Why try another Linux distro?

Stan Beer
Friday, 09 November 2007 18:37

Opinion and Analysis

The first thing that annoyed me about PCLOS was that the live CD for some reason didn't work with my desktop. I have a fairly highly configured box with a Core 2 Duo processor running at 2.4GHz, 4GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce 8500GT GPU with 256MB DDR2 video memory. I don't know why yet but for some reason the live CD won't even get me to the PCLOS welcome screen before freezing at the command line during the loading process. Something to do with the Nvidia card perhaps? I'm sure PCLOS users will not be backward in coming forward to tell me if it's a readily solvable problem.

While it may seem tempting to dismiss the prospect of installing any distro that bombs out on your hardware at the live CD stage, I am happy to report that the story was different when I loaded the live CD on my Dell Latitude notebook which has a Core 2 Duo running at 2GHz and 2GB RAM. Everything worked fine and I found myself invited to log in as either a root or guest user with supplied user names and passwords. I'm not sure I like being given a choice like that. In Ubuntu on the live CD, I simply entered my own name and entered my own chosen password exactly as I do now as an installed user. What will be the case if I choose to install PCLOS?

Once I logged on it was a breeze to configure my notebook for wireless networking and setting the time zone, although the process seemed a little clumsy compared to Ubuntu, which seemed to require fewer questions answered and was a bit slicker in this department. However, there's no question that PCLOS recognized my network and hardware out of the box because the default answers on all the screens were correct and I was surfing the net immediately - so no problem.

I haven't got to the stage of setting up the printer yet but one of the things I liked about the Ubuntu system is that it simply enables users to choose their printer from a list on the screen when they get to the stage of adding a printer. Aside from making it simple to install available drivers, it enables a user to find out exactly which printers are supported prior to installing the distro. However, I haven't had a chance to see what PCLOS will do when I plug my HP Laserjet 3052 into the USB port. For all I know, if the system will recognize the printer and lead me to installing the appropriate driver.

Probably the thing I like best about PCLOS so far is its user interface. I don't care about the eye candy but it is certainly very easy to navigate the system - maybe easier and more intuitive than Ubuntu if you're a Windows refugee. From what I hear but have yet to ascertain until I choose to install it on a test machine, PCLOS is also very fast. The thing that impresses me most, however, is that PCLOS, with a development team a fraction of the size of Ubuntu's and without the backing of a billionaire has produced such a brilliant distro.

PCLOS may or may not be ready for prime time right now. There are plenty who say it is but, if it isn't, from what I've seen so far it soon will be.

So why would I try another Linux distro like PCLOS when I'm already happy with Ubuntu? The answer is simple really - with Linux I can. Isn't the choice provided by free and open source software wonderful!