Created in 2012 by Ken Moore, Lumina was initially a set of extensions to Fluxbox, a stacking window manager for the X Window System.[5] By late 2013, Moore had developed a graphical overlay for Fluxbox based on Qt4, and had created a utility for "launching applications and opening files".[5] The codebase was integrated into the PC-BSD source repository by early 2014, and a port was added to the FreeBSD Ports collection in April 2014.[5] The source code has since been moved to a separate GitHub repository "under the PC-BSD umbrella" and converted to use Qt5.[5] Development also focused on replacing the Fluxbox core with a Qt-based window manager integrated with the Lumina desktop.[5]
The project avoids use of Linux-based tools or frameworks, such as D-Bus, Polkit, and systemd.[6]
Features
The desktop and application menus are dynamically configured upon first being launched, as the desktop environment finds installed applications automatically to add to the menu and as a desktop icon.[4] The default panel includes a Start menu, task manager, and system tray, and its location can be customized.[4] Menus may be accessed via the Start menu or by right-clicking the mouse on the desktop background.[4]
Some features are specific to TrueOS, including hardware control of screen brightness (monitor backlight), preventing shutdown of an updating system, and integration with various TrueOS utilities.[3]
Utilities include: Insight, a file manager; File information, which reports a file's format and other details; and Lumina Open, a graphical utility to launch applications based on the selected file or folder.[4]
Version 1.4 included several new utilities.[7] The PDF reader lumina-pdf is based on the poppler library.[8] The Lumina Theme Engine replaced an earlier theme system; it enables a user to configure the desktop appearance and functionality, and ensures all Qt5 applications "present a unified appearance".[7]
