Submitted by “The PCLinuxOS 0.93a Full Edition was quietly released yesterday and is the equivalent of PCLinuxOS releases of the past several years. They have recently been releasing scaled down versions to accomodate other tastes and desires, but many folks were looking and waiting for the fully loaded edition. Weighing in at 685 MB, Texstar referred it as the ‘Full Monty’. Its code name has been ‘Big Daddy’. Whatever the name, I think you’ll call it home.”
Nice reivew, PCLinuxOS for me has been the distro hopper stopper.
If you want to run this big daddy in ram with the recent copy2ram feature, 1GB worked for me. The minime needed 512MB for copy2ram use.
Just a minor error, the author should have said KDE2 meta package instead of GNOME2 re package splitting.
These KDE package groups have now been splitted:- kdeaddons, kdegames, kdegraphics, kdemultimedia, kdenetwork, kdepim, kdesdk, kdeutils.
Now you can really install just what you want and this is especially useful to keep remasters within 700MB.
If I do remember, PCLinuxOS was english-only, despite its relationship with the very well localized Mandriva. Is it still the case ?
Whar’s more, now that Mandriva released a live-CD install with Mandriva one, what is the strongest point between the two ?
Yes, its English and KDE centric. The development team is quite small so they have to focus. The forum does have 10 other language sections.
Synaptic / aptget for rpms is the major distinction from Mandriva.
If I may add, its ~690MB iso decompresses to 2GB and it seems to pack far more apps than Mandriva does. The polish and stability really makes PCLinuxOS shine.
Edited 2006-08-23 19:38
PCLinuxOS is one of the only distributions I’ve tried where I could configure my basic graphics/monitor settings without config file editing. That meant I could set a usable refresh rate while running the Live CD. Unlike Ubuntu I could try it out before installation to hard drive without a flickering screen giving me a headache.
A small issue really, but that definitely gave me a good first impression of the distribution. It’s become the one I recommend to Windows users who are interested in trying Linux.
I first tried out PCLinuxOS with the older version 0.92.
It took over 1 hour 35 minutes to install, Internet was slow & lagging. And there were a few other drawbacks to it.
But since I had become used to PCLinuxOS, I decided to try out the newer version 0.93a.
I obtained MiniMe (the most minimal one at around 300 MB).
It installed quickly, in under 15 minutes. Featured better hardware detection, an improved installer, with options for Grub or Lilo, etc. Internet worked well with webpages loading fast. Nicer look & feel throughout, desktop & menus. And best of all, it seemed to run quicker, smoother and have a fairly polished look to it.
In short, the older version 0.92 was OK to use, but the new 0.93a really impressed me (and you can see the difference between the two), and even though I tend to use Windows XP (& Zeta) mainly, PCLinuxOS has definately made the Linux experience more friendly and enjoyable for me. PCLinuxOS is my distro of choice and truly is one of the better choices out there for Linux. The 0.93a version just shines (hopefully the same can be said about Junior & Big Daddy since I’ve only tried out MiniMe).
No wonder PCLinuxOS is way up on Distrowatches’ page hit ranking (in the last 3 months it has a rank of #5 – which is incredible). This newer version will give the bigger distros some real competition because it works so well and is fast (and packs lots on only 1 disc, where some of the big distros are 2 or more). Way to go guys.
Edited 2006-08-24 03:44
Crappy name. I’ve tried out quite a few distros, and PCLinuxOS was by far the best in terms of working off the live CD and ease of installation (although I did have to either use the IRQPOLL boot option or disable my SATA drive controller in BIOS as it froze otherwise. But I have this problem with most distros, so it doesn’t bother me that much). A very polished distro, apart from the name. What was Textar thinking? If you are trying to market a distro as an easy to use, noob/Windows user friendly OS, then giving it a long name full of acronyms is not a good idea – people will automatically think less of it before even trying it. and it is obvious that this is the intended audience for PCLOS, so there is really no excuse.
Ubuntu is onto a good thing – one word, a bit exotic sounding, and no redundant mention of “PC”, “Linux” or “OS” in its name. Didn’t find Ubuntu quite as friendly to use as PCLOS though.
The PCLOS devs should really come up with a better name, one that is a single word that doesn’t contain “PC” “Linux” or “OS”. You want to draw people in with something intriguing first, and then explain what it is.
But then if the only noteworthy fault I can find with it is its name, then it really hasn’t got much wrong with it
Recommend you try it if you want to experiment with linux, you might even keep it installed.
