PClinuxOS talk

[darkenedday]

So I realised there is no forum for this OUTSTANDING up and coming distro, My favorite is currently openSUSE (yeah, owned by that evil corporation who signed with the BIG evil corporation, but really I see that as a step forward for linux, any way back on subject) however, this may come to replace it anyday now. PClinuxOS looks GREAT some of the best artwork I've seen in awhile (much better than brown. . . sorry. . .), It's so simple to use, the "control panel" so-to-speak is wonderful, it comes with java and flash, and it's FAST, I mean REALLY REALLY FAST!
If I could figure out how to implement KickOff this may replace suse altogether. PClinuxOS even makes it easy to configure Compiz OR Beyl with Native support OR XGL all of this is EXTREMELY stable and flawless, and it's still not even a final release. WOW

I'd like to hear other's input on the matter, also I only put this here, because it is a rpm distro, I did not see a special area for Mandrake/Mandriva Derivatives, so if this belongs somwhere else please move it

thanks alot!

[igknighted]

Yeah, really surprised Mandriva doesn't have a forum section of their own (since Fedora and Suse each do). You would think all of RPM would go together or the biggies would get their own... go figure.

Anyways, have you used Mandriva 2007? It's basically the same thing. The config tools are the same (for Beryl/compiz and the other system config tools). Also, to my knowledge Mandriva has more software (I don't think they share repo's, but I could be wrong). Apt4rpm doesn't come as default on Mandriva, but its easy enough to install. Mandriva is nice because you can get programs like LinDVD to legally play DVDs, and I think if you get the DVD you can get Cedega too (you might have to buy the boxed version for this though). Overall, while Mandriva is not my favorite distro... I would recommend it over PCLOS. I've had way too many bugs with PCLOS. In 0.93 (big daddy) I couldn't run their KDE more than like 10 minutes without something crashing for no reason. I am using TR3 of the new release right now, but I am not impressed at all. This distro gets so much press, but I haven't figured out why yet.

[karellen]

in pclinux 0.93 I couldn't make my pppoe connection to work, no matter what I did. so I said bye bye and never looked back. in ubuntu it was just a matter of "sudo pppoeconf" follow the steps and have internet connection active and ready at boot from then on, with no hassle. good job, ubuntu :)

[kazuya]

I am using the older pclinuxos2007 test 1, I am doing the updates along with installation of gnome 2.16, xfce 4.4, fluxbox, and a lot of apps. Say bloat stuff. I do notice that synaptic on Ubuntu is slightly faster than pclinux, but the ease of getting things done is slightly better due to the Pclinux Control Center.

Everything just works with this distro and Beryl was very easy to get working. My next challenge is when it comes time to upgrade the kernel.

Next, I shall be dual booting Ubuntu Herd and Pclinux. So far they both perform well. I'll give pclinux the edge on look, but ubuntu the edge on repo size.

They are both functional. One other major advantage of Ubuntu is this: I have used Sabayon, pclinux and zenwalk on this same machine; Only Ubuntu & Sabayon automounts the external DVDRW device when I put a CD in it. With the others, it is a hit or miss. sometimes.

In all, I am very pleased with them all. I am prefering pclinux2007 as it gives me root access and comes with flash, all multimedia codecs, etc already there.

[darkenedday]

I really love all linux distro's but personally I don't see the reason for all the hype around ubuntu, aside from the community it has no real advantages over other debian derivatives as far as I can tell, sure it has the repo size over PClinuxOS and a few others, but those others are traditionally newer, keep in mind PClinuxOS still hasn't even had a final release and TR3 is already very stable (edgy I've found is buggier than dapper, go ahead, just get the kernel update, so ubuntu seems to be a step behind on that I'll wait for the next lts thank you very much) 0.93a never caused a single problem for me, and TR3 is blazing fast (ubuntu is slower, and kubuntu is too) not to mention the fact that IMO ubuntu is UGLY by default (thus why I used kubuntu more often, which is still one of the less apealing KDE distros out there) Ubuntu might've been off to a great start, that would explain the press and the hype, but others are catching up and some have already passed i.e. dreamlinux, PCLINUXOS, sabayon, and openSUSE is WAY ahead imo

but like I said, I love all linux distro's I just love linux, ubuntu was my starting point, and the community is great, I'd love to see it take some huge leaps with Feisty, but it doesn't seem likely, it also would seem that Mark can be an *** way too often and there are too many cheifs and not enough indians on the team just my oppinion

PClinuxOS is looking great, and the "big dogs" of linux better watch their back :-)
(I love underdogs btw, all Americans do I think)

[igknighted]

