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!
7 comments:
Just be careful how loudly you proclaim the greatness of PCLOS.
I've run across a few annoying, holier-than-thou, cult-level fanboy, "everybody else sucks" PCLOS fanboys to leave a bad taste in my mouth about his distro.
Regardless of how good or bad the distro is, every time I think about installing it or trying it out, these jerks come to mind and I want nothing to do with it.
This has not been my experience. Quite the opposite. and I've seen plenty of open discussion regarding other distro's on the PCLinuxOS forums.
I hope you do give it a try in your good time.
Hello,
What do you think of Pardus?
I have been using this distro several weeks and got enthusiastic. It is very solid. After trying Ubuntu 9.04, but stopped after problems with codecs I decided to try Pardus. I was surprised by it, but got also wireless problems. With a Sweex LW053 USB Adapter I solved ythis problem. I am still a beginner with Linux after 2 months of using Ubuntu 8.10/9.04/Mepis and Pardus I want to stay with Pardus on my laptop. On my desktop I got Windows XP and want with VMWare to try several Linux distros like Mint/PcLinuxOS/Mandriva/Fedora.
"Hello,
What do you think of Pardus?"
I've not heard of Pardus. However, this is the great thing about Linux forums and blogs. New distros and information get introduced (by folks just like you)to all users.
I'll do a google search and check it out.
Thanks!
Glad to hear you're using Linux! The more you use it and learn its inner workings, the more you're going to love it!
Well, everybody else sucks, what can we do? is not our fault ;-)
No, not really Drew, I invite you to the PCLOS forums
http://www.pclinuxos.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=58
people is friendly and supportive, maybe we can do something about the bad taste.
In the end as long as we keep using Linux we are all on the same side.
Crow
Wow! I'm surprised to see my question made such an impact...
I've been using PCLinuxOS for 3 years now. I jumped around a lot before that. Now, I just can't seem to use another distro for very long before I go running back. The distro just simplifies so much from the use of Mandriva's awesome Drake tools and Apt/Synaptic package management to the fact that they only have a single repository. The last part is something I've become so used to that trying out OpenSuse became a real pain because I spent so much time setting up countless repositories. They've really taken the time to simplify your life as a Linux user so you spend more time using it than setting it up.
As far as fanboys, they exist in every distro. It's just a fact. I've certainly come across my share in the Ubuntu forums, as well. This is something that's holding Linux back, IMO. Competition is good, as long as it doesn't result in in-fighting, which is something that seems to have happened in the last few years.
I love PCLOS and used it until a year ago. Frankly, I stopped only because I wanted KDE4 and after releasing an 'experimental' build of KDE 4.0.0 (which works flawlessly on my computer, btw) the project has not released any updates. Fair enough. However, I believe its time for them to upgrade to KDE4 or be left behind and forgotten. That would be sad for this excellent distro!
Pardus is my current favourite KDE4 distribution. One look at their 'system settings' layout and you can see why.
Also, its blazing fast, very user-friendly. I use konsole on it out of habit. I don't think you will ever need it! This one is worth a try.
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