Edited 2006-08-23 23:03
I’m the opposite. I love the name PCLinuxOS and I hate the name Ubuntu. Different taste, I suppose.
The name is appropriate as this distro was original designed to make the transition for Windows users easier.
Hence the three parts say what it is:
PC – For your computer
Linux – Its Linux, not Windows
OS – Its the Operating system (Some windows user wouldn’t otherwise equate Linux=OS the same as Windows)
You tell people you should try Ubuntu, or Mandriva, unless they know Linux, which most Windows users don’t, they have no clue what the hell you are talking about.
“The name is appropriate as this distro was original designed to make the transition for Windows users easier.” How so?
“You tell people you should try Ubuntu, or Mandriva, unless they know Linux, which most Windows users don’t, they have no clue what the hell you are talking about.”
And if they dont know Linux, they will have just as little idea what you are talking about when you fire a string of acronyms at them.
“PC – For your computer” Well, duhh it isn’t likely to be for your refrigerator, is it? Unnecessary and redundant.
“Linux – Its Linux, not Windows” Again, entirely redundant information. Obviously, if someone is looking into an alternative operating system, then they will be able to find a range of operating systems with some trivial google searching, and you can put this information in the description.
“OS – Its the Operating system (Some windows user wouldn’t otherwise equate Linux=OS the same as Windows)” Well, again, if they know what an operating systems is, you don’t need to include this in the name for people to find it.
One of the thing that many people really dislike about Linux and OSS is the tendency to reduce things to long strings of letters. It is boring, unimaginative and extremely poor marketing (granted, when you are giving something away for free, marketing might not be your main concern).
If someone is searching for an operating system to replace or use alongside Windows, they are more than likley to avoid names with strings of letters, or take too long to pronounce (pee see linux os – five syllables that don’t exactly stir the imagination).
If you are trying to market Linux (or any other OS) as an alternative to Windows, you need to pick a name that is instantly recognisable (the number of distros that end in “-OS” is ridiculous), and evokes a sense of intrigue in the potential user.
PCLinuxOS is just a boring, geeky name that lacks any attempt at creativity. And since it is obvious that PCLOS is intending to attract Windows users (it even looks quite similar), there is no reason why it should be otherwise sidelined because of a dull name that does little to differentiate it from all of the dozens of distros with similar varaiations on the same string of initial letters.
The majority of operatings systems are for PCs, hundreds of them are Linux, and well, of course they are operating systems.
All of that information tells you nothing new, all it does is turn people off – even if only subconciously, people will percieve it as lacking imagination, therefore they will think to themselves when they see the name in a list of OSes “it is probably just another server OS, so I’ll go with Ubuntu, that sounds interesting”.
Names are very important when it comes to marketing products, and attracting interest in them. They are more important than the product itself when you are trying to get noticed.
Also, PCLinuxOS sounds like “pissy Linux Os” when you say it quickly – not a good conotation to have when your product is actually very good.
Finally,news about PCLinuxOS on OSNews! Just week ago
I submited news about this great Linux desktop package
when they hit #2 on “Top 100 Distrowatch list. Somehow it vent unnoticed. Today ,again,PCLinuxOS is ranked #3
according to Distrowatch Hit-Per-Day” statistic.
More importatnt criteria then loose HPD will be PCLinuxOS acceptance by end users and I have no doubt
this distro will stand shoulder to shoulder with big names in the Linux world and compete over popularity
with wildly popular Ubuntu and openSUSE distros.
As far as I can tell from my personal experience
( http://www.experts-exchange.com/M_1268040.html )
PSLinuxOS is the best code I’ve ever run on my oldies
computers like Compaq Presario 1200-XL118 laptop ( AMD K-6 500MHz 190Mb SDRAM) and Compaq Deskpro Pentium II
450 MHz 256 Mb SDRAM. After all tweaks and system tuning procedures I had to have with Fedora 5, SuSE 10, Ubuntu 6.0.6 and Xandros I simply gave up and aloted all my hard-disk space to PCLinuxOS whic is my
operating system of choice.
Couple other people for whom I installed PCLinuxOS and Sam-Linux (PCLinuxOS fork) aren’t less impressed with what they get on single install free CD.
If you are among those who still have old compters
sitting in hidden corners of your house, collecting
dust and you’re still reluctant to get through “one more time” Windows 95/98/ME re-installation hasle,
just grab for yourself copy of PCLinuxOS and give it a try. PCLinuxOS will give your oldies new life and you’ll be proud of your achievement.
