PCLinuxOS Magazine Now Available!

The new PCLinuxOS Magazine is now available free for downloading! It's a terrific issue with lots of information, tips, and tricks to get your PCLinuxOS system running it's best.

I've had a chance to take look at the current (July 2009) issue, and it's a chock-filled 45 pages! A few highlights that caught my eye at first glance: There's a very informative article on graphic file formats which is a must read for all artists and photographers. In addition, there's a terrific article on PCLinuxOS and digital photography. For new users, there's a piece on how to utilize the Update Notifier app to help keep your PCLinuxOS system current and up-to-date.

And, the folks at the magazine were kind enough to invite me along as a contributor. Each month, PCLinuxOS Magazine will have a special Linux version of my Double Take cartoon (distributed nationally by Georgetoon.com).

The above image is a thumbnail teaser of the cartoon running in this month's edition. To see the entire cartoon, simply download the magazine at http://www.pclosmag.


The official announcement is as follows:

The New PCLinuxOS Magazine, which comprises volunteers from the PCLinuxOScommunity is proud to announce the release of it's July 2009 edition. This edition brought forth several decisions from the new crew to bring it forth to a monthly release and the selection of a new Chief Editor, Paul Arnote aka parnote.

The magazine is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license and by downloading, you acknowledge and accept this license agreement.

The July 2009 edition includes:

The Phoenix Master

MiniMe 2009, PCLinuxOS 2009.2 and Zen Mini

The Simplest Way to Rip Audio CDs

Community Packaging

Update-notifier

Georgetoon

Using AT&T's Newest 3G Modem with MiniMe and 2009.1

ms_meme's little nook

Through the Lens

Scripts-R-Us

Graphic File Formats Comparison

and more!

Visit http://www.pclosmag.com and download your copy of The New PCLinuxOS Magazine July 2009 Issue now!

So, I hope you'll take a moment to download the magazine. It's terrific! (and looks great, too! ) You'll find it both entertaining and informative. And you'll understand all the more why so many folks are embracing PCLinuxOS as their Operating System of choice.

Get Linux

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

and thank you for choosing PCLinuxOS. We bring all the power of Linux to your desktop plus our famous "cool-friendly touch" -- we hope it provides complete satisfaction. We highly recommend that you visit PCLinuxOS.com to take full advantage of news, help forums, and access to hundreds of high-quality applications for your PCLinuxOS system.

Forums : Community based help forums have been established to discuss various issues with PCLinuxOS. If you would like to participate in the discussion you will need to register yourself on the PCLinuxOS forum. Please note we do not use your name or email for any marketing purposes.

Projects: MyPCLinuxOS.com is a separate community run site geared toward developing handy tools, documentation, graphics and other things for PCLinuxOS.

PCLinuxOS WIKI: A community based user guide has been established where users can find answers. PCLinuxOS Wiki

Donations: The success of PCLinuxOS is dependent upon monetary donations from you. If you would like to see continued development, please consider making a modest donation to this exciting project. Donations are made through Google Checkout to provide a safe and secure way to send funds. 

That's the message that comes up in your browser when it is first launched in PCLinuxOS.  And it covers just about everything you'll need to know when you first start using this terrific Linux distribution.    It's a road map of sorts as you climb behind the wheel of this new finely tuned sports car.

Believe me, if you want to breath new life into you PC, get PCLinuxOS!  If your PC is sluggish and straining and suffers from "Windows-itis", then click on the above road map and get a better operating system!

If you already have PCLinuxOS, then you are to be congratulated!


Get Linux.

Music Slight of Hand.

I'm continually amazed by Linux and how software rich it is. There are thousands of terrific software applications at your immediate disposal. Simply open up the Linux repository with Synaptic (or similar package manager), search for the application, and click to install. After a few moments, you're using that particular piece of software! There's no fumbling for disks or entering numbers/codes to unlock or verify the application. Click, install. It's that easy!

And you need only be engaged with the Linux community to learn about all this terrific software.

I've always said that the best part of Linux is its community of users. Linux users from all over the globe are always there with a helping hand, tip, trick or tweak to get your system running optimally.

A case in point is this blog. I created it to advocate Linux. In the process of telling the world how wonderful Linux is, I've met many experienced Linux users who have introduced me to Linux software, desktop managers, file managers, etc.

And because of a blog entry the other day, I learned about a terrific little app called AudioKonverter from PCLinuxOS users.

AudioKonverter is a KDE service menu that allows you to convert audio/music files from one format to another. Simply right click on the audio file and convert from MP3 to Ogg or WAV to MP3 or FLAC to M4A, etc. It's that easy! The above screen shot from my PCLinuxOS laptop shows exactly how effortless it is.

So, for instance, if you have an .avi video file of your daughter's piano recital, you can use AudioKonverter to extract the audio portion and save it as an MP3. Load the new file to your MP3 player and listen to it in your car.

And I learned about this terrific app from Linux users, specifically, PCLinuxOS users. You can do the same thing. Just get Linux.


I HIGHLY recommend that you get PCLinuxOS. Download it, burn it to disk, run the Live CD and then install it. You'll be saying goodbye to all the Windows headaches of spyare and viruses. You'll also be saying hello to a stable, secure operating system with thousands of software titles (like AudiKonverter) and a wonderful welcoming community of users.

Get Linux.

PCLinuxOS! Everything Works!

One of the most biggest challenges with some Linux distributions is getting all the multimedia to work. It's a real disappointment to not have Quicktime movies or Flash video play from popular websites like Apple.com movie trailers or YouTube.com.

