Essora Linux is a lightweight desktop distribution based on Devuan Excalibur, designed to run well on both older and newer hardware. It avoids systemd and Wayland, and offers several desktop choices, including Fluxbox, LXDE, KDE Plasma, Openbox, and SonicDE.
I tested the SonicDE edition in a virtual machine with just 3GB of RAM and two CPU cores. It remained responsive, and its familiar desktop layout—complete with a panel, start menu, system tray, and quick-launch icons—should feel comfortable to many Linux users. SonicDE resembles KDE Plasma, though Essora has customized parts of the interface and settings.
Essora inherits Devuan’s approach to system startup. Devuan, a community-developed fork of Debian, lets users choose alternatives to systemd, such as SysVinit, OpenRC, or runit. Some Linux users prefer these options for their modularity and transparency, and because they avoid systemd’s broad scope and close integration with other components.
Essora’s goal isn’t limited to experienced users who want a systemd-free setup. It also offers a customizable desktop, fast boot times, support for more than a dozen languages, and preconfigured tools for everyday tasks.
The distribution includes Essora Office, a proprietary suite developed specifically for the system. Its apps include Writer, Sheet, Slides, and Draw. I opened a .docx manuscript in Writer, and it handled the document well. The suite isn’t available as a standalone package, so using it requires installing Essora Linux.
Essora Browser is based on Firefox and performed as expected. Installing other browsers through the graphical package manager’s DEB options proved less straightforward: attempts to install Chromium and Opera with dpkg ran into problems. Flatpak worked, however, and the package manager’s Flatpak section offers another way to install software without using the terminal.
The system also includes an Alias Manager, a graphical tool for creating Bash shortcuts. For example, users can assign a short alias to a longer update command and run it from the terminal with a few keystrokes.
Essora may appeal to people seeking a flexible distribution that works well on modest hardware, as well as users who prefer alternatives to systemd or need X11 support for older applications. You don’t need to care about those distinctions to use it, though: the desktop is familiar, and its included tools are straightforward to explore.
The distribution’s app menu contains some unfamiliar programs, but they behave as expected. Overall, Essora made a strong impression in testing, especially given how smoothly it ran with limited memory.
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