PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 1

[exploder]

I have been looking at PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 1 because I like the rolling release concept and PCLinuxOS does keep things rolling. I have the beta installed on a system with an NVidea GeForce 220 GT and an HP HDMI 25" wide screen flat panel display, this combination is very problematic for most distribution but has no issues of any kind in the beta. Plymouth is installed by default, it does not currently work from the Live CD but works fine in the installed system. Plymouth will work on the Live CD for the final release and this was presented as a known issue. The Plymouth issue is minor and it gave me the opportunity to see that there were no errors at start up.

The artwork is along the lines of the PCLinuxOS 2007 release, it is simple but looks nice. There is a legacy and pae kernel available in the repos if you need something other than the default. I have 4 GB of RAM so I installed the pae kernel, first boot was really slow because the modules had to build for the pae kernel but after that the system booted pretty fast. All of the default applications are current and Firefox 3.6 worked well. Java and Flash are installed by default and worked perfectly for me, even full screen flash playback was good.

Bleachbit, Sweeper and Dupeclean-GUI are installed by default, these are excellent tools for keeping the system clean and I was impressed that these were installed by default. There is a Konqueror Super User Mode shortcut in the menu and it seemed like a good solution to the Dolphin kdesudo issue many people are seeing in KDE 4.4.1. The default applications are what you would expect in PCLinuxOS with the exception of OpenOffice, there is a Get OpenOffice script that you can run from the menu, this was done because of space on the CD. I installed Abiword and Gnumeric because they are quick and light, they do what I need and the server was getting hammered anyway.

There are a couple of bugs but this is a beta and considering some of the bugs I find in other distributions they are only minor annoyances to me. The CD-ROM tray closes and has to be opened again to remove a disk, this is a udev issue and I am certain they will easily get this resolved. Mounted CDs, DVDs do not display on the desktop. Again, a minor annoyance because mounted disks do show up in Dolphin. There are some icons in the "Printers" section of the menu that are showing up as question marks, this is minor and easily fixed but just happens to be a pet bug of mine on KDE 4 systems.

Some other things worth noting, the beta seems well tweaked, it does not use a lot of resources and application launch is quick on just about everything. Graphics drivers are good in the beta and I do not see any reports of people having any issues with graphics cards. The majority of the reports I see in the bug thread are from people not being used to running a KDE 4 based system yet.

If you like the rolling release concept and don't want to fight with breakage issues all the time then it is worth your time to look at the PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta. PCLinuxOS is known to be one of the most stable rolling releases and the beta is looking very good.

Edit: One more bug. The KDE time zone settings are not working properly. The problem can be worked around using the PCLinuxOS configuration tools.

[exploder]

Just thought I would throw in a screen shot.

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/1009/21299657.png

I changed things for a cleaner look. The wallpaper was made by Linuxoid, it has always been a favorite of mine.

[markcynt]

Finally, a PCLinuxOS worth trying.

I liked PCLinuxOS when I tried it last summer but I couldn't deal with KDE 3.5

[exploder]

The icon bug and the eject bug are fixed now. The time zone issue may be a mistake. I may not have waited long enough for the change to take effect.

[Truthfinder]

After trying several other distros PCLinuxOS was my first real leap into Linux when I abandoned Windows. I was very happy with it until they changed to KDE4. KDE3 worked great for me but KDE4 with PCLinuxOS gave me all sorts of problems. Not just one computer with problems but 2 that I had it installed on. After I installed Mint the problems I was having have all but disappeared.
I hope they can get the stability back they once had with KDE3, at least for me. They do have a great forum, lots of knowledgeable and helpful people when you need it. I wish them the best and I may give it another try when their final iso comes out.

[GoustiFruit]

Playing with it currently (and posting from risky Opera 10.50 for Linux )

[exploder]

The bugs are quickly getting fixed. I find very little wrong but I read that there will be another beta before the final. This has been pretty interesting so far. I have learned a couple things from this experience. This is a lot more fun than Ubuntu development because there is no mass breakage going on.

I have been through Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, Mepis, OpenSuse and AntiX release cycles, out of all of these Ubuntu's is the most nerve racking....

[Carl]

PCLinuxOS was one of my favourite KDE Distros before kde4 maybe it's time for another look

[chiefjim]

Finally, a PCLinuxOS worth trying.

I liked PCLinuxOS when I tried it last summer but I couldn't deal with KDE 3.5

I loved the KDE 3.5 but find the KDE 4.4 very uncomfortable

[Midnighter]

I'm surprised at how much i'm liking this new version. I loved the 2007, 2009 was "ok", but didn't really feel as good, but 2010 is shaping up VERY nicely. I'm more a Gnome person than KDE, but with the changes planned for Gnome 3 (not liking what I see), may as well dip my toe back in the pool for a good implementation of KDE4, and PCLOS has always been a good, solid, and easy to use distro. Having Mandriva's Control Centre to work with is another plus. Why the frak don't more distros use this sort of thing? It makes so much configuration so much simpler.

