The desktop looks typical KDE and for serious stuff. One good thing is in the first login itself, the guest and root passwords are mentioned. For a lot of distros, many-a-times I have to search on net to get the default root password. The developers have surely thought of the first time users.
Applications
PCLinuxOS has a rich ensemble of out-of-the-box applications. Further, from synaptic package manager, other essential apps can be downloaded. Firefox 9 with Adobe Flash support, Dropbox, Thunderbird, pidgin, bit-torrent client, GIMP, VLC, DVD slideshow maker, television viewer, etc. are provided by default along with a host of KDE specific applications like Konqueror browser, smb4K, Ksnapshot, etc. Kmymoney or personal finance manager is provided with the default CD and I found it quite good.
The OS by default doesn't have any Office app but a link is given for the users to download LibreOffice once installed in the system. However, what I found is that PCLinux provides out-of-the-box support for a lot of graphic cards (like Intel EMGD, Nvidia) and peripheral devices like printers and scanners. This is really good for new Linux users.
CPU and RAM Usage
CPU usage is about 3-10% and RAM about 280 MB without any other app running - which is decent for a KDE OS.
Overall, I liked PCLinuxOS - a pretty solid KDE desktop. Definitely I liked it more than Kubuntu. The distro is really good and worth a try. Quite a few screenshots are provided in my Flickr Album for those who are interested to know more about PCLINUXOS.
July 15, 2012: I removed Xubuntu 12.04 LTS from my netbook and replaced it with PCLinuxOS. Seems like the distro, as well as, neat KDE interface, is growing on me! Installation was easy and the OS is really fast.
Thanks for the write-up, Your review prompted me to download the distro. Will install it presently to dual-boot with Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon edition on a dual core Intel rig.
ReplyDeletePCLinuxOS uses the original GRUB, whereas Mint uses GRUB 2. There can be some headaches getting one to see the other.
DeleteThe BIG feature for me is the rolling release concept. I do NOT have to reinstall every six months, I just get updated regularly!
ReplyDeletePCLOS user/enthusiast since 2006!
Me too, and uh...me too! I haven't had to ugrade anything in quite awhile. My system is fully up to date, too. I tried to convince the Mageia people how good the rolling release was, but they wouldn't listen.
Delete"However, this is not a Debian based OS, rather it's package management is in RPM."
ReplyDeleteI do not understand you statement here?? What does it have to do if the OS is good or not? The point being is that using PCLinuxOS is SIMPLE! and keeping it updated wither RPM or Debian based it is still easy to do with a simple point and click in Synaptic.
Possibly that comment came from my belief of Linux should be free for all. I have a great deal of respect for Debian but can't somehow put Redhat in the same league! Debian is and always will be free. I am not so sure of RPM based distros :).
DeleteUmmm, any code available as GPL will be free. What has a package management system got to do with any of that? You're confusing something here...
DeleteRPM is the equivalent of dpkg. It doesn't do dependency handling, either. PCLinuxOS uses APT, just like Debian, to do dependency handling. So, before any of you bright people try to claim RPM dependency hell, you don't know what you're talking about.
Hi Ruel24, I did some research on the dbm vs rpm and I guess you are correct. And PCLinuxOS uses apt, as rightly pointed out. I agree with you and I am removing my statement from the blog. Thanks for explaining.
Delete....and you could use package-converter or alien to convert ubuntu .deb package and install it on pclos. it was easy as one two three, but remember use the same date or you'll end up with "broken package/dependencies" :D
ReplyDelete