Bodhi Linux Release Schedule

With the recent release of Bodhi Linux 1.3.0 I've had a few questions as to what our release cycle is exactly. I'd like to take a short moment today to clarify what exactly on current release schedule looks like. Our version numbering looks something like this:x.y.zWhere x represents a major release, y represents an update (or point) release and z represents a bug fix release.We have a two year major release cycle. These releases will...

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Dear Open Source Free Loaders

This is an open letter to all the open source free loaders out there - you know who you are.One day you heard about this awesome thing called free software. You didn't know about the difference between free as in freedom and free as in beer - nor did you care. You came here simply because you heard you could get something for nothing.As soon as you have your something, you are content - for the moment. Then something does not behave as expected, you can't figure something out or a true issue occurs.You don't ask for help. You don't report...

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HOWTO: Setup Comp-Scale under Enlightenment

What is Comp-Scale?Comp-Scale is an Enlightenment module that uses compositing features to allow you to switch between active windows and your current virtual workspace in a fancy method.Installing Comp-Scale:If you are using Bodhi Linux comp-scale is installed by default on your system. If you are using a different base system I advise building the latest comp-scale module from the E SVN.Loading Comp-Scale:If you installed the module correctly...

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Bodhi Linux 1.3.0 Releases

All of our Bodhi users have been good little boys and girls this year it seems! So good in fact we are giving you your present a day early. The Bodhi team and I are happy to announce our next update release - Bodhi 1.3.0. While you will not find any earth shattering new features in this release there are many minor improvements.Most notably you will find the use of the new "itask" module in three of our profiles, it is far more flexible...

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HOWTO: Get right to X with No Display Manager

GDM, KDM, LXDM, LightDM - so many display managers so little time! If your not sure what a "Display Manager" does on your Linux system, in short it is the piece of software that starts your graphical user interface and manages your user login.  I've been doing more and more work with ARM hardware of the late and most times with embedded devices there is little (or no) need for a display manager to be present. You want to get right to your desktop and just start using the system.If you have a single user computer odds are you also have no need...

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Linux Desktop Environment Round Up

A year and a half ago I did an entry entitled "Overview and Explanation of Linux Desktop Environments". Anyone that is in the technology field (or knows even a little bit about it) knows that 18 months is a like a life time in the world of tech. Today I would like to re-cap my previous post with a few additions that have been added in recent months and mention a few desktops I missed last time.I'm going to list a good deal of desktops today,...

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Application Spotlight: Qalculate!

Today's application is my favorite calculator on a desktop computer (and my N900). It is called Qalculate!:- All drivers need education before they hit the road. Learn more at Education4Drivers -Qalculate! has all the features you expect from a calculator and has a fairly straight forward layout:I like Qalculate! because in addition to being fairly simplistic in appearance it is also a powerful tool. Qalculate! supports creating your own functions...

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HOWTO: Force Skype to use Alsa on Linux

Like it or not Skype is a popular piece of software. In fact it is so popular it is the only piece of voice communication software a number of my friends will use. Because of this I have an account an use it on my Bodhi system every now and then (at least it has a native - if poor - Linux client and I don't have to run it via Wine). In case you didn't know - Bodhi ships with just the Alsa sound server by default (there are a number of reasons for this - none of which I am going to get into here) and luckily Skype installs and works perfectly fine...

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HOWTO: Use APT without the Bloat

Today I would like to share a small tidbit with all the users of APT distros out there. One of the reasons Bodhi Linux is so light weight and snappy is because when I install all the base packages for Bodhi I install them with the minimal amount of extra dependencies.For whatever reason a good deal of Debian packagers like to tack on a whole slew of "optional" dependencies to the packages they create. By default apt-get installs all...

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One Year with Bodhi Linux

Today marks the one year point from our first Bodhi Linux "0.1.0" release. I feel we have come a long way in such a short time and I am happy with everything the team has accomplished thus far. Would you believe that I first started Bodhi simply because I was tired of having to recompile E on each of my half dozen systems every week?What has been done in the last year? Well we racked up over 150,000 ISO downloads between source forge and our torrent...

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Application Spotlight: Parcellite

After getting a few comments on my post about NCDU I've decided I'm going to start doing a few posts a month with the topic of "Application Spotlight". Basically I am going to feature applications I use on my Linux desktop every week that I feel haven't seen enough attention in the FOSS world to date.Today I would like to talk about a light weight clip board manager called:Parcellite - We all have our favorite celebrities. Get high quality posters...

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Playing Magic the Gathering on Linux with Cockatrice

If you ask almost anyone that knows me in person they will attest to the fact that I am a huge nerd. Today I would like to give a short tutorial on how I've combined two of my most nerdy passions:Linux & Magic the GatheringFor the uninformed, Linux is my operating system of choice and Magic the Gathering is a trading card game created by Wizards of the Coast. I recently came across an open source application that is being written in C++ and QT4...

