A picture heavy review of PCLinuxOS 2007 Beta2 - Linux

. . . seems a LOT of folks are MAD at PCLOS. ummm� angry because its as easy to use [or easier] than the worlds leading OS, Micro$oft Windows. Well, I just got tired of fixing my mom�s PC all of the time, so one virus too many and I switched her over to PCLOS. She is 60+ and loves her PySol and Amarok.

I single-boot PCLOS and I can assure you that my PC looks NOTHING like hers or Windows. My Nexuiz is a far better game than her Frozen Bubble, though BOTH came from the PLCOS repository all push-button, no consoles necessary; batteries included. 3D Games in Linux? well, in PCLOS, yes. ...no waiting, call now.

I used Gnome in the 90’s ONLY because I had to. Is Linux ready for the desktop? I have no idea; nor do I care. I know that PCLOS is ready for the desktop, and I send Texstar my donations to prove it every time I install PCLOS on the PC of a friend or relative.

Geeks need to stop trying to hog Linux for the Nerd clique. PCLOS is a gateway drug.

by zakoz on Sunday 16th of September 2007 at 18:58

jbt

- Fort� Agent 4.* (there�s no comparison with Thunderbird or any of the linux mail/news packs I�ve seen, correct me if I�m wrong, but you don�t know what you�re missing)

I use Forte Agent in xp fro years but I use Pan in PCLinuxOS, you want to give pan a try as it is very much like Forte Agent...

by ztoppe on Wednesday 2nd of May 2007 at 18:48

jbt

- Fort� Agent 4.* (there�s no comparison with Thunderbird or any of the linux mail/news packs I�ve seen, correct me if I�m wrong, but you don�t know what you�re missing)

I use Forte Agent in xp fro years but I use Pan in PCLinuxOS, you want to give pan a try as it is very much like Forte Agent...

by ztoppe on Wednesday 2nd of May 2007 at 18:46

This review is astonishing for the complete lack of information presented.

by artson on Saturday 7th of April 2007 at 12:39

I tried PCLinuxOS 2007 and had nothing but problems with it, I cannot connect to the i-net with either my router or wireless system, I keep getting error messages that make no sense. I’m going back to Win XP, if this is any indication of Linux, Microsoft has nothing to worry about.

by johnw on Friday 6th of April 2007 at 12:10

I’m really impressed. For me, Mepis had always been that distro that "just works". Until recently that is, you see, a friend gave me her "old" notebook. She said it had been driving her crazy ever since she upgraded her RAM last Summer so she went out and bought a new puter.

Yes, it was acting flakey while running XP but I recognized that that flakeyness was not just Windoze induced, it was a bad memory. Popped in some new RAM and it ran just fine.... well as well as one could hope from XP. Knew it would run better under Linux so I popped in a Simply Mepis CD. Was surprised it did not detect the wireless card. Since I had recently burnt a PCLOS 2007 CD thought I would see if it would dectect the it. Not only did it detect the wireless card, but it pointed out the external switch on the notebook was in the "disabled" mode! Now that was a real "WOW" moment. I hadn’t even noticed her puter had an external wirless switch but PCLOS did. Found and flicked the switch to the "on" position. PCLOS immediately detected my router. After typing in my WPA passphrase I was able to connect and surf.

by Talamaur on Friday 30th of March 2007 at 19:25

I agree with most of the posts here. PCLOS is the most friendy and best looking distro
available right now. I use it exclusively. I was using SimplyMEPIS until 6.0 came out and
they decided to change their base from Debian to Ubuntu. I just wasn’t thrilled with it
after that. The next final release looks like it will be very good though.

I liked what Wicked said about Ubuntu. I think PCLOS is much more "Linux noob" friendly.
I think it’s because Mark Shuttleworth has put so much money into promoting Ubuntu
that more people try it. It is very good but PCLOS is pretty much automagick. Texstar
hasn’t got that kind of money.

by gandy on Sunday 18th of March 2007 at 15:11

Using VMplayer on windows with help from easyVMX I started with ubuntu 6.10. Liked it at first but ran into problems. I live booted Knoppix in the past and it just worked. ubuntu didn\’t. Then I tried PClinuxOS and the love started!! Everything worked. I\’m posting from it now in VM. This is one I\’m definitely going to be duel booting in the future.

M$ better watch out, Linux is here!

by Newbie to Linux loving PCLOS on Sunday 11th of February 2007 at 08:14

Nice cool OS, but what I really miss (and can’t do without), still are the following tools/software:

- TotalCommander (no, mc doesn’t even come near what TC is and does)
- SoundForge and Vegas (audacity and the likes don’t even come close!)
- Fort� Agent 4.* (there’s no comparison with Thunderbird or any of the linux mail/news packs I’ve seen, correct me if I’m wrong, but you don’t know what you’re missing)
- K-MPlayer (not to be confused with the kde mplayer)

by jbt on Saturday 3rd of February 2007 at 05:13

ever tried SabayonLinux ? I think it’s the most complete...

ever tried kde session saving at reboot on pclinuxos ?? try it :)

by Amp on Saturday 27th of January 2007 at 15:12

"Your review is way too short."

