Bodhi Linux Road Map

It's been about a month since our Bodhi Linux 1.0.0 (stable) release and I would like to say thank you to everyone that has helped make it a success! We have climbed to rank #50 on distrowatch and have seen about 16,000 downloads in this last month. If there was ever any doubt that we are filling a needed spot in the Linux world, then I am fairly certain it is gone now.


I'd just like to take a moment today to share our plans for the future with everyone.

Bodhi 1.1.0
The first point release for Bodhi is set for the end of May. The main purpose of this release will be to update Bodhi to the latest mainline Linux kernel and update all system packages to their latest version. Other plans include the reworking of the tablet/netbook profile to play a bit nicer with small screens. Finally, we will be fixing a small bug due to a missing package that was brought to our attention.

Long Term - Ubuntu Base
We plan to release point release for Bodhi every 3-4 months to keep the kernel and software versions current. Beyond this, we plan to release a new version based on each new Ubuntu LTS. This means Bodhi 2.0.0 will be release sometime during the summer of 2012 based on Ubuntu 12.04.

Long Term - Something More
When we first released Bodhi I talked about finding people to head up Enlightenment distros based on all the major Linux distros - Fedora, Arch, and etc. We had one developer come on board to start working on an Arch based CD, however after some discussion we have come to the conclusion instead of splintering off into many areas we are going to focus on two.

The first is our Ubuntu base, this is the Bodhi you already see out in the wild. We plan to develop and support this base for the foreseeable future. I just have this odd feeling that Ubuntu is making some design choices that may lead into unfavorable places in the future - but that is a rant for another day.

The second, is that our team has begun working on a fully custom distro base and package manager. This is a fairly long term project, but our current goal is to have a public alpha of the package manager and 32/64bit discs for testers to play with by November of this year. The goal of the package manager will to be to provide seamless, rolling release updates to our users. The current plan is for it to be written in C using SQLite for a data base. Features we plan to include when all is said and done:

• Installing multiple versions of the same packages
• Rollback of package versions
  
• Download of packages from multiple servers
• Optional peer to peer download support for packages
• Full control/interface with webrowser
• "Sandbox" application installation for non-super users

We are open to ideas on features for what we are currently calling the "attainment" package manager. We believe we need a package manager that is created in this century, we can learn from the successes and failures of the current package managers to create something that is truly great.

~Jeff Hoogland