The really great thing about PCinuxOS is that everything works! All my multimedia (MP3s, Window Media files, AVIs , DVDs, OGGs, etc.) work right out of the box! If for some unknown reason, I can't get a specific media file to play, it's just a simple matter of downloading the correct codec or data file from the repository. (and the PCLinuxOS community is right there to give a helping hand!)

The above screen shot shows my PCLinuxOS laptop streaming audio from WABCRadio.com. I've sometimes found radio stations' audio streams to be a bit tricky in getting to work in Linux. But not with PCLinuxOS! I simply navigate to the radio's web site, click the link for the stream, and in a few moments, I'm listening to the station!

If you've read this blog before, you'll know that I love radio. I have an internet radio that sits next to my drawing table and I also have an XM radio subscription for my car. XM also allows you to stream the channels from their website. In the past, other Linux distros I've used have failed or stumbled in interpreting the XM radio player or audio steam. But PCLinuxOS (via Firefox) brings the player up and streams all the XM channels with no problems!

Want more multimedia ease of use? Well, as you know, DVDs are incredibly popular with folks of all ages. Without a doubt, one of the first things a person will do when using a new computer system is drop in a DVD to watch the latest Hollywood spectacular. Again, some Linux distros have asked users to jump through a series of hoops in order to get a commercial DVD to play. But with PClinxOS, just drop in the DVD and hit play!

So play DVD movies, listen to MP3s, online audio streams, and other entertainment with no hiccups or glitches. PCLinuxOS handles 'em all! It's so easy, you'll think you're running an Apple Mac (but with out the hefty price tag) or a Windows system ( but without the viruses and pop-ups!)

Get Linux!

PCinuxOS Rolling Along!

PCLinuxOS is known as a "Rolling Release Distribution."   This means that  you install PCLinuxOS once and update it when new applications become available from its repository.

The app that helps monitor this is "Update Notifier."   The screen shot above shows it in action. You launch it once and it sits in your system tray.  Update Notifier periodically checks to see what new software updates are available.  It flags you and allows you to make those updates with a couple of clicks of the mouse.


This keeps your PCLinuxOS system up to date and always the latest version!  Once you install PCLinuxOS and update it regularly, you won't have to install again in order to get the newest/latest release.  You'll have the latest release!  It's seamless and updating takes just a few minutes two to three times a week (or whatever frequency the updates occur.)

It's one of the big reasons why I'm such of fan this Linux OS!

Get PCLinuxOS!

What Took You So Long?

In my last blog post an anonymous reader asked a friendly question in the comments area, "What took you so long? PCLinuxOS isn't exactly a well kept secret..."

How true!  I've popped that Live CD of PCLinuxOS in and out of my computer for a few years now.  I've known about it and I've played with it, but I've never really gone the final step of installing it...until now.  This time around, I gave it a good close look.  And I'm so happy I did!

(Yes, that's my PCLinuxOS laptop desktop above.)

What took me so long?  Well, for one, I've been using a laptop that already had a very nice Linux distro on it. And my desktop system is a "rack system." This allows me to plug in any number of hard drives with any number of partitions running a variety of Linux distributions.  It's a geeky, high tech way of being a kid in a candy store!

So for the past few years, I've been swapping out hard drives on my desktop system, partitioning, and installing a new Linux distribution.  With so many Linux distributions to choose from, sometimes a really outstanding one like PCLinuxOS gets lost in the shuffle.

This time around though, I felt I needed something to enliven my laptop.  I looked around for a distro that had good wireless support.  At times, wireless and Linux can be a tricky thing (especially for new users).

Currently, I run Kiowa Linux on this laptop and wireless support has beeen very good.  Seeing that PCLinuxOS is very similar to Kiowa, I decided to give it a try.

Well, after test driving the Live CD, it didn't take long for me to decide to partition the laptop drive and add PCLinuxOS!

And, as I explained in yesterday's post, wireless came right up! 

I'm so happy with this Linux distro, I have plans to partition a hard drive on my rack system yet again.

If you have a laptop, give PCLinuxOS a try.  It's user friendly, easy to install, and just about holds your hand  during the process of  getting wireless connected.  And it has one of the friendliest and most helpful user commuities around!

So, I'm here to tell YOU, don't make the same mistake I made by letting this gem of an OS get lost in the shuffle.  As you investigate Linux, cut to the chase and get PCLinuxOS.

Even better, if you need a new computer, consider one with PCLinuxOS already pre-installed!


Get Linux!

PCLinuxOS! Wow!

It seems that I blog in fits and starts. I get excited about Linux and, day after day, shout to the world through this blog about how terrific it is! Then deadlines loom and I find myself withdrawing from the bloog and needing to be at my drawing table.

So, my drawing table called and, for the past two months, I've been cartooning and running Georgetoon.com. (If you don't see George or my other comics in your local paper, ask for them!)

But, in between, I've also been running PCLinuxOS 2009.1!

I don't know exactly how it happened. I guess I just wanted to have new OS on my laptop. I was dual booting between Windows XP and Kiowa Linux. While Kiowa Linux gets ready to release its latest and greatest, I decided to try a new Linux distro. And I wanted something similar to the look and feel of Kiowa and Mandriva. Well, that's why I loaded PCLinuxOS. And I'm so glad I did.

PCLinuxOS loaded in a snap, found all my hardware, configured my graphics card, and presented me with a number of wireless drivers to install. I selected the first one and my wireless came right up!

The extras bonus in all this was the PCLinuxOS forum and community. A really terrific, friendly bunch of folks who are welcoming and ready to help! I had no problems correcting minor issues because i had the help and support of the PCLinuxOS forum.

So, do yourself a favor and buy or download PCLInuxOS 2009.1! I'll be talking about it in the days and weeks to come. If you run the Live CD (or even install) you can follow along!

Get Linux!