PCLinuxOS 2007 Final Released!

Apoorv Khatreja

Apoorv Khatreja

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Texstar and the Ripper Gang are pleased to announce the final release of PCLinuxOS 2007. Featuring kernel 2.6.18.8, KDE 3.5.6, Open Office 2.2.0, Firefox 2.0.0.3, Thunderbird 2.0, Frostwire, Ktorrent, Amarok, Flash, Java JRE, Beryl 3D and much much more. Almost 2 gigs of software compressed on a single self bootable livecd that can be installed to your hard drive provided it is compatible with your system and you like the distribution. Over 5000+ additional packages available after hard drive install through our Synaptic Software Manager. Please note PCLinuxOS does not ship with Win32codes or DVD decryption software. Proprietary Nvidia and ATI drivers available after hard drive install.

In addition we'd like to give out a special thanks to the PCLinuxOS community who stepped up last month to help us out and kept us going. Thank you for all your support and we'll keep working hard to bring you a good Linux distribution you can be proud of. We also want to thank Enki Consulting for providing hosting for our website and ibiblio.org for hosting our distribution.

Torrent: LinuxTracker :: Details for torrent \"PCLinuxOS 2007 Final\"

Download mirrors: PCLinuxOS

Purchase disk from On-Disk.com




I downloaded the iso from the http mirror, a 697 MB file. I installed it on my pen drive first, so as to get a high speed live environment.

Here's how I put it on my usb drive -
1) Format it using FAT/FAT32 filesystem.
2) Copy all the contents of the 'isolinux' directory directly to your drive (not in any subfolder) and rename the 'isolinux.cfg' to 'syslinux.cfg'.
3) Now copy the folder 'boot' and the file 'livecd.sqfs' also directly to your drive.
4) Download syslinux from here (if you already don't have it, of course). It's just 2 MB. Now unzip it somewhere on your hard drive, preferably directly in a partition (i.e. C:, D:, E: etc.)
5) Open a command prompt (Start >> Run >> Type "cmd") and browse to the directory where you have unzipped syslinux. Open the folder win32 inside that directory. Now type "syslinux.exe X:" where X is the drive letter of your usb drive.
6) That's all! Your done!. (You may also have to change some settings in you BIOS to enable booting from a USB drive, I assume you know that, I'n not writing about that over here)


After booting from my USB Drive, I was greeted by a dialog which asked me about various settings (Keyboard layout, time zone, network settings) which I skipped by simply pressing cancel.

There are two users by default - guest and root, the passwords are same as the usernames. I logged in as root, and was taken aback by the blazing fast speed. The default desktop environment is a highly customised KDE 3.5.6. The distro is lightweight, efficient, and comes with gui apps for almost all your daily needs. The installer is quite user friendly, partitioning was easy, a piece of cake. The installation took only 4 mins, which is amazing as compared to Ubuntu 7.04's installation time, which was longer than 25 minutes. The installer asked me if I wanted to edit GRUB, the default bootloader, and it was quite easy, I could change the default boot option too.

I booted into the system, started by changing the resolution. It has an inbuilt control center (similar to Windows' Control Panel) which makes configuration easy for even a newbie. I did not have to reach for the terminal for any step of installation or customisation. The repositories included most of the software I needed (Opera, Skype etc.). The default music player is Amarok, which is already customised and is ready for use. It includes Open Office 2.2.0 for all your professional need (which was the only letdown, OpenOffice is awfully slow). It also comes with Firefox 2.0.0.3, Thunderbird 2.0, Frostwire, Ktorrent, Flash, Java JRE, Beryl 3D preinstalled. I'm not elaborating on Beryl, most of you already know about it.

I found PCLinuxOS to be more customisable and newbie friendly, as compared to any other distro (which includes everybody's favourite, Ubuntu). I'm not anti-Ubuntu, I have a problem with their philosophy,which includes their unwillingness to change. Another major problem that I have faced with Ubuntu, since the time of Breezy Badger, is a problem of random hangings, which I have been unable to solve till date. Ubuntu has an over active forum, which has a side effect; if your problem is unusual, it will soon disappear from the front pages, and you'll have to keep on bumping it till a knowledgeable guy comes along. The PCLinuxOS forums are, on the other hand, under-active, which has obvious effects, you have to wait for answers. But the improvement made by the Texstar group in this version is amazing.
 
Just out of curiosity which Ubuntu philosophy are you talking about
 
The philosophy of binding to a particular set of rules. This limits development. Rules cannot be set in such a fast changing scenario. You have change according to the time. Their marketing strategy is more of an anti-Microsoft rather than Open Source promoting. Their development, too, is focussed on providing a distro that can act as a supplement to Windows, rather than to provide a distro that is easy to use, and does not have to be LEARNT before it can be properly explored.
 