[exploder]

What I have always found interesting is that they compile and maintain all of their packages and are able to provide updates for all of the applications as well as the system itself. The Control Center is completely rebuilt to work with PCLinuxOS and not a re-branded version of Mandriva's. Many PCLinuxOS packages contain custom fixes so that updates do not break the system and staying within the proper repositories provides stability. The kernel is custom build and this time they are providing two additional kernels. It amazes me that such a small group can accomplish more than the huge groups of developers the big distributions have.

[piratesmack]

Looks nice, I'll have to check this out when it's released.

The timezone issue may be caused by polkit not being present during compilation.
Does the KDE font installer work? That also requires polkit.

The KDE 4.4.1 packages for Slackware have a similar issue.

[Daveleh]

What I have always found interesting is that they compile and maintain all of their packages and are able to provide updates for all of the applications as well as the system itself. The Control Center is completely rebuilt to work with PCLinuxOS and not a re-branded version of Mandriva's. Many PCLinuxOS packages contain custom fixes so that updates do not break the system and staying within the proper repositories provides stability. The kernel is custom build and this time they are providing two additional kernels. It amazes me that such a small group can accomplish more than the huge groups of developers the big distributions have.

That's why I liked PCLinuxOS and used it up till a few days ago.Unfortunately I had hardware issues that I couldnt resolve, which mint8 has overcome. I'm still impressed with the work that Texstar and the devs do tho and really like the rolling release idea.

Regards

[ezas]

I"ve been playing with it for a week and I plan to move my main OS from Mint 8 to PCLOS 2010 when it goes final. I 've always liked KDE but I couldn't find a good KDE 4 release so I switched to the relative simplicity of Mint 8 Gnome. Well now I have found a KDE 4 distro that I am not just satisfied with but I actually look forward to using.

Mint has been a good distro for me and I've done my share of distro hopping choosing what distro to finally become my main OS over Windows.

Both Ubuntu and Mandriva only survived a couple of days before being kicked to the curb. I think both Mint and PCLOS are showing how to do linux right for your average desktop user. PCLOS stumbled a little bit with 2009.x and some here may know some of the background on that, but he sure seems to be back now with this new release. It's hard to believe that it's 1st beta.

FYI - PCLOS is staying with legacy GRUB for this next release. Also 2010 is not a rolling release. Both the beta(s) and the final will require an installation.

[Daveleh]

FYI - PCLOS is staying with legacy GRUB for this next release. Also 2010 is not a rolling release. Both the beta(s) and the final will require an installation.

True but once installed then it will be a rolling release again.

Regards

[DrHu]

If you like the rolling release concept and don't want to fight with breakage issues all the time then it is worth your time to look at the PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta. PCLinuxOS is known to be one of the most stable rolling releases and the beta is looking very good.

Is it any known as any more stable than Debian rolling releases

PCLinuxOS is known to be one of the most stable rolling releases..
I do like rolling releases

• --but that gives a distribution nothing to crow about, no buzz

The advantage of pclinux over Debian, is probably the already selected packages, Debian is no doubt less trendy in that regard
--I also quite like Arch..
--I also quite like Debian
http://www.archlinux.org/
http://www.debian.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_release

• Other Linux distributions may maintain a development branch in between releases. These development branches may resemble a rolling release because software in such a branch is continually updated. However, unlike a rolling release, these branches are intended to be the next release, and will be frozen and tested prior to such a release

[exploder]

Is it any known as any more stable than Debian rolling releases

Yes Debian is a rolling release to a point but it's not in the same league of out of the box functionality. PCLInuxOS is more of what someone just coming over to Linux would want. I need to find the time to try Arch because so many people recommend it.

[mmesantos1]

Hey Exploder, I installed and am now running PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta1. It runs well. Here is a screenshot.

[exploder]

mmesantos1, you sure do know how to make a desktop look good! I am still running the bets too, it is fast! I have even reported a few bugs, minor ones. They are really doing a nice job on the 2010 release. I got burned out on the Ubuntu 10.04 beta when they pretty much broke everything that started out good... I have seen no breakage of any kind with the PCLinuxOS beta, only bug fixes. I like development but Ubuntu was starting to get on my nerves.

[mmesantos1]

mmesantos1, you sure do know how to make a desktop look good! I am still running the bets too, it is fast! I have even reported a few bugs, minor ones. They are really doing a nice job on the 2010 release. I got burned out on the Ubuntu 10.04 beta when they pretty much broke everything that started out good... I have seen no breakage of any kind with the PCLinuxOS beta, only bug fixes. I like development but Ubuntu was starting to get on my nerves.

I have to agree, I too was running Ubuntu from Alpha 1 to 3 and its like things got worse each release. I will check out the beta for Ubuntu but right now I will enjoy what is PCLinuxOS. They have done a good job. I have been running as I would a final release and I have not run into anything yet but I just installed it today so we will see how it goes. My printer installed without any issue. Video Driver for Nvidia installed during install which I like that. No need to install post-install like Ubuntu. One thing that I thought was strange though was that they had Compiz installed. I am not sure why since KDE has its own Compositor built in so I did uninstall Compiz since it is not needed. They really did customize KDE 4. I do like there menu better than the standard KDE 4 Menu it is similar to the menu from KDE 3. I have to admit that though I am not a fan of KDE I do like this distro. Thanks for the heads up on this beta Exploder.

And also thanks for the complement as well.