Stan Beer
Friday, 09 November 2007 18:37
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
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?
