PCLinuxOS vs Ubuntu

I’ve been using linux full-time since 1996, and have gone through a lot of different distributions since then. I’ve stuck with ubuntu for several years now due to the fact that things are generally very easy to maintain and configure.

There was a day when I’d gladly recompile my kernel and build huge amounts of software from source myself, but those days are long gone. Now I’d rather things just work, and ubuntu (almost) provides that.

I have had my fair share of incredibly frustrating problems with ubuntu, most of which revolve around upgrading from one release to another, but for me it is lightyears better than any of the other options I’ve considered. (This means you, OSX!)

Thanks Jer…

What about PCLinuxOS? Have you ever tried it? What is your spin on that distro…I’d be really interested to hear your opinion since you’re a long-time Linux user.

I started using Linux in 1998 with a box set of Slackware. Since then I have ran the following distros: Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, and then I had to make a switch. I had been quite happy with SUSE, but I didn’t like the way the company was being managed. So, I then did a more inclusive search of distros. I tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mepis, and PCLinuxOS. I prefer the customizability of KDE over Gnome’s spartan options, so I prefered Kubuntu over Ubuntu. However, Kubuntu was a far cry of the polish I was used to in SUSE. Mepis was nicer that either, and I thought I had found my new home, until I tried PCLinuxOS. PCLOS is much better than any other distro I have tried. It is much more polished. It has newer versions of most of its packages than other distros, including all the ones I have mentioned. It is fast, stable, beautiful, and free. Although they do accept voluntary donations which I have gladly partaken of. I was impelled to give a donation to this wonderful distro.

rm…thanks for your comments…but tell me honestly…are you part of PCLinuxOS??

Kind of like Jer, above, I have been using Linux since about 1996. For years, I enjoyed the deeper, “geekier” side of things, compiling kernels, etc. But, these days, I just want a system that “just works”. I am happy to say that I have found that in PCLinuxOS. It doesn’t “almost” provide that, it does provide it. I haven’t had any trouble whatsoever getting anything to run, and releases upgrade seamlessly from one to the next. (Not the current version, though. Tex and the Gang are upgrading everything to use the newer libc version, so going from p0.93 or earlier to 2007(0.94) requires a full reinstall. But once 2007 final is released *real soon now*, we should be back to seamless upgrades, again.)

Not shure PCLinuxOS is still the best distro, for sure it was the most user-friendly amongst the ones I have tried till nearly two years ago (Suse, Mandrake, *buntu, Mepis, Kanotix, fedora, and some other).

Maybe are there nowdays other distros as user-friendly as PCLOS, but with PCLOS on my desktop in the last two years, I seldom feel like tring other distros, and none of those I tried seems to me as nice as PCLOS. But it may also depend from the fact I am now quite familiar with this distro.

The definition of PCLOS as ‘distro hopper stopper’ does fit for me.

Matthew,

I wish I was that talented, but no, I am not part of PCLinuxOS other than being a very happy and grateful user. I think it was last Summer that I discovered it. I just upgraded my home machine from .93a to 2007 TR4. The success I had with this and the main applications that I need prompted me to contribute. But, fortunately, this is completely voluntary.

That’s awesome rm…it’s funny, I’m actually in the process of ditching Vista & installing PCLinuxOS. I’m doing so tonight…my 2007 TR4 download just finished…bye for now…

Apart from my damn car having some sort of dent that was there when I woke up I can tell you all PCLinuxOS is just about the best distro I’ve seen. I tried others but they seemed very pale in comparison to this.. I also like Sabayon but even that falls short of features that are offered on PCLinuxOS. I would certainly be willing to delete Windows forever now that I’ve found this, then install Beryl somehow (I don’t yet know how) and let that be my OS. I’m tired of Vista sucking my amazing system dry, it’s a joke honestly…

Linux is no longer a limited OS, it offers just as much user-friendly structure as Windows but without the absurd system resources using your specs up. What a farce MS, you suc.

