PCLinuxOS 2009.1 Review
Administration: PCLinusOS uses the traditional root or superuser account for access to performing system-level admin tasks. and it packs the same set of graphical admin tools as Mandriva, the distro it was derived from. There is a graphical tool to perform virtually any task on the system without having to use the command line. These tools are available from the Control Center.
Control Center
Browsers and Browser plugins PCLinuxOS comes with a pair of browser – Mozilla Firefox and Konqueror. Once you try both, you will most likely settle for Mozilla Firefox. It will happily render flash, Java applets (JRE is installed), and a few other multimedia content, but not quicktime. It does make a feeble attempt at playing Real Movies using the mplayer-plugin. In any case, it works a lot better than the Ice Weasel installed on Zenwalk 6.
Security tools and Network Manager: Like Mandriva, PCLinuxOS has a fully integrated graphical firewall client, but it is disabled by default. Why? I have no clue. But don’t fret. Enabling the firewall is just a point-and-click operation.
Default firewall settings
The Network Manager applet integrates firewall and VPN configuration features. You could, for example, configure VPN connections by right-clicking on the (Network Manager) applet, and select VPN Connection > Manage VPN Connections. By default, only the Cisco VPN client is installed, but if you opt to configure a VPN connection using the OpenVPN client, the system automatically initiates the download and installation of the OpenVPN client, which is bundled with the OpenVPN server.
Network Manager applet
SSH, the Secure SHell, server is installed, but inactive by default. You may choose to start the SSH server in standalone mode or via xinetd.
Media and Hardware Detection:
Media and hardware detection works just fine on PCLinuxOS. Insert an audio CD, for example, and you get a dialog box giving you a choice of applications to play the CD. You may choose to use Amarok, considered to be one of the best free and open source music playing applications, or Kaffeine, the versatile multimedia application.
Audio detection
With a DVD video, a dialog box allows you to choose between MPlayer and Kaffeine. Both will play encrypted videos, but MPlayer seems to be more reliable. If neither MPlayer nor Kaffeine appeals to you, you may install VLC, which is available in the default repo.
DVD video detection
What we like about PCLinuxOS Using PCLinuxOS is like using Mandriva Linux Powerpack without paying for it. The main thing missing is that LVM configuration is not supported. Also disk encryption is limited.
What needs to improve Not a whole lot, but there are key features I think should be supported especially when those features are supported on Mandriva, its parent distro. Here’s a short list:
- A regular release schedule. PCLinuxOS 2009.1 is the first release since 2007. That wont cut it in the free software operating system arena.
- LVM configuration. Contrary to the opinions of a few mis-informed people, Linux Logical Volume Manager is important, even on the desktop.
- The firewall must be enabled by default. There is no good reason to disable the firewall on a networked computer.
- During the installation and just before the packages are installed, give users one last opportunity to tweak their settings. That the way it is on Mandriva.
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dalfish
PCLOS is failure when it come to supporting mobile broadband. I had a huawei ec325 modem which cannot be configured in PCLOS. I posted it in PCLOS official forums. I was not able to solve the problem. I regret my decison to switch to PCLOS. That decision was not a wise one. as my USBmodem worked flawlessly in ubuntu, linux mint and fedora.
if there is a hardware failure with the distro it can be kicked out. now i use ubuntu. i am not blaming any distro by this. i just want my devices to work in a distro.no matter which name it is. for the time being it works well in ubuntu. So naturally Ubuntu is my choice. i hopped back to ubuntu
Jamie
After seeing this same posting on every blng entry I found about PCLinuxOS, I have to say it sounds like an Ubuntu fanboy who just wants to give PCLinuxOS a bad name.
Sorry you weren’t smart enough to test out your modem in the live CD before installing. “dalfish”, but hey. PCLinuxOS can’t help you with *that* little problem.
butt_pirate
of course pclinuxos is stable why? because its always 2 steps behind, in this day and age where we have kde 4 they still choose to release their distro with kde 3.5, i think however that they have a kde4 release on the horizon
RO
Re the background, I almost always set mine to plain black (or to a very dark shade of some color when I am feeling “decorative”
to see the icons and windows more easily. I hate glare and clutter on the background, so just my quirkiness I guess …
finid
Like they say, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”
Sadi
PCLinuxOS is simply AWESOME… I have been using Ubuntu for sometime… but to tell you guys the truth PCLOS has won my heart with its user friendly desktop.