I really love all linux distro's but personally I don't see the reason for all the hype around ubuntu, aside from the community it has no real advantages over other debian derivatives as far as I can tell, sure it has the repo size over PClinuxOS and a few others, but those others are traditionally newer, keep in mind PClinuxOS still hasn't even had a final release and TR3 is already very stable (edgy I've found is buggier than dapper, go ahead, just get the kernel update, so ubuntu seems to be a step behind on that I'll wait for the next lts thank you very much) 0.93a never caused a single problem for me, and TR3 is blazing fast (ubuntu is slower, and kubuntu is too) not to mention the fact that IMO ubuntu is UGLY by default (thus why I used kubuntu more often, which is still one of the less apealing KDE distros out there) Ubuntu might've been off to a great start, that would explain the press and the hype, but others are catching up and some have already passed i.e. dreamlinux, PCLINUXOS, sabayon, and openSUSE is WAY ahead imo

but like I said, I love all linux distro's I just love linux, ubuntu was my starting point, and the community is great, I'd love to see it take some huge leaps with Feisty, but it doesn't seem likely, it also would seem that Mark can be an *** way too often and there are too many cheifs and not enough indians on the team just my oppinion

PClinuxOS is looking great, and the "big dogs" of linux better watch their back :-)
(I love underdogs btw, all Americans do I think)

I don't really understanf your post. First, PCLOS is probably (after Ubuntu) the most hyped distro out there. So the "underdog" nature... not so much. Also, it is #4 on Distrowatch PHR. Not an underdog.

Secondly, it has been around for years. Sure, PCLOS 2007 is only on TR3 (mind you, there was only one scheduled test release, and Final was due sometime in January... so were only 2 months late), but most of my critique was directed at 0.93a "Big Daddy" which was their release last year. This was a final release. Also, there was a 0.92 (which I never used) and maybe even more before that.

Basically, everything that PCLOS 2007 is... IS mandriva 2007.0! And by the time PCLOS 2007 comes out, Mandriva will be a version ahead (2007.1). As such, I'm not really sure what the draw is to PCLOS. It is older, buggier Mandriva and not much else (and yes, I have TR1 and TR3 as well as big daddy... not impressed).

[darkenedday]

I don't really understanf your post. First, PCLOS is probably (after Ubuntu) the most hyped distro out there. So the "underdog" nature... not so much. Also, it is #4 on Distrowatch PHR. Not an underdog.

Secondly, it has been around for years. Sure, PCLOS 2007 is only on TR3 (mind you, there was only one scheduled test release, and Final was due sometime in January... so were only 2 months late), but most of my critique was directed at 0.93a "Big Daddy" which was their release last year. This was a final release. Also, there was a 0.92 (which I never used) and maybe even more before that.

Basically, everything that PCLOS 2007 is... IS mandriva 2007.0! And by the time PCLOS 2007 comes out, Mandriva will be a version ahead (2007.1). As such, I'm not really sure what the draw is to PCLOS. It is older, buggier Mandriva and not much else (and yes, I have TR1 and TR3 as well as big daddy... not impressed).

Your point on how old it is really has no standing, my point was only to say that they have no had a final release, big daddy was not a final release nor are tr1 tr2 or tr3. . . And #4 still makes it and underdog being that ubuntu which everyone seems to praise so much for really a whole lot of nothing is thousanda of points ahead on distrowatch, oh and really distrowatch is no indication of users it just means that many hits were on the distrowatch page for PClinuxOS, how many installed it and actually use it. . . now that is another point entirely. Also I stated that I did not understand all the hype around ubuntu, not that PClinuxOS didn't get any, and there are a number of distros that get more press than pclinuxos and less than ubuntu (i.e. fedora, suse, etc.)

everyone is entitled to there oppinion however, even if one does not agree with them. I will leave you to yours, I am glad for your reply and the delightful "conversation" thank you much :-)

[igknighted]

Your point on how old it is really has no standing, my point was only to say that they have no had a final release, big daddy was not a final release nor are tr1 tr2 or tr3. . . And #4 still makes it and underdog being that ubuntu which everyone seems to praise so much for really a whole lot of nothing is thousanda of points ahead on distrowatch, oh and really distrowatch is no indication of users it just means that many hits were on the distrowatch page for PClinuxOS, how many installed it and actually use it. . . now that is another point entirely. Also I stated that I did not understand all the hype around ubuntu, not that PClinuxOS didn't get any, and there are a number of distros that get more press than pclinuxos and less than ubuntu (i.e. fedora, suse, etc.)

everyone is entitled to there oppinion however, even if one does not agree with them. I will leave you to yours, I am glad for your reply and the delightful "conversation" thank you much :-)

:) I realize at times I am a bit harsh on PCLOS, I don't think its as bad as I let on some times... in fact its the only linux disk I had when I got home this week for spring break and I NEEDED to get a distro on my home computer cause the XP install is older than 6 months :P. So it saved me there. All in all, its linux, so it can't be that bad. Just not my distro of choice.

