A new version of Bodhi Linux, the Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, is available for download.
Bodhi Linux 4.2 is the second minor update in the 4.x series and, accordingly, has a relatively minor change-log to match.
What’s Bodhi Linux?
If you’re unfamiliar with the distro (which you may well be) the tl;dr is this: it’s a lightweight Linux distro based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS that uses the Moksha window manager. Moksha is a fork of Enlightenment, a self-described ‘stacking window manager for the X Window System’.
Like other lightweight Linux distros Bodhi Linux ships with a minimal, pared back set of apps. The idea is to provide users with the bare essentials and let them add other apps based on their own needs and preferences. Apps can be installed through the online Appcenter (sic).
Now, confession, we haven’t written about since 2011, though a year prior to that we questioned whether it might just be your new favourite lightweight Linux distro.
Changes in Bodhi Linux 4.2.0
Back to the latest release.
The Swami Control panel applet is now installed by default. This utility provides some easy-to-access options, like adding, editing and removing startup applications, adjusting the date and time, keyboard layout, and LightDM — TOO SOON, I KNOW, BLUB — settings.
Elsewhere the Linux kernel has been updated to Linux 4.10 series, and the distro benefits from a raft of security updates, bug fixes and app updates from upstream projects.
Talking of kernels…
“This is the first release in which we are dropping our 32bit PAE discs,” writes Jeff Hoogland in the release announcement.
But before you panic the distro isn’t ditching support for 32-bit computers, as Jeff explains: “If you need to install the 32bit version of Bodhi Linux the only version we are preparing is our Legacy ISO image. The Legacy image will work on PAE and non-PAE 32bit hardware alike. If your computer needs a PAE kernel to utilize all of it’s memory it is likely better for you to be using a 64bit operating system anyways.”
If you’re already running the distro and have all available updates installed congrats, you’re already running it.
If you don’t, and you want to see what the fuss is all about, so long as you have a computer that isn’t basically a rock, you can run Bodhi Linux. Download links available on the official website: