Bodhi Linux Introduces Moksha Desktop

Ubuntu based lightweight Linux distribution Bodhi Linux is working on a desktop environment of its own. This new desktop environment will be called Moksha (Sanskrit for ‘complete freedom’). Moksha will be replacing the usual Enlightenment desktop environment. 

Why Moksha instead of Enlightenment?

Jeff Hoogland of Bodhi Linux says that he had been unhappy with the newer versions of Enlightenment in the recent past. Until E17, Enlightenment was very stable and complemented well to the need of a lightweight Linux OS, but the E18 was so full of bugs that Bodhi Linux skipped it altogether.

While the latest Bodhi Linux 3.0.0 release uses E19 (except the legacy mode, meant for older hardware, still uses E17), Jeff is not happy with E19 as well. He quotes:

On top of the performance issues, E19 did not allow for me personally to have the same workflow I enjoyed under E17 due to features it no longer had. Because of this I had changed to using the E17 on all of my Bodhi 3 computers – even my high end ones. This got me to thinking how many of our existing Bodhi users felt the same way, so I opened a discussion about it on our user forums.

Moksha is continuation of the E17 desktop

Moksha will be a continuation of Bodhi’s favorite E17 desktop. Jeff further mentions:

We will start by integrating all of the Bodhi changes we have simply been patching into the source code over the years and fixing the few issues the desktop has. Once this is done we will begin back porting a few of the more useful features E18 and E19 introduced to the Enlightenment desktop and finally, we will introduce a few new things we think will improve the end user experience.

When will Moksha release?

The next update to Bodhi will be Bodhi 3.1.0 in August this year. This new release will bring Moksha on all of its default ISOs. Let’s wait and watch to see if Moksha turns out to be a good decision or not.