[kazuya]

I am loving pclinuxos2007 test right now, but I am more waiting for Ubuntu Herd or Fiesty release. I am still partial to Ubuntu as things just workmore often. I used to not like pclinuxos as much as Ubuntu dapper. This included Big daddy release .93. I used to have issues with some hardware where it should have worked. I thought I was done with pclinuxos until the 2007 came out. Try it out, you would be surprised with the major improvement over the previous ones which I did not care too much for.

I too was shocked. I've got gnome, kde, xfce, fluxbox, afterstep working. It is equally as great as Ubuntu, well almost.., but it may make you switch from Ubuntu for a while.

[tdwester]

If you want to try PCLinux base distro, give SAM a try. It was the easiest install I have done and it is lightning quick.

[igknighted]

:) I am going to have to eat my words here. Despite my bias against PCLOS I installed SAM last night (PCLOS with Xfce)... and I really like it. If you have any recollection of my previous posts, two of the projects I have been most harsh to are PCLOS and Xfce. Never have been a big fan of either (althouh DreamLinux has a nice Xfce setup). I'm still tinkering, and I do have a few gripes with SAM... but overall it's rock solid. And the inclusion of OO.o 2.2rc is a GREAT touch. I've played a little with it and its soooo much nicer than 2.0.4 in Ubuntu, and I think it blows MS Office 2003 away too (especially with impress... much slicker interface than PowerPoint). I will do a more formal review in my blog (see link in sig) later today if anyone wants more info on it before trying it.

[kazuya]

I liked SAM as well. It was very nice. I am still a pclinuxos2007 supporter. It just runs plenty fast for a kde based distro, but I have been able to add gnome, xfce, fluxbox, etc., just like in Ubuntu. Right now, both distros are very comparable.

The lacking of root by default in Ubuntu is the only drawback to Ubuntu. This is easily remedied though by looking at the wiki..

Give it a try.

[Rodneyck]

Some would say this is good news...I don't. It's a shame they are forking off of Ubuntu.

PCLinuxOS becomes PCUbuntuOS

Submitted by srlinuxx on Sun, 04/01/2007 - 07:29.
pclos

Interviews


PCLinuxOS founder Texstar said in a private interview that they would using Ubuntu for the base of future versions of PCLinuxOS. Citing the old adage 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em,' Texstar states that PCLinuxOS 2007 will be delayed for another six months or so while the new change is implemented.
When asked why they would make such a drastic change Texstar said, "If Ubuntu is going to take over the Linux world, then perhaps we should be on the winning team."
Texstar also said that the upcoming default interface would indeed be gnome. He added, "All indications point to a confused user when faced with too many choices and Gnome has the built-in advantage of limited user configuration and customization."
What of all your software in the PCLOS repository, I asked. Texstar answered, "Again, it seems that the new influx of Linux users just does not want too much freedom of choice. This makes things easier for the developer in that I will not need to recompile all those packages for our new PCUbuntuOS. It seems clear that most users are happy having one app chosen for them for each task and we should be able to fit most onto a standard cdrom sized iso. We see no further need of an online repository of thousands of extra applications compiled especially for our distro anymore."
Texstar explains their position on sudo by saying, "Sudo is a very important element of the Ubuntu experience. It offers numerous capabilities while advocating very little concern over restrictive security issues. Sudo makes sure anyone can execute any command desired without having administration privileges. It removes all the unnecessary permission confusion for the new Linux user."
Not quite all the developers on the PCLOS team will be staying on during and after the conversion. Sal is quoted as saying, "This is bullsh*t! If I wanted to work on Ubuntu, I would have joined their development team long ago and got paid for it." OClient is quoted as saying, "I'm taking the sources to the current PCLOS and forking it to my own distro. I'll be calling it PCRealLinuxOS."
When asked how he felt about the dissention in the ranks, Tex said, "Well, it was to be expected. Humans naturally resist change, however good for them it may be. Most of us are excited about the change and all the extra free time it will give us."
In closing, Texstar stated to look for a test of PCUbuntuOS to be posted sometime in the near future.

http://www.tuxmachines.org/node/14885

[igknighted]

My first reaction was ew, why? Why does the world need ANOTHER Ubuntu clone? We have enough. But then, I thought perhaps this could be good. PCLOS has, from mandriva, a really good GUI control centre. Also, while PCLOS has struggled with their KDE implementation in 0.93, from the little I saw of 2007 it seemed to be a step up. Perhaps they can finally make a worthwhile KDE release of Ubuntu. Mepis and Kubuntu have never tickled my fancy.

PS... should we move this thread to the Debian section now? :P

PPS... Sorry, i just read the whole thing... i'm so sick of gnome. Very saddened by this news. Also very worried that my new distro SAM will move to the Ubuntu codebase as well, which would sadden me. I like it the way it is now.

