“After trying out PCLinuxOS, I have included this wonderful Linux distribution in my list of Linux OSes I would recommend to newbies and power users alike. I am certainly impressed by its structure, stability and the choice of software bundled with it. Not to mention its out of the box support for proprietary file formats.”
I use Gentoo myself, but for all clients from Windows that I convince to try Linux, I use PCLinuxOS.
Extremely polished distro and can be installed and working with most hardware, (including binary video driver), by a monkey.
A+++
Extremely polished distro and can be installed and working with most hardware, (including binary video driver), by a monkey.
“Can be installed by a monkey.” Ideal distribution for the mother-in-law, then.
Thr author talks about everything being installed in /union, maybe because he was running off the CD and has not installed it yet? Shouldn’t be in /union.
This is one of the most balanced review of any linux OS I have read recently. I think after reading this review, I will try PCLinuxOS. Though I have to concur with the above comment that /union is there because (perhaps) he may be running the live CD.
But again, I haven’t seen the /union directory in knoppix. Why is it there in PCLinuxOS ?
Because PCLinux is based on Mandriva not on Knoppix.
Because PCLinux is based on Mandriva not on Knoppix.
Now I am not asking this just for the sake of asking. But what is the use of having a /union directory in the liveCD ? Does it have a purpose ?
Of the KDE based installable-live-CD distros, PCLinuxOS is just very polished, robust and a very complete desktop to go. Since it forked from Mandrake 9.2 it inherits the solid Mandrake Control Center tools but PCLOS has had its own identity for some time since.
In the PCLOS forums, I see respect shown to all distros & DEs and many members are helpful with non PCLOS issues. The lead developer Texstar prefers KDE yet given time still responds to many requests to also provide current GNOME and XFCE packages.
Tex puts a lot of work into ensuring bleeding edge packages don’t break PCLOS stability and my system updates have never broken my system.
The menu layout is very clean, well heirarchically organized for both KDE & GNOME. The PCLOS icons and themes are very attractive in KDE though GNOME also feels OK.
After you have customised your install, the mklivecd script to remaster your own live-install-cd is a simple line command and fun to do.
britbrian
Cant read the review since I’m websense’d out of the site , but as a convert from Mandriva (used mandrake/mandriva since 8.2) I have to say PCLOS has all the goodies of Mandriva, but is much more lightweight, AND you dont have to wait forever for new packages – and the bleeding edge stuff is very, very stable. Tex really does a good job.
In the PCLOS forums, I see respect shown to all distros & DEs and many members are helpful with non PCLOS issues
That is good to hear. I converted to linux with RH 7.3, than switched to Mandrake 9.0. Discovered pclinuxonline after some time, and I remember the feeling you describe – it was an excellent community, much better than mandrake forums, where I was sometimes harassed because I wasn’t a club member and stuff like that.
Actually, what kept me with Mandrake so long (9.1 release, than when 9.2 came out, I switched to FreeBSD, and been happy with it since then) was Texstar and his excellent packages. I came to trust his rpms much more than official mandrake ones. He was very friendly, responsive, and timely with new kde releases
I remember just before I switched there were talks about doing their own OS (the pclinuxonline crew) – for after a while, mandrake provided little or nothing for non-clubmembers, and as I said, the primary reason (and I was not alone with this) for staying with mandrake was tex’s package repository. It was almost like a fork already: if I were to choose which packages to install (even if they were at the same version) I would have chosen those made by tex, simply because of their stability and very fast response time should any trouble present itself. So I am very glad that PCLOS grew into a very polished distro, although I must say I’m not surprised
– given the dedication these folks showed and their ability to build a community (very open, very friendly).
I’ve been using PCLOS for 1 year trying other distro from time to time but still coming back to PCLOS. A few reason
– Texstar is expert at packaging KDE which also means you get latest version when they are released
– apt-get / synaptic. I won’t use a distro without theses. Ever
– no need to set 1254 repos, you’ll have alll you need in the main repo (codecs, etc). If a piece of software is not packaged just ask on the mailing list and usually is is packaged pretty fast
– updated all the time and very stable even if it’s still considered as beta
PCLinuxOS is a great linux distrobution. Easy to use, very stable, runs well and looks good.
