Just started a download...
- Thread starter Mobius 1
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I haven't used it but I've talked to folks who like it. It's based on Mandriva but includes a bunch of proprietary codecs. It doesn't use Mandrake's package manager, instead opting for Debian's apt along with its own repos.
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I recently had to write a review of this and I have to say it's a nice distro. In fact a lot of people are saying this is as easy to use out of the box as a *buntu based distro. I installed it and had my dual monitor working without having to edit any .conf files. If I were you I would give it a try and see for yourself its not costing you anything is it? 
It's an excellent distro, certainly worth a try. I've been using it as my main OS for about 4 months now and I prefer it to ubuntu.
Pros:
Control panel - nicked straight from mandrake but it is a work of genius
The vast majority of tasks work straight out of the box, including beryl and audio/video codecs. The only common things that don't are DVDs (requires the libdvdcss packages which can be taken straight from the repository) and compizfusion (more complicated).
Speed - I find it to be noticeably faster than Ubuntu, some people have different experiences mind.
Mklivecd - Ubuntu probably has an equivalent but I particularly like this feature from PCLOS, very simple to use and a good backup feature.
Cons
Limited to KDE - doesn't bother me personally, there are other DE projects in the works but they aren't really finished yet.
The installer - it's a bit... crude compared to Ubuntu. It can't detect other distros and I had a hard time trying to get it to format ext3. Both are easily resolved but not really up to scratch.
Small repos - I've never had a problem with this but a lot of people complain about it.
Forums/community - It's much smaller than the Ubuntu forums, expect to have to wait a while for help.
Definitely try it out, it's not for everyone but a lot of us like it. If you have any questions about it feel free to email me
Pros:
Control panel - nicked straight from mandrake but it is a work of genius
The vast majority of tasks work straight out of the box, including beryl and audio/video codecs. The only common things that don't are DVDs (requires the libdvdcss packages which can be taken straight from the repository) and compizfusion (more complicated).
Speed - I find it to be noticeably faster than Ubuntu, some people have different experiences mind.
Mklivecd - Ubuntu probably has an equivalent but I particularly like this feature from PCLOS, very simple to use and a good backup feature.
Cons
Limited to KDE - doesn't bother me personally, there are other DE projects in the works but they aren't really finished yet.
The installer - it's a bit... crude compared to Ubuntu. It can't detect other distros and I had a hard time trying to get it to format ext3. Both are easily resolved but not really up to scratch.
Small repos - I've never had a problem with this but a lot of people complain about it.
Forums/community - It's much smaller than the Ubuntu forums, expect to have to wait a while for help.
Definitely try it out, it's not for everyone but a lot of us like it. If you have any questions about it feel free to email me
Thanks for the detailed replies guys. I'll give it a go when i get in. provided im round my house tonight.. 
installers confuse me.. especially FC7's installer. maybe i had a duff ISO file or something but when i went to install it booted from the CD fine, but once i got to the blue screen to choose keyboard layout and where to install etc it asked me to locate the FC7 install media, i was like huh
its on the dvd you just booted from!? any help guys? cheers.
installers confuse me.. especially FC7's installer. maybe i had a duff ISO file or something but when i went to install it booted from the CD fine, but once i got to the blue screen to choose keyboard layout and where to install etc it asked me to locate the FC7 install media, i was like huh
its on the dvd you just booted from!? any help guys? cheers.
Thanks for the detailed replies guys. I'll give it a go when i get in. provided im round my house tonight..
installers confuse me.. especially FC7's installer. maybe i had a duff ISO file or something but when i went to install it booted from the CD fine, but once i got to the blue screen to choose keyboard layout and where to install etc it asked me to locate the FC7 install media, i was like huh
Never have installed fc7, but its likely to be /dev/cdrom or /dev/dvd you need for the installation media's location providing its mounted already.
ok, downloaded it, burnt it, tried the livecd and i do think it is better than ubuntu.
my only gripe at the moment is that the partitioner/installer they bundle with it, isn't that good for new peoplle to linux. i almost wiped my windows partition, twice
lol.
i haven't actually got round to having a proper play with it yet. but i probably will have one after work. is there anyway to make linux boot quicker? at the moment it seems slower than my vista install.
my only gripe at the moment is that the partitioner/installer they bundle with it, isn't that good for new peoplle to linux. i almost wiped my windows partition, twice
lol.i haven't actually got round to having a proper play with it yet. but i probably will have one after work. is there anyway to make linux boot quicker? at the moment it seems slower than my vista install.
