The site is laid out in a manner which suggests it’s aimed at intermediate users who won’t be put off by technical information… Or jokes. The site, for example, occasionally carries tag-lines poking at other distributions, such as Ubuntu (“Our window buttons are right” and “The democratic Linux distribution”). Clicking on the FAQ link displays a list of ten commandments for Linux users (“Thou shalt use the command line”), along with another link to the real FAQs.
Prior to trying out the new version of PCLinuxOS, I had the opportunity to ask Texstar a few questions.
What is your focus in PCLinuxOS 2010? Were there any special features
you rolled into this release?
Texstar: The primary goal of this release was to make the transition to KDE 4.
PCLinuxOS 2010 aims at providing an optimum out-of-the-box desktop
experience with the latest hardware drivers and popular applications.
New special features include intuitive support for multi-language
setup, OpenOffice installation, and several desktop environments.
Moreover we added security enhancements such as encryption and
parental controls, and the completely reworked script “mylivecd” which
can be used to easily backup, or build a customized re-master of, an
installed system.
Your head quarters are in Texas. Some distributions based out of the USA
are concerned with patents and their effects on codecs (mp3 for
example). PCLinuxOS ships with a full range of codecs and Flash. Do you
have any concerns about the legality?
Texstar: We do not ship Win32codecs or libdvdcss2. Almost everything else is either
redistributable in a non-commercial environment, licensed or provided by
open source libraries.
Your distribution started as a fork of Mandriva. How does PCLinuxOS
differ from Mandriva?
Texstar: PCLinuxOS 2010 was built from the ground up using the packages in our
repository. It is not based on a Mandriva install nor is it based on our
2009 release updated. The packages in our repo may be original creations but may
also contain repackaged and modified srpms from Fedora, OpenSuse and
Mandriva. PCLinuxOS may also contain patches from Ubuntu, Debian, PLD and Charka. So
in summary it is similar to Mandriva due to some ported packages and
different in that we create our own packages, import packages from other
distributions and
patches as needed.
PCLinuxOS releases don’t appear to stick to any set schedule. How do you
decide when your distro is ready to release into the wild?
Texstar: As a community driven distribution we do not have a need to stick
to a fixed schedule just to keep the bean counters happy but instead
release when everything has been sufficiently tested to comply with our main
principle: provide a reliable and stable system.
How many people are currently working on PCLinuxOS? And what can
volunteers do to help?
Texstar: We are a small group of 30 plus volunteers working in our free time.
Volunteers can test packages, write documentation and translations, create
graphics, help others users on the forums and let the rest of the world
know about PCLinuxOS.
Your website tag-line keeps changing, generally it seems to be poking
fun at other distros. Are you trying to start a flame war or just making
a jest?
Texstar: It is about having a sense of humor – some things get taken too serious.
We are just a group of guys and gals enjoying Linux and sharing it with
others who might like it too.
PCLinuxOS is my favourite distro. I am a great fan and supporter. Everything works out of the box. What else can I say?
Maybe I can add that Texstar is a genius
Edited 2010-04-19 23:37 UTC
I used PCLinuxOS for a couple of years before giving it up for a 64 bit OS, which I’ve used since. Maybe I missed something but nowhere did I see mention that PCLinuxOS 2010 is featured in both x86-32 and x86-64 variants. I’d switch back to PCLOS in a second if I could utilize the full potential of my quad core Phenom CPU and 8 GB of RAM. 🙂
There is only 32 bit version the moment. Texstar has already said 64 bit will follow sometime in the near future.
There is a kernel in the repository that can support up to 64GB of memory if you want to use PCLinuxOS with more than 4GB of memory.
There is a kernel that is configured to take advantage of AMD64/Opteron (K8) processors but this kernel is also configured to use up to 4GB of memory.
A kernel configured for both AMD64/Opteron (K8) processors and 64GB currently doesnt exist and i am sure one will be provided if there is a demand for it
Edited 2010-04-20 03:10 UTC
It should be mentioned, that they use the bf-scheduler in their standard kernel. On a amd64 system, performance seems vastly improved when dealing with several tasks at a time.
The Phoronix results show this in numbers.
Performancewise you probably get better results with an bfs kernel than with a system running in 64-bit.
http://ck.kolivas.org/patches/bfs/bfs-faq.txt
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux_distro_fou…
Thank you for mentioning the scheduler and the links. I had no idea how much of a difference it could make. I do want desktop performance, so I’ll change my plans from my last post and use this distro for my dual core instead of the 64bit. Hopefully the flash video will run better. Thanks also to all the comments here on 32bit vs 64bit.