Synaptic Software Manager is great and very reliable source of applications you’d want to have.
Mandriva Control Centre revorked by PCLinuxOS staff is also a plus for beginners and lazy alike people scared of Linux commandline sysconfig tools.
Well organized menus and very good selection of applications installed by default are certainly welcomed for Linux beginners.
PCLinuxOS developers coined a slogan: “If you think all Linux distributions are made the same…think again.” and for really good reason.
..and I’ve tried ’em all
Everything ‘just works'(TM) and with the power of apt-get (and synaptic) and a huge repository with the latest of pretty much anything you could want, who could ask for more? Packages are kept right up to date so if you’re into ‘bleeding-edge’, this distro will keep you happy. The ‘Control Centre’ from Mandriva is great too for point-and-clickers.
I’ve been passing copies of this distro on to friends for a while and have barely heard a peep out of them since except to say how good it is. Usually I’m bombarded with support calls so it makes for a nice change.
In short, if you like KDE you’ll love it.
This is a great Linux distribution. I had the fortune of installing and using PCLinuxOS (a previous version) and it still played all the propritery media formats right out of the box.
It is funny to see a limited number of heavy weights in Linux hogging all the media space when there are innumerable better Linux distributions around. And PCLinuxOS belongs to the better category.
PCLinuxOS is great and you can do all configuring you need thru GUI-apps. Unfortunatly it seems to be really poor at loading firmwares and such thru hotplug. I had this problem with my DVB-card, lots are having problem with Intel 2200bg wifi and seen others with other hardware.
I do hope this gets fixed, it might be now cause that is really the only thing stopping me from sticking with PCLinuxOS. Everything else is top notch.
…are going to try an OS at version number 0.93? Come on, Texstar, give us 9.3 instead! (Well Pat did it.. 😉 )
A small point, but in this crazy world appearances matter a lot more than reality. Otherwise nobody would be running Windows, would they?
I still find it silly that Pat sort of jumped on the I-got-the-highest-version-numer-train.
If version numbers indicated stability/maturity some versions of Windows would need negative numbers 😉
And I, too, like the distro and hate the name, it’s just too long…
I still find it silly that Pat sort of jumped on the I-got-the-highest-version-numer-train.
So do I. So now we have Slackware 11 with kernel 2.4 whilst most 2.6 distros are at version 10.-something.
Yeah, I know, he says 2.4 is more stable; he may be right. But if “higher version” = “more stable”, Win95 and “Win98 would need their numbers reversed.
If version numbers indicated stability/maturity some versions of Windows would need negative numbers 😉
Heh!
//I still find it silly that Pat sort of jumped on the I-got-the-highest-version-numer-train.//
How so?
Fedora Core is up to 5. Ubuntu is up to 6.06. SuSe is up to 10.1. Slackware is up to 11. Mandriva is up to 2007!
PCLinuxOS hasn’t even got up to 1.0 yet.
PCLinuxOS is the first distro where OpenOffice is actually quick. Overall the experience has been solid, though I would prefer not to have GNOME installed. I don’t particularily need 5 image viewers, nor do I need other duplicates. Still it’s a good distro.
The only major problem I have is that it won’t recognise my Creative Labs USB webcam. It only sees it if I connect it once Linux is running. If I boot with it plugged in, no camera. Oh and Ekiga crashes.
of course it’s already mentioned that it’s an english-only distro. as my name suggests, i dont’ live in the good ‘ol USA….there is no brazilian portuguese release. but, my wife really loves the so cute pinguin on my desktop, and that has it’s rewards. i am waiting for the day i see pclinux on the top of the list at distrowatch.com !!
Last time I checked, PCLinuxOS was Mandriva in LiveCD format, plus different default theme. Even the software repositories were Mandriva repos.
Has this changed at all?
//Last time I checked, PCLinuxOS was Mandriva in LiveCD format, plus different default theme. Even the software repositories were Mandriva repos.
Has this changed at all?//
AFAIK PCLinuxOS is a “fork” of Mandrake. Split away some time ago.
Repositories for PCLinuxOS are on Ibiblio. They are RPM-based, but the use apt indexing.
PCLinuxOS uses Apt4RPM and Synaptic as it’s package management, which is not like Mandriva at all.
Edited 2006-08-25 04:25