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I've been using Mandriva/Mandrake for six or seven years. For me, PCLinux offers me nothing as it takes away all the options. I suspect for a newbie who has a powerful machine it might be wonderful as it really does just install - and quite quickly.
The bit about it having Wireless drives is interesting. It took a bit of fiddling to get that going on my laptop!
I guess you can configure it [PCLinux] fairly easily after it's installed though? I guess it has urpmi, package installer etc?
dutchy,
i think he is kinda right.
all he really said was that debian is not for new users.
i tried it when i was a new user... er... not fun
i couldnt get it to work so i switched to pclinuxos.
but now that i know more about linux, i can get it set up pretty easily. (but even now it takes a bit of work)
pclinuxos is good for new users.
after pclinuxos gets them aqaunted with linux, they can use harder-to-set-up distros, like debian
debian is still a great distro, once you get it running
Quote:
I guess it has urpmi, package installer etc?
DiBosco,
actually, like some older versions of mandriva (mandriva 2007 doesnt have it)
apt is used as package manager. this opens up the opportunity for synaptic package manager. apt is VERY good software (that thanks goes to debian)
it makes it very easy to keep up-to-date packages
what i dont like about mandriva 2007 is that it has no apt-get. it also had very few updates i needed.
example: they still had firefox 1.5, but the update they issued didnt go up to 2.0+
no urmpi in pclinuxos though
Last edited by ieatsplaydoh; 04-07-2007 at 09:11 AM.
Like I thought I said, there is a place for all the different distros, and PCLinuxOS is a good distro for new users, but it hides many of the configuration settings in the process, meaning that it is more difficult for people to learn how Linux works.
Now, I realize that not everybody wants to know how the OS works, they just want it to work. That's fine, and if PCLinuxOS makes them happy, then that is good.
I just wanted to point out that Debian is actually easier to maintain once someone is experienced enough with how things work. Upgrades usually work, which cannot be said for many other distributions. One can install Debain once, and upgrade it for years without ever reinstalling. Sidux is designed with this idea from the start.
Traditionally RPM based distributions have caused users problems because of poor dependency handling, but this has improved in recent years and it is not an accident that Red Hat and SuSE are such popular distributions. The professional support is a plus for a lot of people.
For myself, I have always leaned to something other than a MS product (unless I had to). Started with DR DOS over MS DOS, OS/2 over Win3.1-98, then spent some time with Win2k, and finally Linux over XP to present.
I have always tinkered with the operating systems to get them to work for me, but sooner or later I need to be able to install and get productive right away. So this leaves me with needing an operating system that just works.
Since the death of OS/2, I have on and off tried Linux; Suse and Mandrake were the top runners for simplicity, but seemed resource hungry. Both Mandrake and Suse were nice and had a lot to offer, except applications. So these were dropped for Win2k.
Win2k worked well (and still use it every day) and was compatible with everything that I needed to do. And in the meantime I would see what was happeing in Linux and to find something that worked.
18 months ago I built a new 64 bit computer and bought XP 64. Upon installing XP 64, nothing worked. Video, network adapter etc just did not work for me. I knew that I needed to get the machine up and running, so I went out to see what was new in the Linux world.
Downloaded Suse 10.0 and it installed perfectly. Saw all the hardware and was able to use it for every day use. However I found Suse as problematic. It seemed no matter what I tried to install, there were dependency issues.
So I started downloading and burning CD's of full installs (preferably DVD's so that I would not have to be a disk jockey). I would test out the full installs and see if they worked with my hardware and if there were dependency issues. As soon as a problem would arise on went the next. I found this extremely time consuming, so I started investigating the LiveCD's.
The LiveCD's seemed the way to go. I found Ubuntu and tested it out. It worked well and found my hardware without a problem. Tried a Kanotix, Knoppix, and Mepis beta. Mepis worked well (in fact I have an old Mepis Beta installed on my wifes Sony laptop).
I was amazed at how well LiveCD's worked so I just started testing everything and anything that I could find. That is when I came across PCLinuxOS. It too found everything, was very intuitive, and included lots of packages. So I did the install.
That was 18 months ago and PCLinuxOS is my main distro.
Today Distrowatch is one of favorite websites. I check it daily and download the latest of everything. Now days I use Vmware to test. Do the install, check out the packages, depency issues, etc. If it looks clean and works well, then I install on to a partition for further testing.
