Saturday, January 8, 2011

Bodhi Linux Hits Beta

Two months after our first release, the Bodhi Linux team and I are proud to announce our first ever beta release. This release features a number of package updates including the Firefox 4.0 beta 8 and the latest Enlightenment SVN build as of 01/08/2011. For a full change log see here.

The most important change in this release is how the default theme for Bodhi is now handled. After listening to the complaints of people more than a few times, I realized I needed to do with Bodhi's theme what we had done for applications - let the user make their own choice. As of 0.1.4 Bodhi now comes with two different themes, one light and one dark, and four different custom Enlightenment configurations to choose from.

When you boot your system for the first time (or the live CD) you are presented with a series of choices starting with language:

In an effort to keep the disc size small Bodhi only ships with the English language. If there is a demand the team and I will publish discs in other languages as well.

Next you select your theme color and Enlightenment layout:

Each of the four layouts lists a short description of what configuration provides and is offered in both light and dark flavors. Scroll down the end of this article for images of what these layouts look like.

Next you select what you want your menus to show for applications. 99.9% of people will want to select System Default, selecting Settings will cause your application menu to show applications that normally appear under Settings->All->System (and not any other applications).

Next, you are asked if you would like xterm to be listed in your applications. If you are a terminal junkie like myself, you won't mind having two.

Finally you are asked what applications you would like to be shown on your quick launcher bar. If you are booting the LiveCD with plans on installing, just tick off the Install launcher for quick access to it.


For those who are wondering, the following are screen shots of what the four different layouts (and two new Enlightenment themes) look like.

Bare Dark


Desktop Light


Laptop Dark


Fancy Light


For those looking to download this beta you can get a direct download from source forge here or via high speed torrent download here. Have any comments, questions, or suggestions please feel free to drop a message below or drop by our forums.

Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland
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12 comments:

  1. Greg S.January 8, 2011 at 3:21 PM

    Fully awesome Jeff! Let me be the first to request a Spanish (Spain or Mexico, either works) language disc since I would love nothing more than to install this on my lady's next machine. Additionally, it would be nice to send some discs to my cousins in Mexico as well. :D

    Congrats,
    Greg S.

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  2. AgustJanuary 8, 2011 at 3:40 PM

    +1 for Spanish.

    Congratulations!!!!
    Agust

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  3. ChaosJanuary 8, 2011 at 4:41 PM

    well, just going to download this beta: I'll let you know my impressions.
    Just let me say +1 for italian

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  4. KyleJanuary 8, 2011 at 7:45 PM

    Looks Great! Really like that "laptop dark" theme! Good Job!

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  5. MarcusJanuary 9, 2011 at 2:23 AM

    Congrats Jeff! Those screenshots are gorgeous. Really show off what's possible with Enlightenment. On par with that certain fruit-flavored OS, ha ha!

    As for multiple language support, maybe you can have a translator sign-up form on the Bodhi website. Looks like you've already got some possible volunteers here.

    Keep up the good work.

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  6. Barista UnoJanuary 9, 2011 at 8:26 AM

    I rather wait a while for this to pass the beta stage. Looks splendid, though.

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  7. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2011 at 3:32 PM

    Hi Jeff,

    I would be most grateful if you can tell if the latest release of Bodhi will work on a Dell LT with Broadcom wifi card?

    I have tried both Zorin and Mint but no matter what driver I installed they could never make a connection.

    Good to see your contribution over at Gizmo's.

    Thanks in advance.

    Albert Dock

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  8. JeffHooglandJanuary 9, 2011 at 3:34 PM

    As of 0.1.4 Bodhi should now work with broadcom wifi chipset out of the box.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousJanuary 10, 2011 at 5:49 AM

    I tried it from alpha stage, works fine on my wife IBM Thinkpad R40e (low system resources).
    Congratulations!

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousJanuary 10, 2011 at 1:13 PM

    Hi Jeff,

    Ran Bodhi from live CD but it would not connect to my wifi.

    b43-fwcutter was shown as being installed but there were some other bcm items listed in the Synaptic PM that had not been applied.

    My wifi card is a Broadcom 440x10/100 Integrated Controller.

    Any help to get me connected will be gratefully received.

    Albert Dock

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  11. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2011 at 6:52 PM

    I've been running bodhi as a kiosk computer for more than a month, I recently installed the latest version. Very nice... I like the choice of themes. There are some configuration issues though, as in a difficulty installing a Brother laser printer, and an initial difficulty getting Flash player going with firefox.
    After completing a setup, maybe a kiosk mode would be good, that locks down aspects of the OS that users shouldn't mess with, eliminates access to configuration that could mess up the system. Oh, and doesn't need a password to re-initialize the internet connection after a reboot! I had the nice mac os-like toolbar at the bottom go missing, and everyone around here were wearing halos!

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  12. JeffHooglandJanuary 22, 2011 at 10:58 PM

    A Kiosk mode is one of our long term goals to have added to the Enlightenment desktop. It will not be there for the RC release next weekend, but at some point for sure.

    ReplyDelete