Posted on Friday 23rd of March 2007 at 14:09 in Linux

Practical review of PCLinuxOS 2007 beta 2 (using new standards)

I felt it was time to give my favourite distro (PCLOS) a more thorough review in the light of my decision to change how I review distros. I felt that something as promising as PCLOS 2007 beta 2 deserved the first slot.

So here I am, sitting home on a Friday night suffering with a serious man-cold with PCLinuxOS 2007 beta 2 running in a VMware session because I'm still yet to sort out a notebook to run these on properly. Never mind, the process remains the same. I install the distro and do the review from the Linux environment (amongst other things) to help establish how easy it would be for a Windows user to get to grips with how things work.

1. Get a video and play it

Let's get started then. First things first I ran GFTP to connect to the FTP server I run in my home to serve the house with media files securely. This was nice and simple (true I could have just used the NTFS R/W driver to access shared files) and downloaded an episode of Family guy to my desktop. I double clicked on the file and amazingly, it just played. What I find most amazing about this is how difficult it can be to get your codecs and stuff all sorted in XP - downloading Nimo Lite or something and then finding you have clashes - no such thing in PCLOS. Load the video and it just plays (as you can see in the screenshot to the right). The video played without issue and the sound worked fine too. So PCLOS makes playing video files easier than XP, it really does.

2. Internet browsing etc

Another major aspect for "normal" use is the ability to browse the internet properly. Seeing as step 1 required home-networking it's not a big surprise that PCLOS picked up my ADSL connection without any difficulty. Firefox comes installed as standard so once you have the Internet everything just works - I hopped over to Youtube and watched a video or two (or three or four). So PCLOS has no issues with obtaining an Internet connection and allowing normal usage.

3. writing the review on the system

That's really what this new review style comes down to - I need to be able to interact with the machine as I would my XP system (minus the gaming of course) and the most complicated aspects of normal use are (typically) playing videos - which PCLOS2007 breezed through better than XP... Which I found surprising if I'm honest because it's popular belief that Linux makes things difficult. If this is supposed to be difficult I don't think anyone told the chaps at PCLOS.

So what is normal use? Watching videos, listening to music and playing around on the Internet - all of these are made painfully simple by this distro. This review was written, edited and published within the PCLOS2007 system. It's hard to make things difficult when you have OpenOffice and the GIMP at your disposal for editing content and images. So what do I have to say?

Conclusions on this review

You can read my previous "A picture heavy review of PCLOS" for lots of pretty pictures about this increasingly popular distro but this is the review that actually matters. How do I think XP users would cope with PCLOS2007? Well it is only the beta2 release but I'm astonished how easy it made media files... I even tried another couple of videos after I wrote the main bit of the review and it copied far better than a fresh install of XP would... Out of the box it has oodles of software, instant media support and no problems picking up your current network. I find it hard to see any problems for XP users because of how obvious the developers have made it for those of us who are overly used to the Windows environment.

The icons are similar, the menus are similar and intuitive and the stuff that could cause problems simply "work". I fail to see any complications in using PCLOS2007 as a full time operating system (when fully released obviously. Gaming is an entirely different argument but I've said it before and I'll say it again - PCLOS is a very good release and I can't wait to give the full release a proper review. As far as I'm concerned, this is going to be the distro to beat in 2007. Mind you, we'll see what Ubuntu has to say about that...

PCLinuxOS 2007 beta2 is an impressive release, I can't wait for the full version because even this was a joy to use.

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Comments

Showing most recent 14 of 14 comments [View all comments]

I’d just like to say that PCLinuxOS is the most friendly and configurable Linux distro I have found. Yes, going to it is going to take some basic Linux knowledge still, just as going to WindowsXP would -- if you had NEVER seen any windows environment. The problem a lot of Linux critics have is they aren’t measuring ease of use, they are just comparing their familiarity with Windows to Linux and finding Linux "harder". DUH.

People need some perspective. How much time did Frank ’viperteq’ Young spend "playing around" with Windows, figuring out how to do simple tasks? Yet people don’t want to bother with Linux, which has an entire industry against its success (no MONEY in that), and would prefer spending whatever Microsoft wants to charge them to hunt around for drivers on the internet, rather than do that for free with Linux. Hey, more power to them.