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Bodhi Linux ARM Repository Online

Five months ago I did a post announcing that we are working to bring Bodhi to ARM devices. I've been rather quiet about this part of our project since then. We are still finalizing the direction this part of our project is headed in, but for now we have landed on the choice of Debian Wheezy as our core. Our repository is currently online and you can easily install our Enlightenment packages on top of your Debian Wheezy ARM install by following these steps:Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and add the following line (yes squeeze is correct):deb...

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NCDU - The Answer to a Question

The question is:Where did all my disc space go?The answer? An ncurses based application called NCDU. NCDU is a simple, light-weight disc-usage analyzer. I like NCDU because of it's few dependencies, in fact installing in on my system took less than 1mb worth of additional space. It is fast, because like all good applications it is written entirely in C. To install NCDU on a Debian based system simply run:sudo apt-get install ncduThen...

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Team Work in Open Source Projects

What makes a great open source project? Well, first off you have to have an idea. Then you need to execute said idea.Just over a year ago I decided I wanted to help bring an easily accessible, Enlightenment desktop to Linux users that wanted it. Shortly after the Bodhi Linux project was started.What has made our project the small success it is to date? Well first, we had a fairly unique idea. When we started we are one of very few distros...

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Whats good for the Goose should be good for the Gander

I think many in the world of FOSS take for granted that a good deal of our x86 compatible hardware works with their operating system of choice. In fact all the fuss about a possible lock out with the coming of Windows 8 attests to this fact. x86 hardware has always been fairly free and it should remain as such right?Yes it should.Something that really bothers me though is the fact that ARM hardware is treated in a very different way. What do I mean by this? Well as someone who has worked with over a dozen different pieces of ARM hardware from many...

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Shuttleworth Misses the Point Yet Again

I caught an article on Lxer.com entitled:"Shuttleworth: Linux Power Users Aren't too Cool for Unity"There are a number of quotes in the article from the originator of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, Mark Shuttleworth, that clearly attest to the fact he is completely missing what so many people find wrong with Unity. He starts with an completely misplaced "fact" for which he does not provide any backing:"There is a bit of a myth that power users don't like and aren't interested in usability and ease-of use," Who ever said this? I've been using...

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Q&A with Enlightenment Lead Developer "Rasterman"

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of the Enlightenment desktop. I recently got into contact with the project's lead developer "Rasterman" and we did a little bit of a question and answer session. If you aren't sure on what all the Enlightenment desktop and the EFLs are exactly please see my post here.How long have you been working on E for?I remember when I started writing E. Dinosaurs were roaming the earth and things were much warmer... So that...

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There is Free Software and then there is Free Software

I think one thing that often confused people when they first get involved with free software is the difference between FOSS and freeware (or shareware). When speaking about open source software in my writings I try to always use the term "FOSS" which is an acronym for "free open source software". The source of this sometimes confusion can be sorted with the Latin statement:Gratis versus LibreWhich roughly translates to:"for zero price" versuses "with little or no restriction"Or to simplify it even further to a common analogy first used...

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Bodhi Linux 1.2.1 and other Updates

At little over a month ago the Bodhi team and I released our second update release. We were unaware at the time that the version of GCC used to compile the kernel on this release had an issue that caused an issue for some users when compiling and inserting extra kernel modules (such as the nvidia drivers and Virtual Box). This update release today contains a kernel in which this issue has been resolved.If you already installed Bodhi 1.2.0 (or an...

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The Flashless Future

Adobe FlashThose two words have driven fear, annoyance and hate into the hearts of many users and developers for some time now. I am here to say today, in case you had not noticed, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I say with certainty that the days Adobe Flash enjoys as a dominant web development tool are numbered.Don't believe me? Just take a look at the many popular flash based services that are moving away from the stale technology....

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HOWTO: Fix Alps Touch Pad Side Scrolling in Linux 3.0

So in the copious amounts of spare time I don't really have these days I recently got the 3.0 kernel working on my Sony Vaio system. In the wonderful world that is Linux kernel regressions the side scrolling didn't work on the Vaio Alps touch pad with the newer kernel. Thankfully after a good deal of digging I found my solution on the Linux Answer machine.To get your side scrolling working again run:sudo modprobe -r psmousesudo modprobe psmouse proto=impsNote you will need to run these commands every time you start your computer (unless you add...

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Seven Things to do after Installing Bodhi Linux

So you've taken the plunge and opted to install Bodhi Linux. Perhaps you read a recent review or one of the screen shots in our gallery caught your eye. Either way you've got a newly installed system and you might be wondering what exactly to do next. The following are seven things that are a good idea to do on a cleanly installed Bodhi system.1.) Check for UpdatesBodhi Linux has a semi-rolling release model. By this we mean you can easily upgrade...

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