New users to Linux should definately try it out and very sure it will become their distro of choice. Pretty certain that experienced users will also like it.
I’ve also tested it out with GNOME (look & feel is the closest to Windows XP I’ve ever seen).
PCLinuxOS has definately impressed me & others too. It isn’t a wonder that PCLinuxOS ranks highly on Distrowatch, because it is a very well put together distro.
It needs to be noted that while out of the box mp3, windows media, divx support is very nice, it still is technically illegal in the US. Due to software patents,
the people that make PCLinuxOS could technically be sued
by patent holders like the Fraunhoefer Institute (spelling?).
As a user that likes a shiny kde desktop (not me), why
would I choose PCLinuxOS over Kubuntu? The Ubuntu
repositories have something like 17,000+ packages
available the last time I checked and the community is
huge. Other than mp3 support which is very easy to add
to Kubuntu, what makes PCLinuxOS better? No troll, I’m
curious.
Kubuntu and its large community is perfectly fine and 17,000 available packages is simply great if you need those choices now. I tried Kubuntu, I do use & like Ubuntu but still I just prefer PCLOS even more. If you happen to try out various KDE distros, then PCLOS is another to try, but nobody wants to say its better than distro X.
Most new users would be well satisfied by PCLOS’s included package selections (about 1.9GB installed) and its more modest repository. Texstar & developers add packages to the repository as requested.
I think most PCLOS forum users tend to advocate PCLOS quitely and with respect to peoples personal distro preferences. If you don’t try PCLOS, so what, but you might just love it.
britbrian
It needs to be noted that while out of the box mp3, windows media, divx support is very nice, it still is technically illegal in the US.
Yeah, but there are various workarounds… For instance, if mp3 support is right on the ISO, than those ISOs can be distributed from ftp servers residing in Europe (where software patents are illegal). Or bittorrent.
Oh, and about divx: is the mpeg-4 standard patented? I know that it is an ISO standard, with various implementation. DivX is just one of them (and not the best one). Another implementation is ffmpeg or xvid. I don’t think these are liable for patent claims, but clarifications are welcome. Which leaves as with .mp3. Now this might be interesting for PCLinuxOS developers: http://www.martianrock.com/?p=182 (it is fairly recent news, should be posted here on OSNEWS, for it is a big one from a Desktop Linux/BSD perspective). It should solve the problem for the final pclos release.
Re: “It needs to be noted that while out of the box mp3, windows media, divx support is very nice, it still is technically illegal in the US. Due to software patents, the people that make PCLinuxOS could technically be sued by patent holders”
You’re technically correct though it’s apparent some distribution developers attempt to get around what they see as a legal loop hole by mirroring their products from countries that don’t hold strict regulatory laws on patents. Then there are those that wish to obey patents and not cause issues for their customers. This is why developers such as Novell prefer to offer open source codecs over proprietary codecs unless they license them from the patent holder. Though the good news is that there is more of a shift towards standardizing audio/video codecs that are open source so as to stop those that would like to monopolize a particular market.
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMV
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_codecs
well, I tried Kubuntu/Ubuntu, but really got tired of not having a root user. I dont like sudo, and thinks just seem wrong to me to not have root.
sudo -s will give you a root shell. Your claim of not having a root user just died 🙂
ok, but its still disabled by default. I want to add a root user at install. Not possible with K(U)bunto afaik. I didnt say that I couldnt get a ‘root’ user task done, it just seemed weird to not su enter,passwd enter and be done. And I always got funny results with sudo, mostly: you are not a member of sudoers bla bla bla…..
Just give me root, thanks.
YMMV
Like I said, Ubuntu gives you root. Instead of setting the password during installation, just run “sudo passwd” after the system is installed to get the exact same effect.
I refuse to accept this is THE reason for someone to pick one OS over another, I’m sorry. Even “the default wallpaper is prettier” is more acceptable.
Ubuntu does have root, it just doesn’t ask for a password by default and generates a random one. So you use sudo for administration priviligies.
If you would like to enable a password for the root user (which is not recommended), follow the instructions available from the starter guide (System -> Help -> Starter Guide).
I tried it on my Thinkpad 600 (A mere P-II 300), and it worked great except that I couldn’t get my wireless to work. If I can ever do that, I am sticking with it.
