Blog
Technology news and Jobs 
Our Blogs The BeerFiles Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, SimplyMEPIS - 3 distros, 9 wireless stories
Our Blogs The BeerFiles Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, SimplyMEPIS - 3 distros, 9 wireless stories | Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, SimplyMEPIS - 3 distros, 9 wireless stories |
|
| by Stan Beer | |
| Thursday, 15 November 2007 | |
|
Page 3 of 3 One of the reasons PC 4 was of particular interest to me is that it's a bog standard relatively new low cost whitebox with current components. It came pre-installed with Windows XP Home Media Center and cost around $600 about six months ago. I had a spare Netgear USB wireless card (MA 101) laying around when I bought the computer and it works seamlessly with Windows. After failing to provide wireless connectivity on the two previous boxes, MEPIS redeemed itself somewhat - although not completely - when I loaded it onto PC 4. Upon loading there was still no plug and play wireless connection. However, using the "Adjust the wireless connection" page from the MEPIS Wiki as a guide, I was able to use the KMenu to make a couple of minor adjustments and within about a minute I had a wireless connection and could surf the net. This hadn't worked on the previous two test computers so I was glad to be able to get a glimpse of what MEPIS is like to work with when its online capabilities are enabled. And it doesn't look too bad at all. Now on to PCLOS. In short, I loaded the live CD, the system asked me all the usual questions, recognized the card, recognized the router, loaded the desktop and simply worked. I was able to go online immediately without any further configuration. Now that's what I call plug and play wireless! So as the scorecard stands with regard to plug and play wireless connectivity, Ubuntu scored one hit (the Dell laptop) and two misses; MEPIS scored a half hit (I had to do some menu based manual configuring) and two misses; and PCLOS scored two out of the box hits and a near miss (it did recognize the card). To put it bluntly, on the three computers I tried, PCLOS absolutely mopped the floor with the other two distros. Incidentally - and this is purely a newly formed subjective opinion - the PCLOS GUI also kills the other two. I have Ubuntu on my desktop and I'm more than happy with it. I am probably going to put Ubuntu on my Dell laptop as well because, given the Dell-Ubuntu connection, it works and it makes sense. However, the more I see of PCLOS the more I like it. This is one hell of a distro and I may well install it on my other two PCs and the new one I'm buying. PCLOS, from what I've seen so far (and that comes with a caveat), seems to have captured the essence of what is needed in a Linux distro - it looks good and it just works.
Get stories like this delivered daily - FREE - subscribe now
|
Tags
| < Next story in category | Previous story in the category > |
|---|
