Revisiting "10 reasons to try PCLinuxOS"

Tuxmachines is a good website for some Linux enthusiasts (though my favorite is Distrowatch). Sometimes back I was looking for PCLinuxOS MiniMe reviews and hit http://www.tuxmachines.org/node/12897

In that page I liked the backgrounding to PCLinuxOS by the author, Gfranken. Especially his experience with Mandrake, and information on Texstar were very faithful accounts. Gfranken concluded the page with "10 reasons to try PCLinuxOS", that's what I liked the most. Those 10 reasons were so true and inspiring that I could not help stop myself from gluing my experience to them. Those reasons justify why PCLOS superseded its parent, Mandriva.

Hope this post will inspire many wannabe users to try PCLinuxOS, a productive desktop Linux.

Top Ten reasons to install and use PCLinuxOS:

1. It's drop dead gorgeous, and very professional looking.
   I tried PCLOS from its .92 stage. Graphically it was better than the Mandriva (and other KDE-centric distros). The default themes, panels, control center and almost everything were really good, but you could still customize that as per your fancy and get better results. PCLinuxOS developers have pushed this look-n-feel factor very high in the 2007 final version. The look of PCLinuxOS 2007 is fanciful yet very professional.


2. The Beryl/Compiz 3D acceleration effects are terrific--much better than any other distro I've tried.
   The Beryl/Compiz effects did not work on my VIA/Intel hybrid PIV PC with 32 MB shared graphic memory. But I was so sure of its glamour that I purchased a used NVidia (128 MB) graphic card and configured it on my PC. The result was really stunning. What's more, the 3D effects were so well integrated that it worked on very less system resource. But I had some problem in configuring NVidia in Mandriva, Ubuntu and Fedora. Hats off to Tex!


3. The repository has over 5000 packages, and updates are incredibly prompt, smooth, and easy to do. Synaptic, the GUI package manager works easily and reliably with the repository's RPM packages. Dependency issues are usually well handled. All the development programs and libraries are up to date.
   I have no complains, I always get what I need, from the repositories. I have witnessed PCLinuxOS repository enriching over the years. I am not sure whether the repository is deliberately planned for desktop users, they will never be sorry for what they are looking for. Of course, there were some downtimes in the repository servers. But they soon became up and running.


4. An up to date KDE version (3.5.6).
   KDE is the most happening desktop environment in Linux world. Though I have always liked GNOME for its simplicity and responsiveness, I fell in love with PCLinuxOS-KDE connection. It's clean, fast and up to date. The distro never went out of its way for the eye-candy, it has always maintained the best of usability under the hood of KDE.


5. Bugs, problems, and issues are promptly fixed.
   That's reason why PCLinuxOS 2007 is so stable. While tinkering .92 and .93a versions of PCLOS I sometimes messed up the settings, but 2007 is so tightly integrated that you will always get a healthy desktop, no matter what you do in terms of tweaks and tinkerings. Of course, you can break the system as a root user, and that's a no-excuse case, you can break your BSD desktop or Debian also.


6. The PCLinuxOS community is positive and helpful. Documentation is excellent.
   Support is excellent.I found the PCLinuxOS forum to be very friendly. And PCLinuxOS magazines are so enlightening that I religiously read every issue of it. It has always helped me to use PCLinuxOS better and understand the OSS and Linux further. I feel very elated getting answers to my questions from PCLOS developers, sometimes from Tex, himself!


7. It's quick and snappy.
   Very very right. The pace has been improving steadily. My PCLinuxOS 2007 desktop boots in 30 seconds. I am sure it will improve further in the next version which might come with KDE 4.


8. Everything works.
   Well, I use every bit of it. The CLI apps, KDE apps, PCC, Synaptic and the Init setups, everything has worked fine for me. I have just one request to Tex - "Please add wordnet as a default PCLOS application. Every desktop user needs it."


9. It's very easy to install... and...
   Partitioning, Installation, Network Setup and User Administration, everything is simple, plain and fast. PCLinuxOS 2007 installs on my system in just 10 minutes from the time I popped up the disk. Need I say more!


10. It doesn't require the largess and financial backing of a millionaire to keep it going.
    Watched the movie Godfather? Remember the dialogues? PCLinuxOS is the Michael of Godfather, it's way ahead the desktop war (Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora, Suse…) for its powerful personality that's a best combination of stability, usability and performance. Except that there are no Canonical-like patronage and Redmond-like corporate support.