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Why try another Linux distro? E-mail
by Stan Beer   
Friday, 09 November 2007
I've been a full-fledged Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon user for more than a week now, I'm completely off Microsoft Windows and I couldn't be happier. For some reason, however, I keep getting emails and posts urging me to try other supposedly superior Linux distributions for newbies - PCLinuxOS and SimplyMEPIS, among others. Intrigued, I have decided to check this out for myself. Is Ubuntu the best or merely the best backed distro?

In the past couple of years, Ubuntu has risen above the pack to the point where it is has now virtually attained the status of "great white hope" of Linux desktops in the battle against Microsoft Windows. Ubuntu is easily the most high profile distribution, backed by Canonical, the company owned by billionaire Mark Shuttleworth and the distro chosen by Dell for its new Linux desktops and notebooks.

Reading through posts in the Linux blogosphere, however, it seems almost as if there is a feeling that Ubuntu has become the 800 pound gorilla of the Linux world. Some Linux users say they gave Ubuntu the flick when they could no longer get their voices heard above the noise on the heavily trafficked Ubuntu Forum. Others say Ubuntu simply isn't as slick and user friendly as some lesser known but fast rising distros.

One such distro is the somewhat unimaginatively named PCLinuxOS, usually abbreviated to PCLOS. While the name may be drab, however, there is certainly nothing drab about the product. In fact, it's user interface is about as slick as it gets and the self-confessed small development team appear to have done a sterling job in the ease of use department.

I haven't got past booting from the Live CD yet and I've only started putting PCLOS through its paces to see whether it will be easy to configure and would suit my needs. However, so far there's nothing that PCLOS has displayed that could budge me from Ubuntu and a couple of things that bothered me about this distro.

Before PCLOS advocates jump down my throat, please understand that I have only just started looking at your distro of choice - and I like it despite a significant problem I ran into. I looked at both Ubuntu Dapper Drake and Feisty Fawn but it wasn't until Gutsy Gibbon appeared before I felt confident to take the plunge into the Linux pool. So what were the shortcomings that I experienced with PCLOS at this early stage?

 
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