View Full Version : Anyone try PCLinuxOS?
I just installed PCLinuxOS Test Release 4 and I must say: wow.
I was originally going to install Ubuntu 7.04/Fiesty, but after I spent about an hour installing it, I had difficulty getting my wifi to work. I spent a total of 8 hours AFTER installing ubuntu just to get the wifi to work and to no avail.
I had my bi-weekly trip to distrowatch and saw PCLinuxOS in the top 5 (it was number 3earlier today) and decided to check it out. After I got it to boot to the desktop, I was pretty impressed. Everything is pre-installed, from flash, to java, to my wifi card, to even aiglx. It's a heck of a nice distro.
I would definitely urge anyone who haven't tried it, to try it. If you use k/x/ubuntu, then give this a try aswell. who knows, you might like this :)
as salamu alaikum
what kind of wifi card are you using? I assume you are doing wardriving on this wifi card ?:D
Im using BackTrack 2...... this is the most widely used Linux distro with so many auditing warez.
what kind of wifi card are you using? I assume you are doing wardriving on this wifi card ?:D
Im using BackTrack 2...... this is the most widely used Linux distro with so many auditing warez.
actually i do no such thing. i'm a pretty simple guy :)
it's a admtek or something... it's a cheap card which I got a few years back but great thing is that it has worked with a lot of distro's. but whats odd is, it's only on feisty did I encounter the issue. ubuntu has always worked with this, from warty till edgy.
cyber_abdullah
30-04-07, 01:43 PM
I just installed PCLinuxOS Test Release 4 and I must say: wow.
I was originally going to install Ubuntu 7.04/Fiesty, but after I spent about an hour installing it, I had difficulty getting my wifi to work. I spent a total of 8 hours AFTER installing ubuntu just to get the wifi to work and to no avail.
I had my bi-weekly trip to distrowatch and saw PCLinuxOS in the top 5 (it was number 3earlier today) and decided to check it out. After I got it to boot to the desktop, I was pretty impressed. Everything is pre-installed, from flash, to java, to my wifi card, to even aiglx. It's a heck of a nice distro.
I would definitely urge anyone who haven't tried it, to try it. If you use k/x/ubuntu, then give this a try aswell. who knows, you might like this :)
as salamu alaikum
sounds good. what are the advantages over kubuntu 7.04 in terms of technology and features?
sounds good. what are the advantages over kubuntu 7.04 in terms of technology and features?
heck of a lot prettier
more plugins installed by default (flash 9, java, mplayer, latest firefox, etc)
has a growing community following it,
much easier centralized control center thanks to MCC,
has xgl/aiglx and compiz/beryl installed by default just like ubuntu,
there's way more features but I'm still playing with it so can't name em all. Best thing would be to grab a copy and try it out. Again like I said earlier, if you never tried linux before then definitely try it out and if you're a normal kubuntu user, then try it out cause you might just like it.
For me it was a no brainer since ubuntu broke support for my wifi card.
cyber_abdullah
30-04-07, 02:25 PM
heck of a lot prettier
more plugins installed by default (flash 9, java, mplayer, latest firefox, etc)
has a growing community following it,
much easier centralized control center thanks to MCC,
has xgl/aiglx and compiz/beryl installed by default just like ubuntu,
there's way more features but I'm still playing with it so can't name em all. Best thing would be to grab a copy and try it out. Again like I said earlier, if you never tried linux before then definitely try it out and if you're a normal kubuntu user, then try it out cause you might just like it.
For me it was a no brainer since ubuntu broke support for my wifi card.
k, sounds good. I'll make a partition on my HD and try it out inshaallah. Does it have a large support community like the ubuntu forums? I think such a community is indispensible, they have answers for everything. In my situation as a new linux user, I need such support.
k, sounds good. I'll make a partition on my HD and try it out inshaallah. Does it have a large support community like the ubuntu forums? I think such a community is indispensible, they have answers for everything. In my situation as a new linux user, I need such support.
it has a community as big as ubuntu when ubuntu first started. basically it's a growing community and so far it's becoming a very useful community. the forum and wiki help a great deal for new users. frankly, if you like ubuntu because of its community, then you will like pclinuxos just as much. it is a lot like ubuntu, but one thing that makes it different is its adherence to gui-only tools so you won't ever have to touch the commandline. with ubuntu, you still will have to occassionally fall back on the command line to get a few things done. with pclinuxOS, u won't have that privilege (though u could always use the commandline if u want).