The philosophy of binding to a particular set of rules. This limits development. Rules cannot be set in such a fast changing scenario. You have change according to the time.
From the Ubuntu homepage: Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing.
Maybe you're talking of this rule? 😕 So, according to you, Ubuntu should change according to the time. Then, does that mean it should become a paid OS. :O:O
Their marketing strategy is more of an anti-Microsoft rather than Open Source promoting. Their development, too, is focussed on providing a distro that can act as a supplement to Windows, rather than to provide a distro that is easy to use, and does not have to be LEARNT before it can be properly explored.
Here's the link to their "About Ubuntu" page. Could you elaborate on what exactly you deem as "anti-microsoft"? There is a stab at Apple, though :lol: .And, is their focus is on providing a supplement to windows? But I'd always thought they were trying to provide a complete replacement to it, thus providing noobs with a chance to plunge into an entirely new world without even realizing it. Silly me :wall: Here's what supplement means, btw. Talking of promoting open-source, imo the Ship-It concept is the boldest step taken by any distro to promote it. And I know many noob users who could figure out their way in Ubuntu without much guidance, so what exactly do you mean by "easy to use"...

Conclusion: I don't mean to say that PClinuxOS is bad. I won't ever pronounce my verdict on something without trying it (not that my verdict counts a lot, 🙂) but, my point is: Fanboyism is not a bad thing. Poorly researched fanboyism is. It usually proves to be more detrimental to the cause of the fanboy than his remaining silent would.

Still, PCLinux seems interesting. I've never been an Ubuntu fan myself, it's been SuSE for me 😛 But currently I have only windows and I think I will try this out before experimenting with Mac OSX. 🙂
 
Forgive my poor vocabulary, oh Lord! I'm a mere commoner in front of thou, my Lord. I inadvertently used 'supplement' instead of 'replacement'.

Maybe you're talking of this rule? So, according to you, Ubuntu should change according to the time. Then, does that mean it should become a paid OS.


Pardon me, oh Lord, but where in my speech, did I mention that? i mentioned their unwillingness to change, as in, not making KDE the default desktop environment, not including more popular packages, such as Amarok, not changing the stupid brown-red colour, not including networking tools, not paying attention to eye candy. Have you been successful in setting up Bridge Mode in Ubuntu, my Lord? Have you?

And ya, the anti-Microsoft thingy. It's a common observation, it cannot be as such proved. I'm sorry, my Lord, I have been rendered proof-less. Have you observed the increasing number of articles on Vista vs Feisty. Here have a look -

Ubuntu vs Vista - Google Search


Look at the names of the same applications listed in the menu of Dapper vs those in Feisty. You'll get to know that they possess a shocking resemblance to Windows XP/Vista.

I do not have a link to the source, but I shall quote here a line which comes to my mind at this point.

"Why download pirated software when you can get it preinstalled for free?".


Ship-It. Yes, it indeed is wonderful, my Lord. I completely agree. They give away free CDs from the donation money. The money that should have gone into making the system more robust, stable, portable and efficient.


Aha. I love that word, Lord. Fanboyism. The basic essence of computing, loving what you use, to the extent of hating its replacements. Love it. I recently installed Debian on my system. Loved it too. Considered it better than Ubuntu, as a replacement for PCLinuxOS too. But some things turn out better in the end. I am but a newbie, I do not know anything about the working of the mighty Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS, I just want to use what I like to use. Without any restrictions. This indeed makes me a fanboy.
 
Have you been successful in setting up Bridge Mode in Ubuntu


I have.
 

You have specific requirements. I am no script expert but lemme see what help can I get. So your requirements are :You hardly connect at the first attempt, so you need to keep redialing until it connects.You get disconnected frequently, so you need a cron job which could check your connection and if required connect again ?And I dont understand what you mean when you say 'schedule your downloads'. Perhaps an example could make it clear
 
Schedule means that at a particular time (in my case it is 12:05 p.m.), the bridge connection should connect autmatically, the appropriate download program should be executed (for eg. ktorrent, frostwire, kget etc.). Then at 7:55 am the connection should be disconnected, and my computer shut down automatically. This way the session lasts from 12:05 am to 7:55 am, which is the unlimited time in 590NU.
 
See the difference b/w GNOME and KDE yourself. You can always install KDE on Ubuntu 🙂.

Code: 
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
But warning, this will change your ubuntu boot screen to the blue, kubuntu one.
 
I've finally got beryl to work 😀, and I'm very happy. Beryl with just the onboard graphic card.

3 screen grabs -
 

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