PCLinuxOS
PCLinuxOS (PCLOS) is one of many GNU/Linux systems belonging to the family of Desktop distributions. Its aim is to be a friendly and simple to use operating system. It was forked from Mandrake Linux (Mandriva at present) in 2003. It’s now a fully independent distro, although it does take advantage of a few of Mandriva’s technologies.
Feel free to edit the PCLinuxOS description on our community Wiki!
Pic 1. PCLinuxOS - random desktop
LiveCD and Installation
PCLinuxOS is distributed in LiveCD form but can also be installed to your hard disk drive (HDD). You can install the LiveCD onto HDD through very simple steps. There's an extra Installation Guide in which the steps are described and illustrated with screenshots. The installed comes with a nifty partitioning tool. The whole operation should take no more than 20-30 min.
Managing Software
PCLinuxOS uses APT (Advanced Packaging Tool) for software management. It is highly likely that the greater portion of users will choose Synaptic for the purpose. It is nothing more than a graphical user interface for APT. PCLOS utilizes RPM package technology, and it has in its repository about 6500 of such packages. Sure, its not as impressive a number as the those in Debian's or Gentoo's opulent repos, but in most cases it fulfills the needs of the common user.
Multimedia support and non-free software
The support for multimedia is a strong point of PCLinuxOS. It supports all common multimedia file formats. It has no problems playing mp3, wma, ogg, mp4, avi, wmv, and mov files - I checked it myself :) . And without the need to install new codecs. All requirements for running multimedia are fulfilled by the default system.
Because PCLinuxOS is distributed with Java, Flash, and mplayerplug-in for Firefox Internet multimedia are well supported by the system. You will be able to watch movies on YouTube out-of-the-box.
The infamous win32-codecs package (containing proprietary codecs) and libdvdcss2 library (decoding protected DVDs) are not present in the system for legal reasons, but easily available in the repositories for download.
External PCLinuxOS resources
- PCLinuxOS official website
- PCLinuxOS documentation (official wiki)
- MyPCLinuxOS - community web site
- PCLinuxOS Magazine
- PCLinuxOS Hardware Database
- Lortal was created so that new and experienced PCLinuxOS users would have a portal to the Internet centralized around Linux.
- LinFX is dedicated to bringing you high quality graphics for use on your Linux system
Reviews
- dwilson333.wordpress.com, PCLinuxOS 2007 — simple and elegant [polishlinux.org]
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2 Comments
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I’d like to see PCLinuxOS release with VirtualBox up and running upon installing PCLinux. Even a vanilla config would be fine, as long as it could cope with XP or 2k with or without patches. I find that I will in the next 4 or 5 months be forced to buy a new computer with xp or 2k in order to use some software that is not able to run in w98.
For this, I’d pay $100 for PCLinux. This would kill one bird with two stones:
1. No longer have to consider buying Win4Lin (even tho it does not need a kernel of its own anymore), in case I still run my w98 image for stuff that might not run correctly in xp or 2k
2. No longer have to fight Win4Lin with its generic kernel that prevents use of (or is in capable of seeing) my MP3/media devices, meaning I should not have to reboot anymore.
A bonus is that I can support VirtualBox more affordably since VB has a free version (for now?)
I had the VirtualBox installed on my PCLinux, but without much success. I must confess I did not spend much time with it or the configuration. What I wanted it for was the Nokia software suite for my phone. I just couldn’t get it to work right and opted for an internal card reader that fits my purposes better anyway as it handles my cameras and phones. The install from Synaptic worked flawlessly and the program itself looked as though it might have some real possibilities.
Good Luck.