again, the best thing is to try it out before anything. remember it's a liveCD, so u dont have to install it to test it. if everything works, and ur happywith it, then u have the option of installing to HD which is a 5 minute process (literally).
cyber_abdullah
30-04-07, 06:58 PM
but one thing that makes it different is its adherence to gui-only tools so you won't ever have to touch the commandline
You know, that sounds perfect. Just what I was looking for. I just need some answers if you don't mind bro because their website is terribly slow at the moment:
a) I assume all the usual DVD, mp3 and burning tools for kubuntu work for this OS?
b) Does automatix also work? Or is there an equivalent which downloads all usefull software and their dependencies automatically?
c) What are the repositories like? Do they feature as much software as (k)ubuntu?
d) Btw, doesn't OS's with .deb software have more support that OS's with RPM packages?
e) Which leads me to another question. Which format out of RPM or .deb is most supported? And which version has the most useful software? Which one is the most superior in terms of installation and ability to recompile for another Linux OS?
You know, that sounds perfect. Just what I was looking for. I just need some answers if you don't mind bro because their website is terribly slow at the moment:
no problem brother
a) I assume all the usual DVD, mp3 and burning tools for kubuntu work for this OS?
everything works out of the box. Unlike with ubuntu where you have to install these plugins, PCLinuxOS already includes em by default.
b) Does automatix also work? Or is there an equivalent which downloads all usefull software and their dependencies automatically?
no need for automatix. automatix is made for ubuntu and ubuntu derivatives like simplyMEPIS. All useful software is included in synaptic. I'm sure your used to that from Ubuntu/Kubuntu.
c) What are the repositories like? Do they feature as much software as (k)ubuntu?
Pretty much, yeah. Everything you need is there, i'll say that much. You won't have to touch any repositories or config files to enable repos that have non-free software. everythings turned on by default.
d) Btw, doesn't OS's with .deb software have more support that OS's with RPM packages?
Honestly I wouldn't know, since if you install any program, whether its in .deb or .rpm, you'll get dependency problems. But if you use a package manager like apt-get, then you won't get that issue since it'll resolve what's needed in order to make the software work. Basically, PCLinuxOS uses synaptic for installing software so you don't get any dependency-hell. While Debian invented apt-get, the people on the .rpm side (based distro's that is) came out with uRPMi. It was made by the good folks at mandrakesoft (now mandriva) of which pcLinuxOS is based on. In essence, it resolves dependency issues when installing .rpm's so you don't get the issues with missing libraries,files, etc.
e) Which leads me to another question. Which format out of RPM or .deb is most supported? And which version has the most useful software? Which one is the most superior in terms of installation and ability to recompile for another Linux OS?
That's a difficult question. Debian is the grand-daddy of all linux distro's. Then again, RPM's have been around longer and is generally accepted. You can say they are tied. If you ever find a piece of sofware that's for rpm, most likely you'll find the same software for debian. If not, then you can use the little program called "alien" to convert a .rpm file to .deb file. But I don't see why this would be a problem. You don't have to worry about whether there's more RPM or more DEB files since you'll never install a program by downloading the setup file as you do in Windows. Rather you'll always rely on something like apt-get or synaptic, or even CNR. Here's an example: Ubuntu and many other distro's have Synaptic for installing new software, SuSE has YaST, Redhat has Red Carpet/Redhat Network, Xandros has Xandros Network, Linspire/Freespire has CNR, Fedora has YUM, ArchLinux has pacman, RPath has conary, etc.
Btw, you CANNOT compile an application on one linux distro and expect full binary compatibility on another distro. That's because linux distro's are all on their own. Each distribution has variance which makes it incompatible with the next distro. There's only a handful which remain binary compatible but in order to combat this, developers usually provide source code in .tar.gz or something, so you can compile (provided you have the necessary libraries and dev files) the program for whatever distro you use. This breaks the barrier of "Oh, I can't install that, I'm on RHEL and that software is for Slackware!"
As for "most useful software", that's really a personal choice. Frankly I find PCLinuxOS to have more useable software than Ubuntu since things like .wmv, .mp3, flash, .rm, and others working right out of the box thanks to bundling of apps like MPlayer, Adobe Flash 9, Amarok/Xine, etc. The control center also is pretty useful. I remember using kubuntu and ubuntu andthey both lacked real control center's like YaST. Thankfully, PCLinuxOS includes their modified version of Mandrak Control Center, so you can configure everything from hardware, to software from a centralized and easy to use user interface. And that's IN ADDITION to the KDE Control Center.