[darkenedday]

My first reaction was ew, why? Why does the world need ANOTHER Ubuntu clone? We have enough. But then, I thought perhaps this could be good. PCLOS has, from mandriva, a really good GUI control centre. Also, while PCLOS has struggled with their KDE implementation in 0.93, from the little I saw of 2007 it seemed to be a step up. Perhaps they can finally make a worthwhile KDE release of Ubuntu. Mepis and Kubuntu have never tickled my fancy.

PS... should we move this thread to the Debian section now? :P

PPS... Sorry, i just read the whole thing... i'm so sick of gnome. Very saddened by this news. Also very worried that my new distro SAM will move to the Ubuntu codebase as well, which would sadden me. I like it the way it is now.
:confused: :mad:
agreed this whole thing saddens me too, I'm very dissappointed, I LOVE PClinuxOS and agree that we don't need another ubuntu clone, there are a few simply beautiful things I love about PClinuxOS, it's simple, very simple BUT it STILL offers me alot of choices, and I'm sorry to be rude but I hate this ******** being said that the avg user doesn't want choices, the people who don't want choices will use the standard apps supplied, standard themes, etc. and not touch the customization tools HOW IS THAT CONFUSING?! there's way too much idiocy behind this to comprehend it, ALSO if they wish to make it simpler to use KDE is much easier than gnome for the average windows user, it's set up much like it. . . AND KDE is much more powerful as far as supported apps go
also it's fast very fast, ubuntu is quick on my system, quicker still with kde instead of gnome, however PClinuxOS 2007 is much faster, people HATE slow machines I can't see how switching to the slower ubuntu base, and the slower gnome desktop can help them at all, I see them losing alot of users like this

some people hate ubuntu too, almost as many as hate openSUSE now, because ubuntu hsa become cocky, "it's our way or the highway" and the ubuntu way is not the only way and not necessarily the best way, CONFORMITY IS THE JAILER OF FREEDOM AND THE ENEMY OF CREATIVITY, I feel that if everyone switches to the "ubuntu way" there will not be enough focus on other, possible better methods.
People also don't like Mark, he's an *** alot of the time the note to openSUSE developers proved alot about the man, like i said, there are a number of reasons many people will be upset about the switch, PClinuxOS will go from being a front-runner in innovation to next to nothing I'm sure, ubuntu wil remain on top (fine with me, but I stated my problems with this earlier) once again, ubuntu conquers another competitor, I understand it's not ubuntu's decision, it's not a hostile take over, however some people may not see it this way, and I think ubuntu might (however wrong it is) start to be considered the Micro$hit of the linux world

just my two cents

[igknighted]

:confused: :mad:
agreed this whole thing saddens me too, I'm very dissappointed, I LOVE PClinuxOS and agree that we don't need another ubuntu clone, there are a few simply beautiful things I love about PClinuxOS, it's simple, very simple BUT it STILL offers me alot of choices, and I'm sorry to be rude but I hate this ******** being said that the avg user doesn't want choices, the people who don't want choices will use the standard apps supplied, standard themes, etc. and not touch the customization tools HOW IS THAT CONFUSING?! there's way too much idiocy behind this to comprehend it, ALSO if they wish to make it simpler to use KDE is much easier than gnome for the average windows user, it's set up much like it. . . AND KDE is much more powerful as far as supported apps go
also it's fast very fast, ubuntu is quick on my system, quicker still with kde instead of gnome, however PClinuxOS 2007 is much faster, people HATE slow machines I can't see how switching to the slower ubuntu base, and the slower gnome desktop can help them at all, I see them losing alot of users like this

some people hate ubuntu too, almost as many as hate openSUSE now, because ubuntu hsa become cocky, "it's our way or the highway" and the ubuntu way is not the only way and not necessarily the best way, CONFORMITY IS THE JAILER OF FREEDOM AND THE ENEMY OF CREATIVITY, I feel that if everyone switches to the "ubuntu way" there will not be enough focus on other, possible better methods.
People also don't like Mark, he's an *** alot of the time the note to openSUSE developers proved alot about the man, like i said, there are a number of reasons many people will be upset about the switch, PClinuxOS will go from being a front-runner in innovation to next to nothing I'm sure, ubuntu wil remain on top (fine with me, but I stated my problems with this earlier) once again, ubuntu conquers another competitor, I understand it's not ubuntu's decision, it's not a hostile take over, however some people may not see it this way, and I think ubuntu might (however wrong it is) start to be considered the Micro$hit of the linux world

just my two cents

Great quote, whats the original source, I am curious.

I agree with you completely. In linux, conformity == death. Security comes from variability in code. Choice comes from variability in code. Hell, one of the main reasons I use linux is because when I get bored I can change distro's and get some variability.

I think Textars line about "If you can't beat them, join them" is about the worst thing you could say. No one is going to "win". If you think it is about winning and cornering the market, why are you making linux distro's? Go work for Microsoft. Thats what THEY do. If he said they were switching because of issues with Mandriva's code and by switching they could solve some problems, I can deal with that. But this "we want to be on the winning side" crap sickens me, and I want nothing to do with this. In fact, if the developers do fork the code for PCLOS, I am strongly inclined to support this new project, where otherwise I might not have.

