Comments for Review: PCLinuxOS (PCLOS) 2007 Final

The installer does work but it's not all simple or apparent on its own. To really use it from a novices standpoint, you need the Installation Guide loaded up for most of the partitioning section.<

I'll have to really disagree here.

I consider myself an ""intermediate beginner"". And installing PCLinuxOS was MUCH MUCH easier and friendlier than installing Ubuntu (Ubuntu actually crashed severla times, but I'll leave that for now). Much much much easier.

Tell me, what's friendlier : an installation software that gives you the option to install at the root of your partition and does it FOR YOU, <b>properly</b> (PCLinux OS), or an OS which gives you the possibility to do it but doesn't explain how to do it properly <b>without messing things up</b> (dear ubuntuers : what the heck do (hd0,0) or (hd1,3) or (hd1,4), etc. mean ???? I know, now, but I had to open Firefox, and search for at least one hour for proper documentation, while I was installing the thing)?

Almost anybody who's installed an OS before does know what a partition is. But almost nobody knows what the root of a partition (ad its name, according to Mr Grub!)is.

Sorry folks, but except for the little anxiety one might experience in front of his/her computers partitions' layout when it's time to decide where to put the damn OS, paritionning is no big deal (I've done it when I knew nothing about computers)... if you have a backup... And EVERYBODY should have one!

Take care.

I use slackware for my own desktop. but for family member's that I try and convert to GNU, I have given them ubuntu in the past.

I've read a lot of good articles about PCLinux so decided to give it a try.

IMHO I can't give them PCLinux. My biggest issue's are:

1.) package management:
example: full install of pclinux2007. open up the package manager, and select "kontact". It downloaded fine, installed fine, or so I thought. There was no icon in the menu, not a big deal. But here is the real problem, it won't launch! Why? Because the package manager did not think about kmail, akregator, knode, etc...what about the depends. How did I find this out, by launching kontact in a terminal. A new linux user would not know to do this.

Now since I'm a Slacker, I already know what is needed. This is not an issue for me if I wanted PC linux on my desktop. But again, my goal was to give this distro to family. New converts. They'd never know what to do should they decide to add applications down the road, long after I loaded up the pc for them, then they would have to call me. Then I'm left being the family IT guy on call 24/7 and that's not my desire... that's why I'm trying to convert them from Windows :D

2. The second major issue I have is that Tex mentions that ATI "can be added after install", but I've yet seen where there is any documentation on-board in the cd that tells how. The drak config menu wizard ran, downloaded and installed...and froze the system.

Now the failure to install it is not my concern. I realized that the wizard didnt work, yanked out the kernel and drivers and built my own, done. This is becuase I understand from slackware, but my family wouldnt know how to recover a dead system. Now why is this an issue? Well if down the road, xorg releases a security update, Tex will have to release a new X. That will require ATI to be rebuilt and reinstalled...hence the issue. My family members would put in the update, reboot, lose 3d rendering, decide to reinstall it...and boom! Bork the system. Not good. It's not Tex or Linux's fault that ATI needs to be rebuilt, but I can fault them for not having documentation that walks you thru this process on board. Hopefully ATI's recent promise for opensourced drivers will really come true.

My problem is not the bad install of ATI, it's really due to the lack of documentation that comes with the distro. 3D rendering does need to be addressed in detail, plain and simple. Especially when one of the features you are offering is "easy beryl", etc.

Issue 3:
Installer did see windows xp on my box, but not my slackware. Not a big deal, I know how to edit grub, tho I despise it for my own use. But PClinux throws it's own initrd at extra add on linux's ...which initrd's are not used for slackware. So I got the pclinux emblem up at top, while booting slackware yielding all kinds of cross-linked modules. Nice job huh! No biggie for me, partimage restore and done..no more cross linked modules..but you get my point. Now this wouldn't happen for new converts but is worth mentioning, so if you have more linux's onboard be careful with PCLinux.

Issue 1 really is the deal breaker for me tho. Considering this distro is very young, and that it's quite evident that they are working hard on this distro, warrants me to keep an eye on them in in the future. But it's just not passing the 'grandma' test yet...