Sam,

There are two ways to install Beryl in PCLinuxOS, depending on what you want. The first one installs it Globally, for all users:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=99999999&topic=15167.0

The second one, the alternative method, allow it to be installed per user:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=99999999&topic=16159.0

I have tried both ways and they both worked well on my machines at home and at work.

I like most other’s got tired of viri,malware,spyware and the dreaded bsd in windows.I had heard of linux but not tried it.Then in 2005 I decided to give linux a go.I tried suse,xandros,mepis,fedora and a few other distro’s and really liked mepis until I discovered PCLinuxOS.I have not been without it since.The attention to detail that texstar(Chief developer)and the rest of the devs makes this distro a cut above others.It is as user friendly as they come and the forums are out of this world.There are a lot of great distros out there but pound for pound PCLinuxOS is the best of the best.If you choose this distro you cant go wrong.

Wow…it seems to be pretty overwhelmingly pro-PCLinuxOS.

Can anyone list any negative experiences with this OS?

This is so fitting…I just reloaded my Windows Vista PC with PCLinuxOS. As a matter of fact, this is the first comment or post I have written on my blog since I loaded it! So far I really like what I see.

My experience with Linux distro’s is RedHat, SUSE, & Ubuntu. Although I like them, I have always went back to Windows because I needed something it had over Linux…maybe I have finally found my way to the Dark Side!!

Having flirted with Linux over the years I’ve never found a reason to leave XP.

IMO XP is the rock solid do everything OS, I couldn’t ask for more. I viewed Linux as the Cultist OS, an OS for the philosophical anarchist .

That all changed one day, I don’t know what came over me but I decided to try PCLinuxOS. For some reason (beyond me) I kept skipping over this Distro.

I still feel XP is “the rock solid do everything OS”, in the world of a M$ user. Its just that now my world isn’t limited to M$, in fact my world has little use for XP except for games.

PCLinuxOS is the “Distro hopper stopper”. It can also stop those who run back to M$ after “Having flirted with Linux”

Roy:

I couldn’t agree with you more. The reason you viewed Linux that way is because it was true! In the early years of Linux distro’s, you had to be a “Trekkie” to use & understand the OS…well those days are gone!

I too flirted with a few different distro’s only to go back to XP (which I also believe to be one of M$’s best creations).

Just last night I installed PCLOS & I have not run into any problems whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I am particularly impressed & am quite happy at the “speed increase” my computer seems to have after getting rid of Vista (I hate that OS).

Anyway…this may be the distro hopper stopper!

Found the blog and had to comment….
I have been distro hopping since Suse did the dread deal with M$.
Although I was happy with my Suse setup I felt I could not stay
In the past few months I tried Fedora( needed a lot of hacking to get it hoew I wanted)
Mandriva free ( close but no cigar) kubuntu Feisty ( very close ) xandros ( gave me the creeps) Freespire ( loking good but not ready)
and many others .
I was about to settle on kubuntu when a chance mention in a blog put me onto Pclinuxos and I haven’t looked back since.
I am a fairly late adopter starting form tr3 and I wish that I had found it earlier.
Not only does it look good ( it is the first distro I have run on default icons) but it is solid ( a reflection of Texstar’s perfectionist streak I believe )
This is the first distro where I have got Beryl working out of the box with no issues even on my ATI card.
All I can say is respect to Tex and the ripper gang!

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Bert:

Thanks for the comments…I’m starting to find our point-of-view is not too uncommon…quite the contrary really.

Everyone:

Make sure you check out my new post on the subject:

PCLinuxOS - “The Distro Hopper Stopper” & “Viable Windows Substitute”

When I installed PCLOS it just worked. Wireless worked. Beryl worked. Printer worked. Camera connected - worked. In short, no fussing, no downloading of drivers, faffing, rebooting and cursing at the screen! PCLinux works and looks good doing so.