EDIT: OMFG... today is april 1... we've just been totally suckered I believe...

[darkenedday]

Great quote, whats the original source, I am curious.

I agree with you completely. In linux, conformity == death. Security comes from variability in code. Choice comes from variability in code. Hell, one of the main reasons I use linux is because when I get bored I can change distro's and get some variability.

I think Textars line about "If you can't beat them, join them" is about the worst thing you could say. No one is going to "win". If you think it is about winning and cornering the market, why are you making linux distro's? Go work for Microsoft. Thats what THEY do. If he said they were switching because of issues with Mandriva's code and by switching they could solve some problems, I can deal with that. But this "we want to be on the winning side" crap sickens me, and I want nothing to do with this. In fact, if the developers do fork the code for PCLOS, I am strongly inclined to support this new project, where otherwise I might not have.

EDIT: OMFG... today is april 1... we've just been totally suckered I believe...


quote's from JFK, i might have messed it up a bit, got it off my art teacher, genious of a woman, but got fired for it

any way

I doubt this is a joke, there was a link in the post about this and it seems like a legit article, even if it isn't maybe the outrage it caused, not just in this forum, they'll never consider it

[darkenedday]

maybe I'll file the switch as a bug report :twisted:

EDIT: ok you were right, although that scared alot of people over at pclinuxOS, apparently not to many of them are really fond of ubuntu, and i was right some of them are beginning to equate ubuntu with MS haha

look here (http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=20743.0)

[darkenedday]

word of advice, if you use a Nvidia GeForce2 mx/mx 400 video card or a few similar ones, you may not want to use PClinuxOS untill the final release of 2007, which shouldn't be far way but still. PClinuxOS is still great even if you do have these cards and don't care about fancy 3d accelerated graphix

[SunnyRabbiera]

Yeh that report was a joke...

the 2007 version is finally out by the way, I am downloading it now.

[ThinkBuntu]

Let us know how it is! I was disappointed with very slow Synaptic performance, so I went back to Ubuntu. Also, updates kept writing over my settings in PCLOS, which was discouraging, to say the least. Anyway, this still may be one I recommend to new users.

[SunnyRabbiera]

Oh this baby is smooth, I think whatever erros she might have had before are gone now :D

[darkenedday]

ok, haven't had the chance to d/l and burn the new pclinuxOS cd yet, how is it? how much better than tr3?

[igknighted]

ok, haven't had the chance to d/l and burn the new pclinuxOS cd yet, how is it? how much better than tr3?

Like Ubuntu, if you have been upgrading since TR3 you probably have the full version. No since in wasting another CD to install the same thing.

[trmiv]

Like Ubuntu, if you have been upgrading since TR3 you probably have the full version. No since in wasting another CD to install the same thing.

From what I've read on the PcLinuxos forums, that is not that case. If you want all the features and updates of the final, you have to do a fresh install of final.

[itsjustarumour]

It's so simple to use, the "control panel" so-to-speak is wonderful, it comes with java and flash, and it's FAST, I mean REALLY REALLY FAST!

I tried out PCLinuxOS 2007 today, and I was stunned! Seriously, one of my first questions was "But, but... WHY IS IT SO FAST?" It was amazing. I just don't understand how they did it (I was using the Gnome 2.16 desktop rather than the default KDE) Also, I have to agree, the PCLinuxOS Control Centre was absolutely beautiful!

[encho]

I am loving pclinuxos2007 test right now, but I am more waiting for Ubuntu Herd or Fiesty release. I am still partial to Ubuntu as things just workmore often. I used to not like pclinuxos as much as Ubuntu dapper. This included Big daddy release .93. I used to have issues with some hardware where it should have worked. I thought I was done with pclinuxos until the 2007 came out. Try it out, you would be surprised with the major improvement over the previous ones which I did not care too much for.

I too was shocked. I've got gnome, kde, xfce, fluxbox, afterstep working. It is equally as great as Ubuntu, well almost.., but it may make you switch from Ubuntu for a while.


I tried out PCLinuxOS 2007 today, and I was stunned! Seriously, one of my first questions was "But, but... WHY IS IT SO FAST?" It was amazing. I just don't understand how they did it (I was using the Gnome 2.16 desktop rather than the default KDE) Also, I have to agree, the PCLinuxOS Control Centre was absolutely beautiful!

Well, it made ME switch, although I still prefer this community. And I'll keep feisty on my laptop, as suspend/hibernate work perfectly. So will be sitting on two chairs from now on :D

[floke]

I'm feeling very jealous. Tried to install PCLOS last week. LiveCD ran perfect, but install chucked a kernel error on trying to boot (something about root filesystem not found and trying to kill init...?). Tried twice, verified MD5sums etc. No luck. Also - and this is really the killer preventing me from trying again - after install GParted no longer recognised my partitions! sudo fdisk -l saw everything fine but GParted reported an unallocated lump of a HD! If anyone has any ideas?? Otherwise, enjoy PCLOS you lucky people.