Excellent review of a very good linux distribution which has been over shadowed by Linux giants like Redhat and the likes.
By stating the pros and cons of PCLinuxOS, the author has shown his impartiality in reviewing this very useful linux distribution.
btw, I am a very satisfied PCLinuxOS user myself. Earlier I was using Fedora.
“I’ve also tested it out with GNOME (look & feel is the closest to Windows XP I’ve ever seen). ”
There’s actually a Gnome remaster available
http://genieos.toluenterprises.com/otherstuff.html
“The Ubuntu
repositories have something like 17,000+ packages
available the last time I checked and the community is
huge.”
Althought the PCLinuxOS repo is about 4,000 packages, I find it more than adequate and the selection is great! Realplayer, plugins, codecs, libdvdcss2, all right there! I have about 1,000 packages installed for my system and it has everything I need. Do you really need 17,000 packages, 20 web browsers and 30 mp3 players when 2 or 3 good ones will do? I’ve also run into issues upgrading from Hoary to Breezy and I anticipate similar issues when I upgrade Breezy to Drake. I recently upgraded my PCLinuxOS install where virtually every package was updated and it went without a hitch. As far as the community goes, PCLinuxOS has a great community. Very friendly and helpful. There’s even live chat available for help.
Don’t get me wrong, I really like K/Ubuntu too, I actually have both Ubuntu and PClinuxOS installed, but I favor PCLinuxOS. And I think the PCLinuxOS Gnome Remaster pulls ahead of Ubuntu in just about every category.
Each person will have their own preference for Linux distro, but PCLinuxOS offers the following.
PCLinuxOS advantages:
#1 Based off Mandriva (ie: like having a lightweight version of Mandriva – 1 livecd that can be used or installed)
#2 Stable
#3 Super Easy to use
#4 Totally compiled for i586 architecture (should run somewhat quicker or better on 32 bit systems). (vs many i386 Linux distros).
#5 Great hardware detection.
#6 Uses Synaptic
#7 Polished look & feel, well put together.
Having 17000 packages does not make you the best. Lots of distros only have 3000-5000, yet people use them. Most people will use the popular packages anyways (3500+ packages is enough to satisfy most users).
From what I’ve seen/heard, Drawbacks of Kubuntu are i386 (for 32 bit systems), unstable newer packages (if you enable multiverse), somewhat buggy – not as well put together as Ubuntu, etc.
I have not tested Kubuntu, so someone else could provide better details or opinion.
Why are so many people using Ubuntu & not Debian? Ubuntu is based off of Debian, they both use Gnome Window manager, etc. For that matter, why do people use Fedora, Suse & Mandriva? Why doesn’t everyone just use Ubuntu & Kubuntu?
Simple answer:
People go with the distro they like. The one that suits their needs. It is all a matter of personal preference.
Simply Put:
It is not which is the best linux distro out there, but rather, which linux distro is the best for that particular user (the one that works well for him/her).
That is why people will choose their favorite distro, be it PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu, Debian, Mandriva, Fedora, Gentoo, or other.
PS PCLinuxOS is just surprisingly good and worth testing out.
It is english-only, which is understandable due to space limitation.
Otherwise, very good distribution, and using very good system tools (Mandriva ones).
I tried (Insert Distro Name Here), to get them off Windows Crapware.
PCLinuxOS is the only one that they like, other than an early Knoppix KDE,GNOME on same disk.
why would I choose PCLinuxOS over Kubuntu? The Ubuntu repositories have something like 17,000+ packages available
As already stated, it’s not the number of packages that are important. Frankly those 17.000+ packages contains a lot of crap. It also contains lot of server related stuff, not particularly interresting for desktop users. PCLinuxOS on the other hand includes more stuff important to desktop users, and it’s on the live CD no need to download from external repositories. Particularly some binary stuff most desktop users want/need, which *buntu and Debian don’t include. Like Sun Java, Flash, Nvidia/ATI drivers and RealPlayer.
Why is it that ubuntu and pclinux users always flame each other?