May Windows, and the clunky, bloated, force-fed, uni-desktop it borgs us into crash and burn. I see a vista filled with smoke.

LLL!

K

kbeers

For the naysayers - PCLinuxOS plays .wmv and .wma files out of the box. It plays ogg vorbis files as well ... which Windows Media Player claims not to support.

OpenOffice opens Microsoft Office files without difficulty except for macros ... which most users won’t have any to worry about. Out of the box, Windows won’t open Microsoft Office files at all ... you have to install Microsoft Office as an extra ... which will cost you.

PCLinuxOS displays PDF files out of the box (Windows doesn’t ... you have to install something extra called Adobe Acrobat reader to do that).

PCLinuxOS plays flash out of the box. PCLinuxOS works with Java out of the box. Neither of those work out of the box with Windows.

In fact, OpenOffice that comes with PCLinuxOS can produce PDF files from your Office documents ... neither Windows nor Office can do that!

It is far easier to get PCLinuxOS to play a DVD (install one library via Synaptic) than it is to get Windows to play a DVD. With Windows, you have to buy a separate DVD player application.

And finally, Windows doesn’t work with Winmodems out of the box, either. You have to put in the CD that came with the Winmodem to get it to work in Windows.

It is far easier, all things considered, to get up and running (starting from a blank hard disk) with PCLinuxOS than it is with Windows and Office.

mark

Have used a few distros of other Linux installs before finding PCLinux and their latest is still the most complete I have tried. My only criticism of this distro is the lack of an easy image viewer and tool, like ACDsee, which is of course not available for Linux in any form. Gimp is way too complicated for simple cropping and viewing... Ohterwise I will use PCLinux on my other PC for many moons to come. Fine software OS...Quick, easy install and runs like a demon.

sandman

Pclinuxos 2007 is great ,
i myself am a windows grown up person and the reason why is stepped into linux (suse, ubuntu mainly) is because it intrigues me that community’s can develop something this great.
for myself using linux was a kind of a toy , but pclinos2007 has made this a reality and i use it now daily.
the great things are, it works out of the box and eye candy works virtualy with any hardware. ( installed it on my amd turion 64 bit laptop)
the bit about ndiswrapper is a silly criticism, asking from linux to gain driver development in the area of all existing wifi cards . linux people have not got billions to spend like microsoft has.
but yet producing an automated ndiswrapper in pclos2007 is great . before we had to do this via command line now its automated with screen gui’s.

i believe the criticism you see here has to do with the fact the these people have tried linux (with older distro’s) and yes these where mainly based upon command line,
guys try pc linux and you will see that command line is virtually gone and the GUI side has come in.

so when a brilliant distro like pclos2007 comes out and sets a milestone comparing to all other linux distro’s, give it a try before assuming that they are all still based around the command line and that everything is difficult.

praise will have to go the people who worked hard to get this distro working in this superb way. and for them producing a distro that will set the standard for other new distro’s to come.

Razzz

allrighty then,

so what’s required is a list of ’normal’ things that the ’average’ or should we say, the intended target market, is typically expecting to do with their existing [M$] OS.

on my list would be;
listening to mp3, wma, cd.
listening to internet streaming content
opening MS office files [including database]
hooking up to a wireless network
hooking up to the internet
hooking into an NT server network
hooking into NT server shares
printing to a lan printer
printing to a local usb printer
scanning with a usb scanner
printing/scanning with a MFD, most likely via USB
hooking up a digital camera and being able to download, in some orderly fashion, chosen images
burning cd/dvd
hooking up a video camera and downloading content
hooking up a video camera to view content
being able to write/delete files on an NTFS partition or disk
hooking up a usb disk and safely remove it

hhmm, i’ve run out of things I can think of now.

It might be a good idea if we could compile a ’must do’ list and then use this for future reviews.

eyecantw8

WMV files? No problem, Kaffeine plays them. On a relative’s particularly slow computer it doesn’t, but another program, Xine, does. But then this is the latest version of PCLinuxOS running KDE, and the computer in question would struggle to run XP let alone Vista!