I don’t give out praise lightly, but I can tell you, PCLinux and Tex & the ripper gang deserve all the accolades and recognition they are getting.

I had the exact same ease with my install. So far I couldn’t be happier…it’s sooooooooo much better than Windows Vista.

I have everything I need & I don’t have to worry about piracy & licenses & freeze ups & arghh…don’t get me started.

Thanks for your post kaboodie.

from Panama City, sorry for my english. I have been using Linux since 2003, and started with Mandrake, then tryed Fedora, VectorLinux, Opensuse (banned due to the M$ agreement), Xubuntu, Ubuntu (not so much, I prefer KDE over Gnome) and finally Kubuntu 6.06 and 6.10. I liked it because the huge software selection, easy to install/remove software and community support. When Feisty Fawn was lauched I downloaded Kubuntu 7.04 but didn’t work very well on my Thinkpad T30, didn’t recognize the screen correctly, so I downloaded PCLinuxOS TR3, and man! what a jem of distro. Very polished, nice control center, correctly detected my hardware, fast bootup time, etc. My only complain is the package selection, I will like it be like Ubuntu’s huge pakcage selection. I will be waiting for the Final Release.

I enjoy your articles about the linux but that PDF magazine really was terrible. It really reads like it was written by a a 13 YO fan.

Yeah…I think it’s written by guys who have been Linux activists for like 10 years, and they have a lot of built up hatred. It’s definitely bias, and I try to limit my bias to my experiences alone.

Like you said GC…if you have a really fast PC, Vista should work like a charm. But I must tell you…I’m a big fan of not having to pay anything to have all the same productivity tools!

I have tried both Ubuntu 7.04 and PClinuxOS TR4 on their LiveCD and only PClinuxOS is able to recognize my wireless card (Level 1 WNC-0300 ver 4) and set it up properly without me having to run Ndiswrapper or compile drivers. Being new to Linux, I found out that configuring wireless cards to work is a nightmare for me. I am going to install PClinuxOS to my hard drive.

Well I like Ubuntus look and feel a lot better and I can’t even tell you how excited I was to see the CE (Christian Edition), but for some reason it kept freezing up and that is annoting having to restart the pc every 15 minutes.

So far (2 days) PCLinuxOS has been really nice. I almost dont want to start installing all kinds of stuff until I try FreeBSD but I think maybe I will stay…hey if its good enough to Matt, it’s good enough for me…

Now I just have to figure out how to code so I can make PCLinuxOS CE!!!

oh and somehow…this interface HAS to work quicker on the web…this dialup-like speed is NASTY!!!

Hey Paul:

I just wrote a post that has a few links that will help you learn to poke around in Linux. The slow connection can be resolved, I’m not sure of how right off the top of my head, but I am using PCLinuxOS & my connection speeds are great and I am using wireless.

We’ll work those problems out.

Well, finally I have installed PCLinuxOS (final release) and I like it very much, but there are some things that I want to know. First, when new updates are ready to be installed in, say, Ubuntu/Kubuntu, Mandriva, etc, an icon at the tray notifies me, so, there is an automatic update icon (applet?) for PCLOS?

No, currently there isn’t an automatic update icon. Tex and the Gang are busy packaging like mad, getting the repositories for PCLOS 2007 fully populated.

I would suggest starting Synaptic at least once a week, and doing a “Reload” (button in the upper left corner) to make sure there are no upgrades or additions. (And there will be. )

Thank you Padma…

…there you have it Elliot!

Thanks for the answer. I only hope that Text and The Gang could, in a near future, build a “System update” tray icon. This have nothing to do with “copy another distros behavior” but with how users are accustomed to do some things and concerns about security. To me this is a simple way to update indeed. I’m recommending PCLOS and people are asking me because they feels like something is missing. An old idea: to build a “Manual System Update” that, when I do click or double click over the icon, a message notifies that the system is going to check for updates, something like Synaptic reloading in the background? Just a thought.