I’ve been using PCLinuxOS 2010 with E17 (Enlightenment) the past few days and it’s the best implementation of E17 I’ve used. It’s very fast and I haven’t experienced a single crash. I do wish they had a 64 bit version, but I think I can overlook that until somebody releases a 64 bit distro that runs E17 as well. Regarding performance, the Phoronix test results on a 2010 beta version were impressive and that’s what convinced me to try it out.
Edited 2010-04-20 00:55 UTC
I heard it also runs Duke Nukem Forever quite well. Any truth to that?
Without wanting to get into a distro wazzing contest, your expectations are pretty low if you’re happy with a few days without crashing.
That’s funny because I was thinking the same thing while I was typing that statement. My low expectations are based on past experiences with E17. But, I think it has the potential to be the best window manager once it’s finalized, so I keep playing around with it.
Its good, but I prefer PC/OS, http://www.pc-os.org, in terms of performance and everything running out of box. PCLinuxOS is good if you are looking for an RPM based distro.
As compared to Ubuntu, I have found PCLinuxOS better suited to encourage newbies to try out Linux. I have been using this distribution for several years now and it has always been stable and complete in terms of plugins etc.
I guess financial muscle of Canonical is forcing Ubuntu on us a the answer to all computer user’s problems whereas several other distributions are much better.
Sadly, the Linux online media is following the Pied Piper of Canonical
forcing?
In Australia there are monthly “download caps” for domestic users from most ISPs. My own ISP provides an array of file mirrors from which data can be downloaded without counting towards the download cap. This is called “unmetered content”.
For my ISP, there is this list of Linux distributions supported as un-metered content:
http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/
I can download as much as I like from that list. PCLinuxOS is mentioned, but unfortunately, the mirror is empty. Ubunutu and Kubuntu are represented, as is Arch, Fedora, Mandriva OpenSuse, MEPIS, debian, slackware, etc, etc.
The lack of an un-metered PCLinuxOS repository mirror makes it an unsuitable choice for me, let alone the fact that there is no 64-bit version.
BTW: I make note that my ISP does support an un-metered mirror called “major geeks” for Windows files, but this mirror does not include Windows updates. Windows users are going to use up a fair amount of their cap just keeping one machine up to date, let alone a few of them sharing the one ISP account.
Forcing? I don’t see how one is forced.
Kubuntu Lucid is mirrored, and I know Kubuntu has copped a fair bit of criticism in the past, but this release seems to be very nice. Kubuntu Lucid will be an LTS release. Kubuntu’s repository has over 26,000 packages, whereas most of the other repositories (including PCLinuxOS) have only about 5,000 or so.
I did a quick check on the internode site. PCLinuxOS 2010 with all its variants is at:
http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/pclinuxos/live-cd/english/previe…
Cheers.
That is the PCLinuxOS CD images. From these files you can burn a new LiveCD. You can boot that LiveCD, and you can then install PCLinuxOS.
I have already done all that recently when it was a beta.
Unfortunately, this will not help you with ongoing updates. You need a mirror of the repositories for that.
Cheers, though, and thanks for trying to be helpful.
PS: I have a tip for anyone installing a recent Linux distribution and hoping to use the open-source ATI graphics drivers … add a “nomodeset” parameter in grub to pass to the kernel on boot. This will disable KMS (kernel mode setting), and use UMS (user mode setting) instead. For some ATI cards this will add a second or two extra to the boot-up time, but there will be an improvement in the 3D graphics rendering and compositing of up to 60%.
This is a very worthwhile improvement when running a KDE4 distribution such as Kubuntu or PCLinuxOS.
PPS: Hold the phone … the Internode PCLinuxOS repository mirror (which is an apt mirror, except it uses RPM files) now (once again) seems to be populated:
http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/pclinuxos/apt/pclinuxos/2010/
OK then, this might make it worth a trial. It is 32-bit, but that would still be great for my netbook.
Edited 2010-04-20 13:24 UTC
Nice to her the new version is out. I’ve been following the progress on Twitter. Over several years I’ve tried many Linux distros. The best performer for me has been Pclinuxos. I used Suse for a few years before, but the package manager was frustrating. I tried Mandriva, but there was always a bug that kept something from working right. I’ll use Pclinuxos as the main os for the 32bit desktop and laptop. For the dual core laptop, I may try Kubuntu 10.4 64bit when it comes out at the end of April. If it doesn’t work well I’ll use pclinuxos, which I know works every time.
you can download it
http://hazna.lt/blogengine/post/April-2010-Issue-of-The-NEW-PCLinux…
This 32bit OS is a rocket ship. It runs quicker than my Ubuntu 64 install. It is a keeper for me.
