As I’ve perused the various Linux news sites and blogs, one thing I notice is all the “How to Install <program X> in Ubuntu” – type articles. Each time I see one, my first thought is, “don’t people know how to use Synaptic? Or ‘Add/Remove Programs’ ?”
August 18, 2009
August 13, 2009
PCLinuxOS + KDE4.3
I’ve been playing with KDE4 under Kubuntu, and generally liking what I have seen. But Kubuntu itself has always felt … foreign … to me. Maybe I’m just getting old and my brain cells are ossifying, but while KDE4 seemed decent, I found myself booting into PCLOS more often, because there, everything “just works”.
Recently, Tex released his current 4.3 implementation to the world. This weekend, I took the plunge. (more…)
May 28, 2009
Kubuntu – A First Look
Okay, you all probably know I love PCLinuxOS. It has been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, my primary OS. But I’ve been looking at KDE4 for a while, and with KDE4.2.3, it looks about ready to use. So I cast about for a good KDE4-based distro to play with.
Generally, I haven’t had much use for the *buntu family. Every time I have tried one of them, it has left me feeling, “Ho, hum. Another average distro.” I haven’t bothered actually installing one for years. But Kubuntu 9.04 was highly recommended by an online friend, so I thought I’d give it a shot.
April 1, 2009
What’s Happening to PCLinuxOS?
The last few months have been … interesting. Beginning about ten months ago, Texstar “disappeared”. He turned over the development of PCLOS 2008/2009 to the Ripper Gang, and didn’t say anything to the community. A couple months ago, with 2009 almost ready to hit the streets, he popped back up, and delayed the release until he pronounced himself satisfied.
What happened?
March 18, 2009
How To Upgrade PCLinuxOS 2007 or Minime 2008
I have put together this list of (nearly) fail-proof steps from doing my own updates, as well as the experiences of others on the PCLinuxOS forums. (Especially maddogf16: thanks, guy!) These steps have not failed yet on a clean 2007/2008 install. If you are working from a remaster, and/or have done a lot of system tweaking, including adding/removing packages, it might screw you. I don’t really think it will, but you need to be aware of the possibility. (more…)
March 11, 2009
PCLinuxOS 2009 Is Out!
PCLinux2009.1 hit the mirrors today. (The .1 because there was a wifi bug that Tex fixed last night.) There has not yet been an official announcement.
Update: The announcement has been made!
The Ripper Gang is pleased to announce the final public ISO release of PCLinuxOS 2009.1.
This release features kernel 2.6.26.8.tex3, KDE 3.5.10, Open Office 3.0, Firefox 3.0.7, Thunderbird 2.0.0.14, Ktorrent, Frostwire, Amarok, Flash, Java JRE, Compiz-Fusion 3D and much more. We decided to use kde3-5-10 as our default desktop as the we could not achieve a similar functionality from kde4. We will however offer kde4 as an alternative desktop environment available from the repo once we stabilize it.
February 16, 2009
PCLinuxOS 2009: My Experience
Okay, technically, the 2009 iso isn’t out yet. But the repositories have been unfrozen, and the “Big Update” was pushed to all the mirrors. I updated a couple of weeks ago. So how is it going?
To begin with, my first try at updating was a no-go. It was all my fault, I admit. I had been multi-booting, playing with other distros while I waited for 2009. I knew I had screwed up my grub. I had tweaked it enough to let me boot PCLOS. I knew I had to go in and fix it before I did the update and reboot. I knew I had to….
<sigh>
To make a long story short, I ended up reformatting my root partition, and reinstalling PCLOS-2008 MiniMe. But from there, I re-did the Big Update, and everything was beautiful.
January 28, 2009
Get Ready For PCLOS 2009
Much to the delight of the many users, the Ripper Gang has announced that the repositories will soon be unfrozen, and the updates for 2009 will be available. The announcement can be seen here. The “Big Update” is expected to take place the first weekend in February. The new iso should be out sometime after that.
This update is a big one. Expect to wait a couple of hours to download everything. And, because this update includes a new kernel, it requires a reboot. (Just about the only time you have to reboot a Linux system is when you update the kernel.)
I’ve been playing with 2009 TR5 on my laptop. It has been a joy to use, and I’m looking forward to running it on my main desktop.
December 5, 2008
The Status of PCLinuxOS 2008/2009
Disclaimer: I am not intimately familiar with Tex or the dev team, but I do follow what goes on. Sometimes information pops up in disparate locations, and I am just trying to integrate it into a whole.
First, we know that PCLOS-2008 never happened. (more…)
October 1, 2008
Software Installation In Linux
One of the complaints I still hear from new (or non-) Linux users is that installing software is too hard. The usual case in point is that in Windows, they just do an online search for what they want, download the installer, and double-click on it, and, after a few ‘OK’ clicks, voilà! Or they just go down to the store, plunk $50 on the counter, take the CD home, insert it into the drive, and, again, after a few ‘OK’ clicks, voilà!
In reality, software installation in Linux can be even easier. It can also be much harder. It depends on what level of responsibility you want to take. (more…)