With good reason: This is a preview release. You can bet the final release will be covered more extensively.

by Yoyo on Thursday 25th of January 2007 at 00:10

PCLinuxOS is the best distro I\’ve ever use. I was a Window$ user, and knows no linux last time. PCLOS are darn easy to use and maintain and this distro really minimize my usage of Window$!
Now with 2007 coming out, I cant resist myself to download is ASAP.

Thanks to my friend who introduce me to this marverlous distro.

by mnazri on Wednesday 24th of January 2007 at 05:17

In my opinion, PCLinuxOS is number ONE, second Simple Mepis, third Xandros and Ubuntu and all it’s flavor are next.

Why?

I’m new to Linux and I founded PCLinuxOS and SimpleMepis and Xandros very easy to use, I tried Ubunto several times and is difficult to install programs, sometimes the programs are not even compatible. Thanks to PCLinuxOS, SimpleMEpis and Xandros I stoped using WIndows.
With PclinuxOs simple all software works, I don’t need to go around loooking for codecs, Same with Mepis, with Xandros it takes a litlle bit of effort to find some codecs, but with Ubunto it’s a nightmare, at least for me. So I think PcLinuxOs is the way.

by insanerobot on Wednesday 24th of January 2007 at 02:41

i’m using this distro for 3 days and i’m satisfyed,i had no problems with the wirelles connection and this the 3’rd distro that i tested and that goes wireless from my laptop.I tryed xandos and mintlinux,but only pclinuxos was the easyest to configure the wireless.As far as the windows XP default theme,i changed very easy with a win Vista theme. anyway linux it’s highly customizable.
i like also the fact that it has all the codecs for mp3,mpeg and other file types,codecs that kubuntu and ubuntu 6.10 don’t have.I’d tryed ubuntu and kubuntu 6.10 and it was no mp3 capabilities,no wireless.
in conclusion this is the best distro i ever used.Congratulations to the authors ;)

if you wanna attract newbies to linux this one of the best distros.

by septimius on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 21:25

Yet Another Sorry XP Clone

by YASXPC on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 15:36

Pclos and every other distro should stacked against window$ for a comparison as it is windows users that need to be made aware of these excellent distros and how they rate,At the moment Pclos is the most user friendly refined distro out there at the moment for a windows convert,I perform many linux installs for windows users,"most deul boot",the response,Pclos the preferred choice without exception ,As for the Kubuntu comparision,,they both run kde and thats where it ends,
cheers

by Mike on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 12:55

First of all i`m a win user.
Don`t be mad on me ,because i tried hundred of linux flavors, but lack of working drivers ,and especially lack of games keeps me to win.
Now i have an ati X800 Gto grafic card and an LG L1520B display - this combination is deadly for linux ,never ,but never an grafic distro with xgl, beryl ,compyz or other linux goodies succed to open me an interface out of the box.
This is the problem i`m talking about.
Otherwise i think Kanotix is the best distro till now ,and yes ,but second, PCLOS .

by ladepa on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 12:43

I have this addiction to keep downloading distros and just can\’t stop, but PCLinuxOS is my installation of choice on all my hardware (none of it past P3) -- desktop and notebook. A year or two ago I kept swinging back and forth between Win & Linux, bet kept mostly with Win. Now, thanx to ease of use with PCLinuxOS (since 0.92 I think), I stay away from Win like the plague. The control panel helps a great deal with this part too. Everything just seems to work for \"me,\" and when I screw something up, it seems like PCLinuxOS just self repairs the next time I boot it. On several occasions I\’ve just swapped my hard drive installation to a completely different system, and the OS just boots up and keeps working as if I didn\’t change anything -- never was this possible in Win (not for me at least).
I love the graphics, the speed on my old hardware, the ease of use, the never have a problem feature. I didn\’t get this from the other distros. I sort of hate Ubuntu because it was never for me as many times as I\’ve tried it. I like a livecd with proggies ready to use already on it. In fact, I wish that PCLinuxOS had even more on it than it already does (perhaps a DVD version).

by Anomy on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 11:56

Started using 0.92 as it was included with the linux for you mag. Still buy linux for you mag and still get the free CD/DVDs. But now I don’t even bother trying those. I give them to my friends who try them and then say that linux is still nothing for them. Then I surprise them with a PCLinuxOS burn and guess what: 80 % sold to dual booting winXP and PCLinuxOS. nd none of them calls me back with only 1 windows problems: how to remove it and keep pclinuxos.
Been trying out the test version and it runs fast and smooth. I still miss some packages but I’m sure tex and the gang are adding them to the repos. All fresh and cutting/bleeding edge.
and those graphic ’amateurs’ who did the art work for 2007 should get an academy award for design.: even that is radically simple and serene: candy that does not hurt.