I think it is pretty much true that unless you are doing something that involves a lot of data or a lot of computation that just happens to require a lot of memory, you don’t need a 64 bit OS. These days, pretty much anyone doing scicence will do well to have access to at least one 64 bit system. The number of bits can either speed up or slow down certain computations, but typically not much either way.
Been using PCLinuxOS since 2007 and have found it to be an outstanding distro. I came from the the Slackware days beginning in 2000. I’m currently using PCLinuxOS 2009 and have had very few problems with it. The repositories works great, especially with when using the “pass server” … and yes I do support them at $50.00 an install. I have PCLinuxOS installed on several customer/friends computers as well, each supported financially in donations to Texstar. In each scenario, it has proved to be well thought out and works superb!
To Jesse Smith who wrote the review, let me say, (on a positive note) that the interview and OS overview was enjoyable in a way. However, I do not appreciate an “adversarial” attitude, which I picked up, in your questions to Texstar. They are offensive questions, and I say, “WHO CARES” about the larger issues that are the concerns about codecs and so forth. Every Linux distro has had to contend with this. Better to leave this issue to other blogs. I am sick to death of hearing from the “purist” Linux fanatics who continually plague the community with this and other driver issues such as using an “Nvidia” binary driver.
In Addition, “WHO CARES!” what distro Texstar builds his from … this is Linux and fully allows for this! Texstar and the ripper gang, as well as the community, have done an outstanding job in many respects, including the Magazine they publish that has been helpful to many people. Enjoy it for what it is and give encouragement for its development, is what I say.
Jesse, your idiotic comparisons, adversarial questions, and in general, obvious lack of respect, is why I do not visit OSnews much anymore. I just happen to catch this review, hoping that I would find something useful on OSnews. I see I haven’t missed much. And yes, the only reason why I “registered” is to post this comment. Have a nice day.
Tom
None of those questions were at all offensive; they were perfectly reasonable, and I detected no adversarial tone whatsoever. Do you live in some Texstar/PCLinuxOS/Lovefest-induced dreamworld where no one can ask the guy a reasonable question? I know you love your distro and all, but get a grip dude.
Noticed in a whole bunch of comments people not wanting to use PCLOS because of the lack of a 64bit option. The main difference between 32bit and 64bit for the vast majority of things is the 4gb memory cap. You need to be doing something very computationally intensive to see any significant performance between 32 and 64bit. So if you are a developer and constantly compiling, or an artist, and constantly rendering 3d movies, there is a big difference. For most other things, the difference is negligible.
OTOH, 64bit computing is clearly the way of the future. Since, unlike Windows, Linux has the source code for its drivers, there is almost no penalty for moving to a 64bit version. There are very few problems for running 64bit Linux.
Since 64bit computing is the way of the fututre, there should be no objection to users running it now, even if like me their systems have only 3GB RAM. Furthermore, if I run 64bit Linux, I form part of the demand for 64bit Linux, which is incentive for distributions to offer 64bit variants, and I thereby assure that 64bit Linux is ready whenever other Linux users may decide, or need, to switch.
…and unlike windows, chances are you will be in a world of hurt if you want to run both, unless it is a command line app (and covered by ia32libs). But thats not what I was talking about.
…unless you want to try out a 32bit only distribution. which is what the comment was about.
I don’t know about that. If you have a compelling need for 64bit, I would say hell yeah. If a distribution offers 64bit, then why not? But I would consider the distribution itself a way more important decision, then whether or not it offers a 64bit version.
There are other kernel builds available on PCLinuxOS 2010. The PAE kernel provides access up to 64 gigs of memory and the a64 kernel which is a 32-bit kernel optimized for an AMD 64.
Edited 2010-04-21 05:05 UTC
A mainstream distro using BFS?! O_O
If you’ve got slowish hardware, you need to give this a shot. On a fast modern PC, say, Core 2 or better, you won’t notice much of any difference from a mainline kernel with low-latency config settings. On now-aging P4s, Athlon XPs, or even older, though, or lowly little Atoms, BFS makes for a very nice boost in responsiveness.
I’ve used the KDE4 version, and it’s not a normal KDE 4. It’s almost like KDE 3.5, but with KDE 4 goodies added in. The default settings are geared towards usability much more than to show off KDE 4’s features.
If you liked PCLinuxOS in the past, but noticed it getting a bit ragged in ’08 and ’09, give 2010 a chance. Texstar is back to working his desktop distro maintaining magic.