[encho]

Doesn't sound good. I would suggest backing up everything just in case. Then maybe clean repartitioning.

[dpar]

I was waiting for the final to come out to see what it was like. I have to say that I'm very impressed! Nice distro!

[itsjustarumour]

I was waiting for the final to come out to see what it was like. I have to say that I'm very impressed! Nice distro!

I've been playing with it for a couple of days now, and apart from my comments earlier in this thread I've also been wowed by the better-than-average-for-Linux font rendering and the crystal-clear sound (sound in Feisty for me has always been a bit distorted, no matter what fixes I tried - was fine in Edgy btw.)

Top distro!!! =D>

[joe.turion64x2]

I am writing from PCLinuxOS 2007 (final). It is REALLY FAST! Despite the fact I only have 512MB of RAM my machine is faster than with any other Linux (even Mandriva 2007), and henceforth make me forget from buying another DDR stick.

Beryl runs on it flawlessly (my NVIDIA card helps a lot to that), and it is a rock solid system, in fact it has been connected all day because I am downloading a Debian DVD.

I can not understand why is it so fast because it is KDE based. It remains to be seen if it beats Ubuntu 7.04 in my laptop for battery life.

Joe.

[igknighted]

I can not understand why is it so fast because it is KDE based. It remains to be seen if it beats Ubuntu 7.04 in my laptop for battery life.

KDE's "slowness" is mostly a myth. KDE has more gizmos than gnome does, but it also has the ability to turn them all off. My guess is that the PCLOS folk have turned some of these off to speed it up some. KDE also shares libraries better. It's a harder initial load, and on really old systems it can cause it to drag, but on newer/not so old systems (assuming you use mostly KDE apps) it leads to a more responsive system.

Battery life, sadly, has never seemed to be a strong point in linux (in my experience). If it works well, then please, let me know!

[joe.turion64x2]

KDE's "slowness" is mostly a myth. KDE has more gizmos than gnome does, but it also has the ability to turn them all off. My guess is that the PCLOS folk have turned some of these off to speed it up some. KDE also shares libraries better. It's a harder initial load, and on really old systems it can cause it to drag, but on newer/not so old systems (assuming you use mostly KDE apps) it leads to a more responsive system.

Battery life, sadly, has never seemed to be a strong point in linux (in my experience). If it works well, then please, let me know!
I get the most of my laptop's battery in Linux, specifically with Ubuntu (you know, there is a CPU Scaling applet in GNOME). In Windows XP, despite the fact it has all the OEM's utilities, the battery barely gives me 3 hours, in Fedora Core 6 I can get as much as 3:15, and in Ubuntu 7.04 almost 3:30.
Of course I have not used any 'scientific method' to demonstrate this but from my experience with the computer I can tell it.
Talking about DE's I like GNOME more because it uses less system resources.

Joe.

[Neo40]

Anyone knows how can I apply these patches on PCLinuxOS to improve the rendering of fonts on LCD screens?
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=343670&highlight=subpixel

Thanks

[Fundi]

It's quite impressive and certinaly very easy to use but the way the menus were laid out were a bit confusing and it didn't have some software in it repo's that i rely on.

[joe.turion64x2]

That is the only problem I have with it, some software is missing. For instance I am forced to install an old version of Kile (for PCLOS 0.93 I think) because it is not already in the repos for PCLOS 2007.

For a normal person PCLinuxOS with its current selection of software is more than enough.

Joe.

[floke]

My original problem with PCLOS seems to have been my fault.
So: I created ext3 partitions in edgyliveCD. Then installed PCLOS onto them without letting PCLOS installer format them. Then installed grub to the partition rather than the mbr. Then copied stanza over to ubuntu grub menu.lst......and all is peachy.

Currently using PCLOS :)

[bootslap]

It is one of the coolest distro's around ... pretty fast .... it is the first KDE distro after opensuse to impress me ... surely deserves the distrowatch 2nd ranking ...Font rendering too is better than most distro's ... surely a must try distro !!

[itsjustarumour]

Font rendering too is better than most distro's ... surely a must try distro !!

I'd also noted that the font rendering seemed pretty good for a Linux distro! :-) Not sure why, I haven't really investigated yet. Maybe there somes David Turner/Freetype gubbins installed by default or something - openSUSE does, although having said that I think font rendering in openSUSE is still one of its weak points...

[tchoklat]

gotta agree. I have tried recently Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Fedora, Sabayon, Sam and PCLinuxOS and believe, whilst I maintain Ubuntu as my 'current' main OS, that PCLinuxOS is probably the best. Just my thioughts!