Ash Ward
Have tried several disros over the last couple of years, but just keep coming back to PCLinux as I find it to be so damn easy to use, dead stable and even more so with this release. Unlike earlier releases, just haven’t been able to kill it !!
Many thanks for your great work Textar.
Love it
Ash…..
travisn000
Over all I think it is a pretty fair review.. yes, as much as I like PCLOS, I do have to agree the new theme is UGLY, but this does not detract from it’s stability and usability..
Also, a note about LVM on PCLinuxOS.. LVM is fully possible in PCLOS (I use it).. It just requires that you install the needed packages from the software repository, as they are not installed by default (I think the same is true of RAID).
Leo Orionis
Hello there:
I used Mandrake/Mandriva for a few years, then switched to PCLOS 2007 after hearing about it and trying it. Much less fiddling after installation than Mandriva, yet still has the great Mandriva tools! Recently I downloaded 2009.1 and it’s even better.
But now I have a fancy new computer with 5 “terabyte” hard disks and I want to use LVM to make them one big volume. Could I beg you to give me directions on how to do this? I found and installed LVM from the repositories, but I still don’t see a LVM tab on hard drake. What do I do, and in what order?
Thanks, and I’m sure there are others would appreciate you expounding this. — Leo
pclosux
PCLinuxOS is a lame Mandriva ripoff and will disappear soon in the dustbin of has-been distros who became irrelevant.
Oh, and it looks like butt…..
Jamie
That’s what Microsoft said about Linux. I guess we will be seeing PCLinuxOS for a long time to come…
brad972
I’ve been using PC Linux for the past few years and all I can say is that if you are new to Linux, this is probably the best distro to start with. Everything you need is already installed and ready to use. Whether you need to publish web sites or want a multimedia machine, PC Linux fits the bill.
The KDE desktop is extremely customizable and the further you look, the more you will find within it. Wireless, video and sound drivers, even setting up a home server couldn’t be easier.
As Texstar said, it wasn’t necessarily his choice of the stock desktop background but there are other choices and you could always check out http://www.kde-look.org/ if you’d like to see more options.
For overall performance, stability and usability, you simple can’t go wrong with PC linux. Even the Gnome version is very sharp and you can always install your favorite KDE aps in your Gnome desktop and vice-versa or dual boot them both and have fun.
larry
Hope they have recovered. I’ve used PCLinux since I beleive the day the first release came out. Loved every release. my favorite is 93a minime
Anyway going back to version 2007 it can be updated to today’s 2009 update and the software packages under pclinux is updated better than most distributions.
The update yearly deal isn’t needed with rolling updates and from the 2007 and 2008 you can have it fully updated to 2009 with a few pretty
easy instructions all the way down to the nice friendly desktop. This review obviously had somebody who never used PcLinux before. Heck I still use windows2000
gallup
I am disappointed in the attitude of this reviewer, but looking through the negative jabs he does admit it is good. I don’t see why a rolling update such as this should ‘need’ to have a new release every year? One thing I disliked about other distro’s is the seeming race to release..ready or not. This one is very stable. others could learn from the finish of this release. Great forum support as well. All around my favorite, and I’m still using the default desktop background!
BigBadBilly
I have been using the Gnome version of PCLinux 2009.1 on an old 1.6ghz Pentium with 384!!mb( or thereabouts) of Ram for a few days. I did have problems installing to the hard drive, needed to do this 3 times; however I suspect some of that was due to me and this old PC.
I think this is one of the cleanest, nicest, logical, faster distributions I have tried for a while and I am going to leave it on this PC for my guests to use;
congratulations to all the folks who produced this; it’s great.
Regards,
BBB
marcoa
I’ ve been using PCLinuxOS 2007 since 2 years and I find it smooth, stable, fast, user friendly: easy to install and configure (for sure got the better control center than any other linux distribution, the mandriva’s one). I’ve installed PCLOS in many machines and for the first time I do not feel the need to swich to another one. Sometime I try new distro in a spare partition and it reinforce my appreciation to PCLOS system.