Element 1.1 for home theater PCs

“Element is a lightweight Linux distribution for use on a home
theater PC (HTPC). It comes with most of the same video-playback
applications one would find in a modern desktop distribution, but
the development team has put considerable effort into wrapping the
applications in an environment that is easy to navigate from across
the room, and comfortable for non-multimedia-hackers. Tough
challenges still remain for any HTPC distribution at the hardware
and configuration level, but Element’s results are definitely an
improvement over basic Linux systems in setup, application
integration, and usability.

“The distribution project started in April of 2009; the current
release is version 1.1, from March 24, 2010. The release is
available as a CD-sized ISO image via direct download or
Bittorrent. The Element team supports its development through
affiliate sales of HTPC hardware, and is pursuing web ad sales and
OEM installation deals as additional revenue sources. Element is
based on Xubuntu, but with a heavily modified front end. From
developers’ comments on the support forum, the version of the Xfce
desktop environment shipped is stripped down, the xfwm window
manager has been replaced by Metacity, the login manager has been
replaced by SLiM, and a modified version of the wbar dock/launcher
is used to present a simplified interface to launch the main media
applications.”

Complete
Story