menu system is a simple affair also, which adds to the overall beauty of Bodhi.
Because of the Enlightenment environment, the whole operating system is very light on resources and is ultra-fast even on my ancient AMD PC. I came across a strange problem when using Bodhi on my laptop that made me stop using it, each time I opened up a menu (by left clicking on the desktop) I could not click on another option within the menu unless I swapped workspace and then went back to the original workspace. I have never experienced this before, and maybe it was just a one-off problem.
So, who is Bodhi aimed at? Due to the lack of included software and the ultra-lightweight feel to the whole Operating System I believe it would be more suited to users on very low-spec or very old PCs. I also think, due to the way it is structured and the way you add software etc, it would probably be best to avoid Bodhi as your main Operating System, especially if you are new to Linux, as there are many more user-friendly systems out there. I can see it being used on netbooks, and by people who just enjoy playing with Linux distributions, and as this is an early release, I'm sure it is only a matter of time before they take into account peoples feedback and improve on what is already a stable back-bone.
I have only spent a week or so with Bodhi, and in all honesty there is nothing seriously wrong with the distribution. It loaded and worked on all my tested PCs (except the one noted which had a strange glitch) and I believe for the purpose it has been made, it serves it very well. The Bodhi website is well laid-out and there is plenty of help on the wiki should you need it. I'm sure if I had more time with it I would have more to say, but it is not a flavour of Linux that I will be using as I feel it pales in the shadow of the mighty Pinguy 11.04 OS which I believe offers the average user a lot more bang for buck.
Find out more at their very pretty Homepage.
Mark Adams
August 11th 2011.
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