[joe.turion64x2]

It is one of the coolest distro's around ... pretty fast .... it is the first KDE distro after opensuse to impress me ... surely deserves the distrowatch 2nd ranking ...Font rendering too is better than most distro's ... surely a must try distro !!
Yesterday I installed GNOME in PCLinuxOS 2007 and you can't imagine how fast it was. Even with Beryl up in consumed between 150 and 200MB of RAM!

[wilberfan]

Wish I had as much luck with this distro as some of the rest of you!

I'm one of those newb's that knows just enough to be dangerous, you know? And, sure enough, I seriously borked my system (no, I mean SERIOUSLY)...

Not counting the stuff that was my fault--I was disappointed that PCLOS did NOT detect my Ubuntu partitions! (I guess I've been spoiled? I thought EVERY distro did that! OpenSuSE 10.2 did it--which is the only other Linux distro I've added to my XP / Ubuntu mix.)

The other thing was that I could NOT get the proper screen rez out of it--despite even adding a modeline... (This might have been a driver thing...before I could get the nvidia driver loaded--all hell broke loose... And, to be fair, Ubuntu has NEVER gotten the screen rez right out-of-the-box, either.)

Over the next several hours, my dual-boot (XP, Feisty) system spiraled into total non-bootability. I even had to run testdisk because I borked all the partitions on my main drive!! And, to top it all off--Windows XP does NOT want to reinstall! (I have no friggin' idea why...it keeps telling me that the NTFS partition is no XP-worthy for some reason!)

It wouldn't be fair to blame PCLOS for my dilema--my inexperience is to blame for that--but if it had recognized my Ubuntu install in the first place...

Sigh...

[greymongrey]

That is some terrible luck, wilberfan. I hope you get it all worked out.

I can't stop praising PCLOS enough. Everything worked right out of the box. I did have to reinstall it because I installed the newer ATI driver instead of the legacy one that my X1300 needed but that was my fault. Once I got the right driver installed, just a click of a button got Beryl working. I jumped through 10 hoops to get it working in Ubuntu.

All in all a very pleasant experience. I think this is the distro to beat right now.

[wilberfan]

That is some terrible luck, wilberfan. I hope you get it all worked out.

I can't stop praising PCLOS enough. Everything worked right out of the box.

It took awhile (I even woke up tossing and turning at 2:30am and got up and worked on it some more!)--but I got Windows XP and Feisty reinstalled. I'm gonna stay away from PCLOS for awhile though! ;)

Did it recognized your Feisty?? (Or did you install it on it's own?)

[greymongrey]

Sadly, I just did away with Fiesty, for now. But your problem is fairly common from what I read.

[dpar]

That is the only problem I have with it, some software is missing. For instance I am forced to install an old version of Kile (for PCLOS 0.93 I think) because it is not already in the repos for PCLOS 2007.

Keep reloading the repos and checking. They are still in the process of being built up.

[handy]

If you check out DistroWatch (http://distrowatch.com/) top 100, on the 7 day Data Span: PCLinuxOS is number ONE, it has knocked Ubuntu into second position!!

[encho]

It's been there for 2 months or so. And now: also in 30 day and 3 months data span!

But ubuntu still has largest community - forums are 50 times more active and so is irc.


If you check out DistroWatch (http://distrowatch.com/) top 100, on the 7 day Data Span: PCLinuxOS is number ONE, it has knocked Ubuntu into second position!!

[handy]

It's been there for 2 months or so. And now: also in 30 day and 3 months data span!

But ubuntu still has largest community - forums are 50 times more active and so is irc.

PCLinux is really moving!

I still use the Ubuntu forums whether I am using Ubuntu or not. Also, sometimes when things get too big they start to loose something, an indefinable quality can slip away...

I'm just checking out the current LiveCD on my test machine, & it looks great, everything is working hardware wise, & the KDE setup is at least as attractive & uncluttered as the PC-BSD setup, which was, until this PCLinux the only KDE I ever liked.

Beautiful like DreamLinux, without the obvious bugs.

I'll install off the LiveCD & see how it goes.

[joe.turion64x2]

I must confess I have quited using PCLOS entirely, at least for the time being.

Everything was excellent, hardware support, speed (above all), but I found a problem I could not solve and quit. The problem is that it can not handle very well names in foreign languages, and since I am from Mexico I have lots of documents with Spanish titles (special characters and so forth that PCLOS wouldn't recognize properly). I found an option to set the character encoding within it, and it fixed the problem with the local files but when I did so, names in USB keys did not display properly (again some of them are Spanish, and the USB keys are formated as FAT32).

I was astonished to find that issue because none of the Linux distros I previously tested gave me that problem (all of them respected my way of naming files, and honestly I was not gonna rename hundreds of files just for a darn program to see them properly. I tried to 'fix' it editing some config files to match other 'well behaved' distros, but that did not work still.

