Bodhi Linux and the Moksha desktop

Installing Software

Because relatively little software comes preinstalled on Bodhi Linux, it can fairly quickly become a priority for the user to install additional applications. Similar to other applications, Bodhi Linux has an application center to assist with this process (Figure 5). It is available online and starts automatically as soon as you call the standard web browser Midori.

Figure 5: The user can install additional software via the app center.

The visual interface of the app center is simple and straightforward. The center itself comprises diverse software categories that open with a mouse click so you can search through them. If you already know which application you need, you can enter its name in the search field and the app center will provide a short description if one is available. One more click, this time on the name of the program, takes you to the installation page where you should again click on the Install button. At that point, the system makes a security check and then downloads the application, installs it, and automatically resolves any dependencies.

The app center is noteworthy for the uniqueness of some of its software selections. For example, the office application category offers LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice, and WPS Kingsoft-Office from China. If the software you are looking for is not among this generous collection of offerings, then you can simply get out Synaptic and use it to select from the multitude of Ubuntu repositories that address practically anything a user might need.

Bodhi Linux has various pieces of multimedia software in its app center. As with most distributions, you will need to have suitable audio and video codecs installed. One exception here is the videoplayer VLC. It has its own codec and therefore comes equipped to play back most multimedia formats.

If you need to get codecs, then you can do this via Synaptic. There you should select corresponding plugins for applications that make use of Gstreamer. If you want to use applications on the system that require Xine, for example Amarok, it's a good idea to use Synaptic to install the Xine plugins on bulk storage.

Conclusion

Bodhi Linux is a solid all-around desktop for users wanting to work on older computers. It has a large selection of software and provides a good alternative to the usual distributions. There is no need to forego an elegant visual appearance, and the new Moksha desktop can tease excellent visual effects out of old graphics cards. Additionally, it runs smoothly and can be configured with an eye to detail.

The Moksha developers have successfully managed to keep the highly robust characteristics of the E17 desktop so it comes across as very mature in spite of its low version number. The only problem is that localization for the desktop and keyboard layouts can be somewhat inconvenient.