PCLinuxOS 2007 Final Released

[kalpik]

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.


Currently available via torrent only as the mirrors continue to populate: *linuxtracker.org/torrents-details.php?id=4143




Source: *www.pclinuxos.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24



Hmm.. I was wanting to try it since a long time! Lemme download and see

 

[mehulved]

kernel 2.6.18?

 

[cynosure]

^^ Is that too outdated? I crashed that version only.

 

[eddie]

^^ Is that too outdated? I crashed that version only.

Considering the fact that 2.6.20 came with overhauled ATA and 2.6.21 came with huge USB improvements...2.6.18 seems to be ancient!

 

[Faun]

my kind of linux

gotta download it, thnx for the info

 

[aku]

pls.. i need the checksum file.. actually i still havent finished downloadin...

 

[kalpik]

The MD5 is: cf31f44513c9b30caaa1f1d2c382c033

 

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

i had been waiting for this one , the interface is super cool .

 

[ApoorvKhatreja]

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 some 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, there 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 somes 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.