So unfortunately I'm left still with giving ubuntu. And I mean unfortunate. There are plenty of things that I particularly dont like about it either. But it remains the choice for family and grandma for now, so when updates come by they can put them in and I dont get the phone call. Then in time, after they get used to gnu/linux...I rip out ubuntu and give them Slackware :D

A good review but basically a personal observation and your mileage may vary depending on your own personal preference.

As far as the installer goes, while Draklive-installer is not the absolute best, it does the job and does it well. PCLOS was one of the first Linux distros I installed last year and I did not find the partitioner to be particularly intimidating. I think for a noob the warnings are particularly appropriate. Not everyone is an expert and the reminder that what is going to happen might destroy your data or Windows installation is a good thing. I know that on my first install of PCLOS it went quite well and I did not need to reference the installation notes during the install. Overall I prefer the installation routine to the one included in the *buntu's. But one thing that I have always done is to review the installation notes for any new operating system before I even attempt to install it. Plus I check the forums to see if there are any issues with installation that might affect me. I would do this even if it was Windows that I was trying to install.

What I think this reivew and some of the comments show is that GNU/Linux has a long way to go with hardware support. I don't think this is the fault of the individual distros as much as it is the fault of the hardware suppliers. They are extremely shortsighted by being Windows centric, but we saw the same thing before Windows became the defacto desktop. It was hard in the days of Windows 3.0 to find drivers for all the hardware that was available then and those numbers pale in comparison to what is available now. And every time there was a Windows upgrade, something broke and you had to wait for new drivers. It is an incredibly daunting task to expect the individual distro developers to write drivers to cover everything available. There is always going to be something that doesn't work, but I think the developers need to concentrate primarily on video and wireless drivers as that is the bulk of the complaints.

I have probably installed and tried over 50 different distros and have come back to PCLOS on two of my boxes because it just works. No special work needed to get it to install and function. This is not everyones experience but it is mine and that makes the difference as far as I am concerned.

I have tried both the Ubuntu final and the PCLinux final. PCLinux is by far the superior release.

Under

Community Support

you wrote:

When I Googled for how to install the nvidia drivers, I was taken to a Wiki page that used kernel 6.18 as the reference. Old stuff that didn't work.

Maybe you meant kernel 2.6.18 and if you meant 2.6.18,how come it is old stuff when PCLOS comes with 2.6.18?

"Radically simple or more of the same?"

Ha, ha. With all the talk about Ubuntu's partitioner great superiority, I decided to give it a try (even though I had told myself never to use Gnome again when they tried to force all users to open a new window per folder, *and would not give any other option*). Any way, this is how the partitions on my test machine look like from PCLinuxOS:

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa107/rm2_bucket/Partitions.jpg

As you can see there, I have a few existing partitions and a 12 GB unpartitioned area that I left there in order to install a separate OS. So, I boot the freshly downloaded Ubuntu CD, and go into the partition tool to see what it sees. And this is what it shows me:

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa107/rm2_bucket/Screenshot--dev-sda-GParted.jpg

Scary isn't it? Fortunately, going back into PCLinuxOS was no problem and the partitions are still shown fine. But, I just cannot install Ubuntu without destroying my existing partitions, as far as I can tell. Once again, Gnome's my way or the highway version of user friendliness is just something that doesn't jive with me.

I like PClinuxOS a lot, Its the easiest distro to set up with everything you want (flash,mplayer,JRE, BERYL) in my experience. Its also the fastest distro(on my 2 computers so far) upon 1st install. I've tried and fully installed Gentoo, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Suse, Fedora, Vector, and slackware and for me, PClinux OS is just the easiest and fastest to use. and although i do know what i'm doing, ease of use is nice. Plus, The devs are really in touch with the community, its great.

Decent review, but too much review of the installer, not enough about other things.

Oh and hey, if you use another distro and it works good thats awesome. Just keep enjoying whatever works.

you guys should try elive-debian based beautiful unstable and works for me.

used this distro since its first incarnation , loved it - has everything u need what more can i say - except bye bye Billy !!

;-)