My computer does all the Beryl effects, whilst running Firefox under KDE and burning a DVD. I know because I tried it. I have only 512Mb RAM and a 32-bit Athlon (though it’s an XP3200+ on an ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe, about as good as 32 bit AMD gets). The Install takes up just over 2Gb of disk space, the rest is free to add other programs (and I can’t push it over 3.5Gb!) plus I tend to keep downloaded packages, plus 2Gb swap partition, and I’ve got the rest of the drive for my personal stuff. It runs fast due to lack of bloat. You could buy a nice computer for everything else but gaming, fill it up with free software, and with the cash you save, buy a games console if that’s your thing.

What has been written in the above review is becoming more and more typical of people who find Vista and DRM and all that stuff a bridge too far, and are trying Linux for the first time. The pattern is that they try Ubuntu, SuSE, etc., but something’s missing. Then they try PCLinuxOS and what they write is similar to what’s above. The story’s getting so common now it’s almost boring!

The other thing is the age thing. I’m 52 and started Linux 3-4 years ago. It’s BECAUSE I’m not a youngster who’s into games that I found the switch easy. I set up PCLinuxOS for people. To be blunt if I told them it was windows they wouldn’t know the difference. They couldn’t set up Windows for themselves, but I tell you what, Linux is getting easier to install too...

davecs

I think your review of the review was too drastic. In my mind the biggest reason that people will switch to LINUX in the future is because it will not be too uncomfortable to do so. The KDE desktop will most likely be the reason. The gnome feel is foreign to me and I just don’t feel comfortable using it.

The biggest reason for the lag will always be the availability of software and games for the LINUX system. I hope this changes. People will be buying tax software and games no matter what, these producers need to start selling Linux versions. Maybe the Microsoft arm is preventing this right now, I don’t know.

I am not a programmer, just at 40+ dad who likes to fiddle. The only way I will get rid of my dual boot system is if I don’t NEED Win XP.
PCLINUX is one of my favorites and has been for two years now. Why? well it is packaged very nicely, boots quickly (and better and settings more correctly than Mandriva) and has a great collection of software that works. That statement had been used in the review but it is true and accurrate. Most distros have problems, things don’t start or they get stuck., close buttons don’t work or the x doesn’t close the window, you can’t easily upgrade the system or it isn’t automatcally done (Ubuntu is great at this), or the control panel items have to be searched for, or you can’t put shortcuts on the desktop, or easily mount the hard drives...etc. The PCLINUX organization from wherever it originated from, is definitely one of the best. It is not pefect or had not been perfect (like the video settings not being kept when using the PCLINUX control panel vs. the KDE control panel.
The smaller distros are fun to play with but really that is it. Slax looks plished with a great module selection and very fast but has some of the above problems. Puppy has a lot to offer but does not feel refined enough... to me.

So who are targets for Linux? I think you are wrong about the laptop younger crowd. Drivers are drivers for one thing, but, there is a huge number of older people getting computers or given computers to look up information and buy things over the internet, save photos, and use email. This is where the heart of the computer use is and will be growing - you don’t need windows for any of that.

I am digging Linux and try to introduce it to as many people as I can. It is faster than windows (usually) and you can’t screw it up by accident.
G

sccrl

I could not agree with the author any more than I do. PCLinuxOS is simply easy to use
right out of the box so to speak. Amarok for playing music, Kaffeine and MPlayer work
flawlessly for video, play encrypted DVDs, Flash and Real Player to boot.

In addition to those aspects PCLinuxOS is extremely stable and very fast. I have tried to
freeze or crash the KDE Desktop and have been unable to do so. Try opening and then
running two browsers with multiple tabs, while listening to music and watching a DVD
as you burn an ISO image to a CD in Windows XP. All at the same time. Did I mention
that I use four desktops? When I migrated from Windows it took me a little time to
figure out the benefits of multiple desktops but once I figured it out I can not go back
to a single desktop environment.

Most people will never need to use the terminal (command line) in PCLinuxOS. To me
that is a mute point for most users. On my machine the system installs in about 10
minutes. Hardware detection is excellent. One can mount and read and write to NTFS
or FAT32 partitions. Simply by using KDiskFree...click....mount....open. Software is
easily installed and configured in the Synaptic Package Manager. It is as simple as
select and then apply and software packages are downloaded and automatically
configured.