Just try it and see, the CD is only 700 meg's, and you'll lose just a single CD-R which is not much these days...
btw, sorry to sound like a salesman :)
as salamu alaikum
i checked out the screenshots for pslinuxos and its kde :vomit:
only distros i might try (when i get some time) are opensuse (http://www.opensuse.org/) and linux mint (http://linuxmint.com/).
i got a thing for gnome and the slab menu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUXvMPbhAvI) by novell
i checked out the screenshots for pslinuxos and its kde :vomit:
only distros i might try (when i get some time) are opensuse (http://www.opensuse.org/) and linux mint (http://linuxmint.com/).
i got a thing for gnome and the slab menu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUXvMPbhAvI) by novell
linuxmint is a good choice. it's a lot like pclinuxOS except based on ubuntu instead of mandriva.
linuxmint is a good choice. it's a lot like pclinuxOS except based on ubuntu instead of mandriva.
what do you think if opensuse 10.2? the bad thing i have noticed about it so far is that it's a WHOLE dvd...
what do you think if opensuse 10.2? the bad thing i have noticed about it so far is that it's a WHOLE dvd...
SuSE is a great choice. It's the only distro I ever used that made the distro feel complete to the core. SuSE is one distro that I would pay to buy at the store. Yeah, the size IS pretty huge but that's only because they include a whole lotta stuff. Remember when you download opensuse, you'll get a choice of a few desktop environments and window managers. You'll get multiple browers, graphics program, office suites, etc. And add to that, you'll get the customized suse experience like artwork, templates for open office, and whole slew of things.
the only thing i hate about suse is updating/adding/removing software. Yes, YaST is a great tool, but suse's servers are damn slow because people are always hogging up the bandwidth. But I guess popularity comes at a price, so no biggie.
SuSE is a great choice. It's the only distro I ever used that made the distro feel complete to the core. SuSE is one distro that I would pay to buy at the store. Yeah, the size IS pretty huge but that's only because they include a whole lotta stuff. Remember when you download opensuse, you'll get a choice of a few desktop environments and window managers. You'll get multiple browers, graphics program, office suites, etc. And add to that, you'll get the customized suse experience like artwork, templates for open office, and whole slew of things.
the only thing i hate about suse is updating/adding/removing software. Yes, YaST is a great tool, but suse's servers are damn slow because people are always hogging up the bandwidth. But I guess popularity comes at a price, so no biggie.
i downloaded both linuxmint and opensuse last night, might vm them on the weekend if not sooner. :up:
i hear that apparently you can install synaptics on opensuse?
how much do you know about truecrypt bro?
i downloaded both linuxmint and opensuse last night, might vm them on the weekend if not sooner. :up:
i hear that apparently you can install synaptics on opensuse?
how much do you know about truecrypt bro?
not much other than what's written on their home page :o
edit: i heard that too, but remember synaptic is a gtk application, so you'd probably need the gtk libraries. i think there's a ksynaptics too so u can get away with using that.
not much other than what's written on their home page :o
edit: i heard that too, but remember synaptic is a gtk application, so you'd probably need the gtk libraries. i think there's a ksynaptics too so u can get away with using that.
only reason i am asking is because you can "this is what i've come to understand, even though my understanding might be inaccurate" install linux within a fully truecrypted drive, so EVERYTHING except the boot partition is encrypted. so if someone got hold of your pc and tried reading the hdd, they would see nothing at all.
only reason i am asking is because you can "this is what i've come to understand, even though my understanding might be inaccurate" install linux within a fully truecrypted drive, so EVERYTHING except the boot partition is encrypted. so if someone got hold of your pc and tried reading the hdd, they would see nothing at all.
i guess that's the purpose of the program judging from the site's description. personally though, I don't look into these encryption things because i dont got much to hide and I doubt anyone coming into my home and stealing my pc. besides, even if thatoccured, they'd find school essays, a few nasheeds and thats it. So i have very few knowledge on these things. Sorry.
Brother rashid probably knows a few things about this though. I seen him talk about gpg, so he might know about other encryption software as well.
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