With sorrow and all I had to remove it from my machine, perhaps I try it again, when it gets more support for foreign languages. Anyway it is the fastest.

Thanks.
Joe.

[handy]

I must confess I have quited using PCLOS entirely, at least for the time being.

Everything was excellent, hardware support, speed (above all), but I found a problem I could not solve and quit. The problem is that it can not handle very well names in foreign languages, and since I am from Mexico I have lots of documents with Spanish titles (special characters and so forth that PCLOS wouldn't recognize properly). I found an option to set the character encoding within it, and it fixed the problem with the local files but when I did so, names in USB keys did not display properly (again some of them are Spanish, and the USB keys are formated as FAT32).

I was astonished to find that issue because none of the Linux distros I previously tested gave me that problem (all of them respected my way of naming files, and honestly I was not gonna rename hundreds of files just for a darn program to see them properly. I tried to 'fix' it editing some config files to match other 'well behaved' distros, but that did not work still.

With sorrow and all I had to remove it from my machine, perhaps I try it again, when it gets more support for foreign languages. Anyway it is the fastest.

Thanks.
Joe.

It looks like there are only German & Dutch remastered version of PClinuxOS at this stage.

It's an unfortunate situation Joe :( hopefully due to the fast growing popularity of the OS the language problem will become quickly solved.

[joe.turion64x2]

It looks like there are only German & Dutch remastered version of PClinuxOS at this stage.

It's an unfortunate situation Joe :( hopefully due to the fast growing popularity of the OS the language problem will become quickly solved.

I did not know about the remastered versions, then it is a matter of time to get a Spanish version too. I only hope it comes soon.

Joe.

[Quillz]

If you check out DistroWatch (http://distrowatch.com/) top 100, on the 7 day Data Span: PCLinuxOS is number ONE, it has knocked Ubuntu into second position!!
I don't see this as being a good or bad thing, it's just more popular at the moment, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's a good distro, and that's all that should matter.

[handy]

I don't see this as being a good or bad thing, it's just more popular at the moment, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's a good distro, and that's all that should matter.

It's a great distro', & I think it is fantastic to have so many wonderful distro's to choose from. Each innovation & improvement becomes available to the other disto's to learn from & improve on if they choose, so everyone is a winner.

[suziequzie]

I just installed it on my test drive last week, but didn't get around to seriously using it till today.

I've had problems with DVD authoring in Kubuntu, I won't go into details, let's just say it was never successful.

I was able to burn a half hour Venture Bros. pilot using the DeVeDe that was installed as a standard feature. No missing libraries or codecs. And it actually plays. It's not a coaster!

It is a slick and polished distro. The PC control centre is very nice, and I like a lot of the standard software it installs.

And yes, it is a pretty fast distro too. Even running Compiz (something else I had problems with in Kubuntu).

I like the default artwork. The only desktop tweaking I did was to change the wallpaper. The KDM and splash screens are fine.

I will be using it now and then alongside Kubuntu. All my email history, etc, are in Kubuntu, so that's gonna stick around for awhile. I'll use the new OS to play around with and testdrive.

I love multi-boot.

[joe.turion64x2]

Recently I installed Debian Etch in my machine and it got the crown of the fastest distro (both boot time and responsiveness).

Joe.

[thelinux_guy]

Ah pclos! Let me tell you, this is the best distro ever. I swear, if it had a little more software in there repositories, I would have stayed :)
(And I tried adding Repositories to the sources.list, but to no avail )

But right now, Ubuntu is perfect, so no need to switch right now :)

[Frak]

I'm not trying to be a party pooper, but could somebody please explain to me why PCLinuxOS is so great. I tried it out and only found that it looks alot like XP.
I'm not trying to be a troll, or try to flame. I just really want to know what the big hubbub is about. i.e. Its features etc.
Thanks.

[joe.turion64x2]

I'm not trying to be a party pooper, but could somebody please explain to me why PCLinuxOS is so great. I tried it out and only found that it looks alot like XP.
I'm not trying to be a troll, or try to flame. I just really want to know what the big hubbub is about. i.e. Its features etc.
Thanks.
I like it because it is REALLY fast although it is KDE based by default. If GNOME is installed it flies.

I don't use it however because it ain't got good special character's support (mostly from foreign languages).

Joe.

[buzzmandt]

i like to recomend it as the first linux to try from windows because out of the box support for flash, java, most video codecs, mp3 (love amarok), and streaming media....
even as much as i love ubuntu it's a pain the **** to get it to stream sirius radio and i've done it several times. pclinuxos "just works".

[Frak]

i like to recomend it as the first linux to try from windows because out of the box support for flash, java, most video codecs, mp3 (love amarok), and streaming media....
even as much as i love ubuntu it's a pain the **** to get it to stream sirius radio and i've done it several times. pclinuxos "just works".
Good enough for me.
Still staying with my 'buntu though.