It just seems slower once every is loaded when you log in and start using linux it's all loaded and ready in windows it rushes to the desktop but you'll notice it's try to load things. If you still aren't happy with your boot speed give a distro called Yoper a try it's one of the quickest distro's I've ever tried.
ok, downloaded it, burnt it, tried the livecd and i do think it is better than ubuntu.
my only gripe at the moment is that the partitioner/installer they bundle with it, isn't that good for new peoplle to linux. i almost wiped my windows partition, twice
As I said, there is definitely room for improvement. If you really don't like it pre partition the hard drive with something like the gparted live CD. As long as you give the partitions the right mount points you can't go far wrong really. It should detect your windows install fine.
Hope you have fun with it
ok quick update on what ive found over the past week using PCLinuxOS (don't expect a top class writers review lol).
one word can sum it up for me on this one, amazing. this distro is so easy to use. even installing the graphics driver through synaptic was a piece of cake (i had troubles finding the right package in ubuntu, but that was about a year ago!)
it is also one of the faster booting distro's i found and i have tried quite a few. infact before i installed this distro i actually tried FC7, and to be honest i didnt like it, also due to the fact i had troubles with setting up the printer connected to my dads pc through a network (might be something to do with gnome?) which pclinuxos picked up straight away and worked!
usually i hate using KDE with a passion, pclinuxos has changed my mind! its much simpler, faster and i find it also a lot more..compatible, i think is the correct word. it also comes with mp3 support out of the tin which is another good plus, for me anyway.
anyway..the only gripe i had was the partitioner to actually install PCLOS, its not very user friendly and took me a few goes to actually get it installed. but other than that the installation went smooth.
the end. *happy chappy*
one word can sum it up for me on this one, amazing. this distro is so easy to use. even installing the graphics driver through synaptic was a piece of cake (i had troubles finding the right package in ubuntu, but that was about a year ago!)
it is also one of the faster booting distro's i found and i have tried quite a few. infact before i installed this distro i actually tried FC7, and to be honest i didnt like it, also due to the fact i had troubles with setting up the printer connected to my dads pc through a network (might be something to do with gnome?) which pclinuxos picked up straight away and worked!
usually i hate using KDE with a passion, pclinuxos has changed my mind! its much simpler, faster and i find it also a lot more..compatible, i think is the correct word. it also comes with mp3 support out of the tin which is another good plus, for me anyway.
anyway..the only gripe i had was the partitioner to actually install PCLOS, its not very user friendly and took me a few goes to actually get it installed. but other than that the installation went smooth.
the end. *happy chappy*
im only comparing the grapics side of things, i just found it a little difficult, being a complete noob, thats all.
so as things are, what is going to be good in the next release of ubuntu? will it have mp3 support out of the box?
I don't recall having to tweak the current version to let it play MP3s...
edit: come to mention it, I don't remember doing it for the last version either!
i had to enable extra repositories, and then download whatever i needed in those respositries to get mp3 working so um
Mp3s don't work by default in Ubuntu for legal reasons, so it's unlikely Ubuntu will ever have support out of the box for mp3s. Technically PCLOS is breaking the law by offering the codecs by default, but nevermind.
And I'm glad you like PCLOS tauren
And I'm glad you like PCLOS tauren
Are you sure? I really don't remember doing anything to make MP3s work. It wasn't that long ago I installed the latest version either.
Perhaps they were downloaded as dependencies when I installed something like VLC player or Amarok. *shrugs*
Either way, it's not hard
Perhaps they were downloaded as dependencies when I installed something like VLC player or Amarok. *shrugs*
Either way, it's not hard
Are you sure? I really don't remember doing anything to make MP3s work. It wasn't that long ago I installed the latest version either.
Perhaps they were downloaded as dependencies when I installed something like VLC player or Amarok. *shrugs*
Either way, it's not hard
Source
I'm not going to hold that against Ubuntu though, you're right that it is incredibly easy and I can understand why they are doing it.
Don't get me wrong though, I think Ubuntu is also an excellent distro. I used 7.04 for a couple of weeks after my pclos install broke (my fault
) and I was impressed. It's just I prefer pclos' way doing things really.