Ktorrent works fine for me for torrent files. Frostwire offers connections and speeds
that are equal to the non-free versions of Limewire. KB3 burns music or data CDs and
data DVDs. Audacity for copying the songs off of those old cassettes or records. Beryl
for 3D effects for supported graphics cards. Nvidia and other drivers are available in
Synaptic. PCLinuxOS is easier to use than Windows XP and vastly superior.

bocamp22

Nice how you name "your own" TV recordings exactly the same as those found on torrents.
PDTV-XviD-LOL-avi

anon

False advertisement! Having a win-modem working out of the box, ability to change monitor’s refresh rate in 15 secs, ability to CORRECTLY run ALL .exe files and never seeing terminal again - this is NORMAL USE amongst few other less important things. The rest is linux propaganda for now.
Nevertheless I have to say that
Linux is growing up very fast! It will be desktop-ready in about two years.
Keep working.

For the last 6 months I was very happy with PCLINUXOS 0.93 big daddy. But I think these happy days are coming to an end.Because new 2007 TR3 didn’t like my acer notebook with 910 chipset(some graphical conflicts happened). Same thing happened with SAM Linux 2007 final.

No love lasts forever but last 6 months is unforgettable for me and I’’ll always remember those happy days.

I don’t want to say but Goodbye my love...

TATA

Just my experience with PCLinuxOS: no problems with wireless, no problems with playing wma AND wmv files. The codecs are available for LInux and are installed by default in PCLinuxOS.

BTW, you have a very outspoken opinion on who Linux is for and you don’t provide anything to backup yout statement about the age group thing and notebooks. So you’re not so thorough yourself, either. You can’t expect a one page review to cover all these things.
I must you’re right that the review is too short to really tell the whole story. For instance, installing and loging into the XFCE desktop instead of the standard KDE gives me a complete freeze after a couple of minutes.
So there are reasons why it is still nog a final release.

The best thing with Linux these days is in my opion the Live CD: you can test to see if your distro of choice fits your needs before you install anything.

I have no experience on the commandline and still I have not needed it with PCLinuxOS. And even so, on many Windows forums you will get commandline tricks as an answer. So I really don’t see this as an issue with PCLinuxOS.
It is one of the better and problem free distro’s out there when it comes to multimedia, wireless network and more.
I still dualboot with XP for gaming, but

The Cat

I have to say that I don’t think that this has been a realistic review of a Linux OS. The market of users that Linux realitically should be targeting fall between the ages of 18 to 35. It’s statistically proven men and women over the age of 35 very rarely switch from the system that they have grown accustomed to.

So why do I say that this isn’t a realistic review? Because the majority of users that fall between 18 and 35 will more than likely be laptop users than desktop users. And laptops are where most Linux distros fall into problems.

First, you need to show that a person using Linux on a laptop can setup their Wifi card to not only recognize wireless networks, but also connect to them with no issues. Since most Wifi card drivers are closed source Linux distros have had to resort to using NDISWrapper to get their cards to work. This is is reallu nothing more than a glorified hack and until Linux gets native drivers for the hundreds of Wifi cards on the market this is going to be a sore spot.

Secondly, showing a screenshot of Family Guy doesn’t really speak to the heart of what a person switching from Windows to Linux will have to go through. Most Windows users will have the majority of their video files in the .wmv format. What happens when they go to play these files and can’t? You’re going to have one disappointed and possibly angry person on your hands. Did you mention any applications that will help switchers play their .wma and .wmv encoded media? How about apps that at least easily help then convert their files to other formats? Nope didn’t think so.

Lastly, people these days own various types of Digital Audio Players...they are going to want to know if they can still easily sync media to their chosen device as they did when they used Windows. If the experience is not as easy or straight forward as syncing the iPod or Sansa, again you will have some angry people on your hands.

When offering a review of something, you have to in depth and touch on every aspect of using the subject as if you are completely nullus to whatever that subject is. The two points that you touched on seem easy to you BECAUSE IT IS EASY TO YOU. You already have prior experience with using Linux and I suspect that you’re probably more comfortable on the command line than on the desktop. I’m not trying to slight you or anger you, but I just feel that this wasn’t a real review. Take some time out to real go deep and give people some true knowledge and maybe more people will think about using something other than Windows.

Frank \’viperteq\’ Young

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Practical review of PCLinuxOS 2007 beta 2 (using new standards)

1. Get a video and play it

2. Internet browsing etc

3. writing the review on the system

Conclusions on this review