April 29 2009: Added PCLOS 2009 section
May 22 2009: Added PCLOS 2009.1 GNOME version.

PCLOS 2009

PCLinuxOS has been a favorite Linux distribution in recent years. The PCLOS 2009.1 ( with updates from the repository ) lives up to and beyond expectations for a minimally complex and very stable KDE 3 desktop environment. Kudos to founder Texstar and the growing circle of core PCLOS developers for their hard work producing the ultimate "Disto Hopper Stopper".

Some small configuration changes to my system that improved on the near perfect.

• Default Fonts - yuck, install everything - Windows fonts, the truetype and webfont packages, anything you can lay your hands on.

• Graphic Performance - 40-60% CPU spike on KDE window move. KDE control Center ->.Window Behavior -> Moving , set "Display content on moving window" to off.

• Weird error in Python when trying to list modules about "power of two textures not supported" in Compiz - uninstalled Compiz, WM seems to run a bit smoother on my less than state of the art machine.

I've installed the Gnome release of PCLOS 2009.1 and like it alot. And, by the way, the comments above do not apply to PCLOS Gnome. It seems to work very well as a desktop manager for KDE applications, which is in some ways the best of both worlds. Certainly, it is working better as a KDE-on-Gnome platform than any distro I've encountered, at least for KDE 3. KDE 4 may be a different story.

I'll keep adding items as I find them.

PCLinuxOS - The New Number One Distribution

From Sept 2007:

Maybe ... from the DistroWatch.com editorial:

Being number one on DistroWatch does NOT mean that PCLinuxOS is the most popular distribution, nor does it mean that it is the best distribution; it simply means that during the past six months more people viewed the PCLinuxOS page on DistroWatch (on a one-IP-address-per-day basis) than pages devoted to any other distribution. Whether this translates into actual popularity or higher usage remains unclear, although it is reasonable to assume that new DistroWatch visitors are more likely to download one of the higher-ranked distributions than those occupying lower positions in the ranking.

PCLinuxOS ( PCLOS ) is an excellent distribution - good KDE desktop environment, server setup is about as easy as it gets. I've had it installed for 2-3 months and often use it for client-side development of server applications.

Unfortunately, the new popularity of PCLOS may be largely the result of disaffection with the connection between OpenSuse and Microsoft among Linux folks, in other words PCLOS may be seen as The New OpenSuse. We will see, but Microsoft Linux better be good for Novell or they will rue the day they did the deed.

It would be real shame to see Suse just fade away. Its birth was an important event in history of software, though no one will ever be able to say that the labors of years were a waste of time, no matter what happens to OpenSuse.

See related article: Is Suse Dead ?