A keeper: * * * * *

by Patred TheKnight on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 11:11

I believe the reason that the 3D desktop effects wouldn\’t work in VMWare is that the VMWare drivers don\’t support 3D. Try booting the disk on a machine with an Intel video card. Or for many nVidia cards, you can install dkms-nvidia-96xx via Synaptic while running the LiveCD. You can then follow the instructions on the PCLinuxOS help forums to get Beryl up and running:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=15174.0
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=15167.0

by KDulcimer on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 10:23

I tried PCLinuxOS 0.93a after reading about it on Distrowatch. It was the best single CD I ever purchased. I use it’s installer to prepare a PC for Ubuntu or multiple distro installs. I had been recommending Kubuntu to friends running Win9x and scared to try Linux, but I based on these comments, when PCLOS 2007 comes out, I may just have to make that my standard choice for anyone not quite ready for Ubuntu.

I hope they fixed the code error that kept me from installing any dial-up modem. That’s essential as far as I’m concerned.

by FLPCGuy on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 09:50

the PCLinuxOS Control Center is enough for new users to go to PCLinuxOS and leave Kubuntu in the dust. Hands down, no other control panel save Yast in Suse is robust and complete enough.

Speed is another reason. PCLinuxOS .93a booted in 46 seconds (distrowatch comparisons) which was only behind Mandriva. I think 2007 beats that. :D

by devnet on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 09:09

K to me is brown bag, sorry just seems run of the mill, since running into PCLOS .90 I’ve stopped, it has the pkgs needed and istalls are very easy, fix’s itself, meets the needs of my self and family. Help is fast
and to fix or upgrade anything almost, is just as fast at the forums and very friendly. For both GEEKS and noobs with help for and by either with how too’s. It just feels good.

by RadOH on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 08:43

I’ve been a Linux user for a decade and I’m a past user of Mepis, and when 6.0 came out I had graphics s issue, so I tried PCLinuxOS and fell in lurve!

On my Shuttle, (512mb RAM, 3.0 Pentium) Mepis is faster, but not as graphically pleasing. I still subscribe to both, but my family uses PCLOS. Downloading the new beta (livecd.iso) as I type.

by SapperK9 on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 05:40

>I would like to hear more about your Kubuntu/PCLOS comparison too.

PCLinuxOS 2007 is fast, modern and it also work on older computers.
I can load it for free and I can burn it to one cd.

In my opinion, PCLinuxOS 2007 is the best Linux distribution out now!

Best regards

Janko

by Janko Weber on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 04:28

This comment has been edited by an administrator
Just to clarify, when I commented about the comparison to Kubuntu I was speaking from an ’average’ user’s point of view, as both are excellent operating systems.

I wasn’t saying the two use the same technology/apps or that they are architecturally the same, just that they are comparable as alternatives.

by Seopher on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 02:43

There IS NO comparison between Kubuntu and PCLOS. Other than they are both fine GNU/Linux distros running KDE the comparison stops there. K is based on Debian, PCLOS is based on Mandriva. That in itself prevents comparison. From my perspective PCLOS is far superior to K. The only distro other than Debian that is easily comparable is Mepis which is also better than K hands down.

I don\’t understand why so many people have given the standards torch to Ubuntu. Don\’t get me wrong, Ubuntu is a fine distro, and I wish them well, but I have seen little out of them that makes me think wow Ubuntu is the greatest. Actually the snafus I have read about are enough to keep me away for awhile. I don\’t want anything making my system unusable. I have seen the Ubuntu community cry fowl at least twice over the last couple of years.

by Wicked on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 02:28

i can tell a difference to kubuntu : its speed compared to kubuntu ( especially on older pc )!!!

by michi_mak on Tuesday 23rd of January 2007 at 01:06

i have tried out many distros over the past year-and-a-half, and pclos is definitely a keeper!!! i think it\’s on par with opensuse for easy configurability. it has a far superior package management system than opensuse, though. apt vs yast for package management is no comparison!

i take exception, as well, to your pclos/kubuntu comparison. kubuntu is a pretty good \’vanilla\’ kde install for a debian system. the adept package manager is far short of synaptic as far as ease of use goes, and the system configuration tools are in no way comparable to those on pclos or opensuse. for example, if i want to change the mount point of one of my partitions in pclos or opensuse, i just open either yast or pclos control center and fire up the \’configure mount points\’ tool. i can change the mount point for any partition in a easy-to-use gui. i use this feature when i install a new distro to test and want it to auto-mount read-only at /media/name_of_distro. in kubuntu, i have to edit fstab manually last time i checked. even worse, since partitions are kept track of by uuid now, when i format a partition to try out something new, it kills the boot process in kubuntu as the partition gets a new uuid. that is particularly inconvenient. luckily a nice user at the ubuntu forum gave me a command to use to find the new uuid, which i can then enter into fstab manually in single-user mode.

long-story-short, i think the admin control centers on distros like pclos, opensuse, and mandriva are great! what makes pclos stand out is the small, community-driven team and it uses synaptic from the get-go.

by nmatheis on Monday 22nd of January 2007 at 22:25

"Well, it’s a really impressive looking KDE distro true enough, but I still find myself unable to justify what makes it better than Kubuntu but as far as I’m concerned, being comparable to Kubuntu is one of the best places to be for a Linux distro."

I just spit up in my mouth a little ...

Your review is way too short.

I would like to hear more about your Kubuntu/
PCLOS comparison too.

by arnie on Monday 22nd of January 2007 at 20:37