Comments for Review: PCLinuxOS (PCLOS) 2007 Final

I have been an on and off Linux user for the past few years. I know only a few commands and understand little about what's going on. The drivers situation is one that is a bastard child along with codec problems that many users see switching from Windows to Linux. If you had a chance to convert any or all files from AAC, MP3, WMA to Vorbis Ogg then people would end up converting everything they have from Itunes or whatever to Linux and start living freely. Also, my Broadcom wireless has been a complete bitch between SuSe, Fedora, Ubuntu, and other distros. These distros also have shit for a wireless controls and monitoring. The basic Networking applet that can be set to startup on PCLinuxOS. The one that's default auto-start on Mandriva. My Broadcom card worked with the official drivers downloaded from the Compaq website. These drivers were considered Invalid! to SuSe's Ndiswrapper downloaded with the 1-click tool. These drivers work great in PCLinuxOS and probably will work great in Mandriva 2007. The system appears lightweight memory footprint to the RAM. The large software selection and media out of the box capability is the best thing ever. Take it from me... I have no internet connection at home... I loaded this OS last night, no-internet for updates, no freedom of apt-get after installation. I watched and episode of the Boondocks while I was preparing my Music library with Amarok. I'm at the coffee shop with the drivers I installed last night and appeared to work properly. They do... They also quickly connected the the Wireless Access Point with very little trouble. It also has stopped a attenuation error on boot that i got from the community Broadcom drivers. My opinion... And yea you can bitch and moan about the partitioning of disks but to be honest we have been creating, editing, moving, resizing, partitions since the beginning of time. At least it's in a GUI format. I hope PCLinuxOS is here to stay and I can't wait for the KDE 4.0 version. It's going to be awesome if things continue to be so simple. Allowing me to get into the Linux OS with my WiFi up and running so I can continue my quest for knowledge of Linux using this OS that takes no commands to operate. Basically! I have been through every top distribution on distrowatch.com.... There is a reason that PCLinuxOS is #1... I hope that there are packages for the top used codecs and filetype converters with Fedora 9 or SuSe. It's been a nightmare switching to Linux because of the proprietary drivers bullshit.

PCLinuxOS is #1 for me. I've tried dozens of distros with mixed results, but when I booted the live distro it inspired confidence.
Looks nicely finished. Subtle. Professional. Promises to be simple. And it just works. No frigging around with bootcodes.
A minor annoyance is the requests while starting (I just go enter, enter, enter, enter, enter and then change anything later needed when running. I run all live. It is stable, well tested and the few times I have managed to get it to fall over was my fault (ram is cheap- I must get a big stick.) It does look simple, and it is, but I keep discovering extra stuff that works. Like the peer to peer client, and with a cheap USB adapter, wireless WI-FI that discovered networks.
I think all the other distros could look at PCLinuxOS and get some good ideas. Installing to HDD seems to be a chore for many distros. I use a spare HDD medium size 10~20G for testing. A quick binary wipe previous anything with UBDisk, quick format to early Win. , go the default all install. Sometimes a previous Linux install causes a confused installer. No probs for PCLinuxOS is #1.
Now if they could put a super simple live remaster submenu e.g. like MCNLIVE live...

Ok, I was just reading about this distro trying to learn more. So after reading this site I had to respond. First I am new to linux and I wanted a new OS cause I am tired of windows crap. I found many linux distros and filled many cd's while I was looking. After about
15 distros I tried Ubuntu with no problem installing on an extra hard drive. But I had many problems after the install. I thought it was just me but then I tried PClinuxOS and so far everything works great to my surprise. Hopefully I will soon be windows free. Oh by the way I know nothing about programming linux codes. Just a green horn but with this distro I believe I will succeed. I am a cnc-programmer with a home built pc. Amd x64 dualcore 4200+, 2 gigs of ram, Nvidia Gforce 6200, 3 WD hard drives (320,80,80 gig) one OS on each, VISTA,XP,PClinuxOS. Soon to be just LINUX with more storage...LOL. I still have hope of being Windows free!! Thanks TEXSTAR AND GANG!!!

Thanks for the review. I must admit though that I learned so much more from the exchange of opinions shared by commentators.

My first burned copy of PCLinuxOS 2.21.2 (gnome) I was to learn later turned out to be a bad burn. First time I boot that live CD on two different machines, I got wavy lines and frozen computer. I dismissed it as incompatibility. Of all the distros I tried, Ubuntu 7.1 in all it's flavors (Kubuntu, LTS, Xubuntu, server, etc..) booted up and intalled flawlessly on three different machines. Ubuntu 7.1 is the one on my home PC without internet connection dual booting with WinXP Home Ed. I like Ubuntu but my I cant do much on the reacreation department since I couldnt update and install restricted drivers, cant play mp3s and DVD. Other than that, I have done office works and image editing on Ubuntu without a hitch.

I am very curious why PCLinuxOS is number one in the DistroWatch ranking while Ubuntu is second. I again downloaded another image, checked md5sum and slow-burned the iso on 8x speed only. Woohoooo! What a treat! Now I know why it is number one! Immediate usability right out of the box! mp3s, mov, even individual .dat files of VCD format plays without downloading any codecs! This is what I need at home (pc with no internet connection) as I am learning as much as I can what Linux is all about. I already ordered two books from Amazon to use learning tools on my quest to gain some degree of skill in Linux computing. I am in bit of a hurry to learn since I am already 40 years old and took Linux seriously only 3 weeks ago. My aim, to teach my child the value of open source. And, God willing, to pass on this knowledge to less priviledged school children in our area. In my delight I burned two copies each of PCLinuxOS 2007 and PCLinux gnome 2.21.2. Both Live CDs booted up nicely on our office laptop, an indication that it will also run smoothly on my PC at home. The only glitch is that when shutdown, the screen freeze after removing the Live CD and pressing enter as per instruction.

PCLinuxOS's Control Center is a work of genius. But I have only barely scratched the surface of these popular distros. But as a newbie, I now understand why PCLinuxOS and Ubuntu are the top dogs in DistroWatch. To the developers of PCLinuxOS, thank you for such a useful product and for including codecs on most popular multi-media formats right there on the Live CD. People without internet connection appreciate this a lot! Now I can go on learning Linux while listening to my favorite music and watch movies wihout rebooting to WinXP! Thank you, thank you!