[sf-lug] PCLinuxOS comments (Asheesh Laroia)

[Christian Einfeldt]

hi

First of all, I am not married to PClinuxOS.  I just like it because it is
easy for me to admin at the public middle school that this LUG is supporting
with FOSS.  Also, the kids and the teachers seem to be impressed with the
pretty blue desktop.  So please just keep in mind as you read my comments
that I find both Asheesh and Kristian to be very reasonable in their
opinions...

On Dec 19, 2007 9:06 PM, Kristian Erik Hermansen <
kristian.hermansen at gmail.com> wrote:

> I can list the things I found annoying...
>
> * Did not setup wifi/network manager by default


but isn't this a problem with lots of distros?  And remember, we had
defective memory on that box.  Has anyone tested it on a box without
hardware issues?

* If machine already has partitions on it, and you choose the "remove
> all partitions option", the installer asks you to reboot and execute
> the installer again!


Yes, that was a problem for me until I understood that I just had to
reboot.  Then it was not really a problem.  In fact, one of the reasons that
I am using PClos (short for PClinuxOS) is that I was not able to install
Ubuntu or openSUSE or Linspire or Freespire or Mepis on a couple of boxes.

>
> * Documentation, as Asheesh mentioned


Actually I am not sure if you looked at the Firefox link bar at the top when
it boots up under PClos.  It has links to lots of sites that seem to give
good documentation.  Also, their IRC channel is one of the most newbie
friendly channels that I have ever seen.

>
> * Package Manager/Auto-Networking would not let me override DNS entry
> for /etc/resolv.conf, and rewrote it after I changed it manually.


I can't speak to this issue, as it is over my head.

>
> I have never used PCLinuxOS as a main OS, but so far my experience
> with it has not been so glowing.  I guess I don't see why it is so
> popular, other than the reason that it presents the user with a slick,
> polished KDE installation.
>

I can tell you that appearance and *apparent* ease of use is key with
newbies, as we can see with Windows.  Windows is a flea-bitten piece of
crap, but people keep using it because of the marketing muscle of Microsoft,
and part of that is making it look nice and easy to use.

I can tell you that the principal of the school has given me NO TIME for
training either the students or the teachers on how to use Linux.  The
principal's marching orders are to just put the boxes in the rooms and see
if the teachers use them.  Period.

So far, the teachers and the kids have not complained much.  The teachers
don't like the fact that their bloated Excel spreadsheets won't open on OOo
under PClos, but that is another issue altogether, and the same problem
appeared with other distros, too.

The other thing that I like about PClos is that it ALWAYS gets the screen
resolution perfect.  I have never seen it present a screen resolution that
is too high, as is the case with Ubuntu.  I often have to correct the screen
resolution for the kids with edubuntu on the thin client server and on other
workstation installs, such as the edubuntu file server that the school is
using.  I have changed the default on the file server.

So I have gotten into the habit of giving PClos to newbies.  But as I say, I
like Ubuntu and openSUSE just as well, more or less, although I am a bit
more fond of KDE than GNOME.

see ya
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