Ubuntu is bleeding edge debian with a friendly face and you know it. Default root accounts is never going to happen, simply because people hasn’t got the knowledge of what can happen. Ubuntu devs made this choice long ago, and it’s really a good one if you know how to live with it. I would say they want it to be “just works TM” but it isn’t – yet. Great community though. And it’s so clean. Xubuntu is my new favorite at the moment…
PClinuxOS is the newbies best friend. Everything just works. Really. But a root account with default password “root” is really the opposite of secure. So if ubuntu is too secure, PClinuxOS is by default the opposite. LOL. But apart from that, it’s really snappy and fun to use. Yeah, the could remove the beta stamp by now. Everything, I mean everything worked as a charm at the first try. So kudos Tex….
But please stop bashing (k)ubuntu. I saw a lot of this at the PClinuxOS user forums too.
Sorry, that was me. Forgot to login
The PCLOS default password “root” is only for the live cd. When installing to the hard drive, you are required to provide a new password for the root account.
Try the LiveCD of PCLinuxOS and then see if you need to ask this.
Kubuntu might be good, but I have found PCLinuxOS hands down the cleanest, simplest out of the box Linux distro, hands down.
“The Ubuntu repositories have something like 17,000+ packages available the last time I checked and the community is huge. Other than mp3 support which is very easy to add to Kubuntu, what makes PCLinuxOS better? No troll, I’m curious.”
Fair enough question.
PCLinuxOS uses apt and Synaptic – just as Ubuntu does. (PCLinuxOS uses apt & Synaptic adapted for RPMs, though).
From what I can gather, PCLinuxOS can utilize Mandrake packages.
On PCLinuxOS on my system (which has everything a desktop system should normally have) Synaptic reports that there are 4580 packages listed and 1058 installed. This doesn’t compare with Debian/Ubuntu’s 17,000+ available packages, but it does still represent nearly five times as many packages available as are likely to actually be required.
So it is not a bad system in any way – and it beats Debian in terms of currency of the packages.
Im WinXP user(because of specific software), but PCLOS is the other OS on my pc. It work. It is easy. All the software works. Great job done. More to be polished, but im sure this will be. Dont talk me about ubuntu-kubunto. Dont.
I expect the live CD mounts everything under /union because it uses unionfs. See http://www.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu/project-unionfs.html .
In our PC servicing shop I try live CD’s on the systems that come in. I find that PCLOS chokes with livecd complaints on many systems (I know it needs 256M RAM).
Consistly reliable live CD’s are Kanotix and Mepis which will usually run on anything thrown at them.
–Tony
1.live cd boots fast.
2.it recognises all
3.all the software is working
4.it includes harddrake – the best partitioning tool
5.installation to hdd is quick
so you have a modern linux distro, that can be used like livecd and install cd, with all multimedia and java and flash and drivers support, and all usefull linux software, available for install, and IT WORKS!, not like me to try to put xmms on ubuntu, and it hangs, and no icons displayed in programs, etc. etc. Great job, cheers, Texter!
And for 256MB ram – they are recommended, lets compare pclos with knoppix, not with mepis, mepis has 5 packages installed…
Like I posted earlier I tried em all Still prefer PCLinuxOS.
I use Ubuntu/Kubuntu at work (toggling between them when I get bored), and PCLINUXOS at home. I like both. Ubuntu is more Gnome-centric; PCLOS more KDE-centric (although of course, both allow you to install the other desktop environment).
After using each of them for about a year, I would say that the key differences are as follows:
* PCLOS moves faster. You get stuff within a week after it comes out, seems like. And Texstar’s packaging really is superior. On occasion, something breaks, but it’s fixed in a day or two, and sometimes within an hour or two.
* PCLOS is pre-configured. In Ubuntu, I was proud of myself for getting everything working in Hoary Hedgehog. When I went to Breezy, I lost a bunch of stuff — like Apple trailers, etc. I STILL haven’t gotten them back. PCLOS worked the first time, went through a 2 day bobble when Quicktime upgraded, then steadied down and works again.
* Ubuntu narrows your choices more, probably making things simpler for those searching for an application. PCLOS suffers from the KDE-style predilection for features. On the other hand, you find some mighty cool stuff when you dig around the menus.
Which is better? My own take is that it’s a good idea to play with at least two distros. It makes you smarter. You see the difference between what’s going on in technology, and how all that gets filtered through a particular development team.
But both Ubuntu/Kubuntu and PCLOS are great distros, with particularly helpful and friendly fora. My advice? Give ’em both a try!