Wednesday, April 23, 2008

DistroWatch.com: Top Ten Distributions I PCLinuxOS

There was this nicely written review of Top Ten Distributions on DistroWatch.com which also included PCLinuxOS. I am posting the PCLinuxOS review from that list of Top Ten here as status verbatim along with PCLinuxOS logo and a desktop screenshot. It is worth reading.


PCLinuxOS was first announced in 2003 by Bill Reynolds, better known as "Texstar". Prior to creating his own distribution, Texstar was already a well-known developer in the Mandrake Linux community of users for building up-to-date RPM packages for the popular distribution and providing them as a free download. In 2003 he decided to build a new distribution, initially based on Mandrake Linux, but with several significant usability improvements. The goals? It should be beginner-friendly, have out-of-the box support for proprietary kernel modules, browser plugins and media codecs, and should function as a live CD with a simple and intuitive graphical installer.


Several years and development releases later, PCLinuxOS is rapidly approaching its intended state. In terms of usability, the project offers out-of-the-box support for many technologies most Windows-to-Linux migrants would expect from their new operating system. On the software side of things, PCLinuxOS is a KDE-oriented distribution, with a customised and always up-to-date version of the popular desktop environment. Its growing software repository contains other desktops, however, and offers a great variety of desktop packages for many common tasks. For system configuration, PCLinuxOS has retained much of Mandriva's excellent Control Centre, but has replaced its package management system with APT and Synaptic, a graphical package management front-end.


On the negative side, PCLinuxOS lacks any form of roadmap or release goals. Despite the growing community involvement in the project, most development and decision-making remains in the hands of Texstar who tends to be on the conservative side when judging the stability of a release. As a result, the development process of PCLinuxOS tends to be long and a new version is not released until all known bugs are solved. There are currently no plans for a 64-bit edition of PCLinuxOS.

Pros: Out-of-the-box support for graphics drivers, browser plugins and media codecs; fast boot times; up-to-date software
Cons: No 64-bit edition offered; no out-of-the-box support for non-English languages; lacks release planning


Software package management: Advanced Package Tool (APT) using RPM packages
Available editions: MiniMe, Junior and BigDaddy editions for 32-bit (i586) processor architectures

Suggested PCLinuxOS-based alternative: SAM Linux Desktop

PCLinuxOS Repository List

I am posting this link which shows all the major PCLinuxOS repositories list, choose the repository that is closest to you and add it to synaptic and you will get all the updates and packages faster.

Here is the PCLinuxOS Repository List

PCLinuxOS Minime 2008 Review

I have made my custom made system from PCLinuxOS Minime 2008 and it works flawlessly on my system.

Here is a great review and discussion thread about PCLinuxOS Minime from Raiden`s Realm.

It`s worth reading for everybody who loves this great GNU/Linux distribution.

How to reinstall GRUB on PCLinuxOS

Every now and then we install two distributions as dual boot or dual boot Windows with Linux and then we are puzzled how to reinstall GRUB. Below is a simple command line re-installation method of  GRUB for PCLinuxOS and which works for any other distribution running GRUB legacy.

Reinstalling GRUB:

a ) Boot system from PCLinuxOS Live CD
b ) Log in as root
c ) Open a Konsole window, and at the prompt  ( [root@home-pc saleem]# )    type;

                                 [root@home-pc saleem]# grub

                                 grub> : The grub prompt will appear

d) From the grub prompt type;

grub> find /boot/grub/stage2

(hd0,0)
(hd0,4)
(hd0,5)
(hd0,9)

A list similar to the above one  will appear.

e ) You need to know which partition your Linux OS is located. For example it is (hd0,4) thus I type these commands

     grub> root (hd0,4)

     grub> setup (hd0)

f ) Exit GRUB by typing "quit"


Some Screenshots here


 g ) Restart you computer. The GRUB bootloader should now appear.