This is where Debian comes in. For some reason I cannot get it installed on a Vmware session to test. Wished that I could, but I just don't have the time anymore to tinker with it. Maybe some day I will but for now, I need something that just works.
I am an administrator of a Windows network (50+ clients) and on this network I have roughly 20 installs of PCLinuxOS (some Mepis). Some are configured as regular clients as well as win2003 server terminal clients. I use PCLinuxOS because it works with old and new hardware.
I also build the clients so when I need a new machine, I can have one built, PCLOS installed, and in use, in under an hour.
To setup a full blown LAMP server under PCLOS is childs play. Everything is right there in the repos; MYSql, PHP, Apache, as well as phpMyAdmin and several tools for doing backups. What else can I ask for?
Sorry to ramble on, but something works as well as PCLOS, it's hard not to get excited. It is "Radically Simple".
From my personal experience, if Mandriva and PCLinuxOS have to be compared, then PCLinuxOS is a "better Mandriva than Mandriva" as I said to Beranger when he asked if that was what I thought. Texstar, the originator and maintainer of PCLinuxOS has his roots in Mandriva, so the two are frequently compared. But PCLinuxOS nowadays has well-grown into its own full-fledged Linux distribution.
What it is, is a well thought out custom Linux. You get the best-of-the-best packages on the Live/Install CD, with another 5,000 or so packages available straight from the PCLinuxOS repositories (not Mandriva's), and a lot of attention to detail.
I've only been running PCLinuxOS for a short time--since 0.93--but have been very impressed with all the TRs for 2007. In fact, PCLinuxOS 2007 TR3 is what I use as my main, and very stable, desktop.
Just do this: Try to upgrade you .93 to the new version. Oops, doesn't work. That says why I don't like it.
From version 0.4 to 0.93a, you could upgrade, no re-install was necessary.
Once the full 2007 version is out, the same is intended, ie., there will be no need to re-install for some time, not until the compilers are obselete and we need to upgrade them.
Anyway it takes about 15 minutes to install PCLinuxOS 2007, and as all my personal files are on a separate /home partition, it's hardly a bother.
PCLinuxOS: Put in the Live CD, boot. Pick your keyboard, timezone and internet connection from menus that come up. Play with it for a while. Test your hardware. Click "Install". 15 minutes later, reboot. Good initial software selection. Plenty more at repositories.
I do have fond memories of Mandriva, but one thing that initially scared me was the list of "packages" to install. I had no idea. An upgrade in 9.0 broke gurpmi. I remember a kernel upgrade in 9.2 breaking my graphics and mouse (which interfered with each other). I've done Gentoo since then. But PCLinuxOS is Linux without the fuss. Install. Upgrade. Add new Software. Enjoy.
From my personal experience, if Mandriva and PCLinuxOS have to be compared, then PCLinuxOS is a "better Mandriva than Mandriva" as I said to Beranger when he asked if that was what I thought. Texstar, the originator and maintainer of PCLinuxOS has his roots in Mandriva, so the two are frequently compared. But PCLinuxOS nowadays has well-grown into its own full-fledged Linux distribution.
I would think though that PCLinuxOS is no use for people who want something other than the default install. For example I need an /opt directory for a load of development software I run. I know from experience it's an awful lot easier to run the apps from /opt rather than anywhere else.
I've just got a new laptop and my first stab will still be Mandriva.
I had problems with pclinuxos 2007 test 2 and the mandriva free 2006 cd3 so no test on this mandriva version.I found a stable pcbsd 1.33 faster downdload then torrents.I will wait for newer version of mandriva to test. I think pcbsd is on the way up for desktops at least.
there is alot of distro bashing going on here in this forum, very bad thing.
And to talk against Pclinuxos such people should kept away from the forums, they only bring bad things.
Hey where we are, linux users against different Linux systems?
At least this you never find in Macintosh, or people keep together and stop bashing distro`s, or they should stay away from the forums cause they only bring evil.
I must say I don't see this as distro bashing, just why people prefer one over another. There's been nothing nasty. I can see points of view for both camps.
I like pclinux 2007 test 2 and used it 3 weeks as my main computer but had a few small gitch's like k3b crashed and can't make new folders. when the stable version comes out I am sure I will install on one machine for a much longer test run. I also like Mandriva, I am going to test mandriva 2007.0 one metisse.i586 on next rebuilt white box. Any one use mandriva-2007-one ( metisse ) yet? So many good linux distro's out there, I can't just use one.
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