Thursday, August 03, 2006

Now for something completely new...

I have been toying with a new Linux distribution tonight and I have to say, it has blown my mind!

How could this be Mr. Mac? I thought you were devoted to Ubuntu and thought that it was the best thing since sliced bread?

Yes that's true but tonight I inserted yet another Live CD into my PC and booted into PCLinuxOS. What a great distribution. With the entire operating system running from one little old CD ROM, I have a completely capable PC running as stable as any Linux distro I've tried (and believe me, I've tried a lot of 'em!).

Full network functionality including browsing all the other PCs on our home network, video and sound playback (no DVD playback without installing the appropriate library - it tells you how when you install it.), full internet capability, an office suite and it even detected the printer and scanner on the first go.

Here is a screenshot for you to see what it looks like.


It is bloody great!!! Although, in the screen shot, you can't actually see that I was watching a video streamed from Patrick's PC onto mine.

Give it a try and see for yourself. Make sure that you get the one optimised for your graphics card too. There is a version for Nvidia cards, ATI cards and also a plain-jane version that will work with all cards. With the optimised versions, you'll get 3D acceleration out of the box which is rare with Linux. Especially if you have an ATI video card.


Mr. Mac Ease of Use / Wow Factor rating: 10 / 10

ps. This post including the screenshot was made entirely with the PCLinuxOS running on my PC - not bad huh?

7 comments:

Mr. Urs said...

I'm not quite convinced since you already compared Ubuntu with sliced bread, which becomes stale within minutes.

mr. mac said...

Too true gomad. In less enlightened countries, the bread is packed with chemicals that slow down the process.

I remember we had bread once on the ship which we bought in America - it was at least a month old and was still as soft as the day we bought it. Mind you, it was also sweeter than the strawberry jam so that could be part of it. People refused to eat it because that's just not natural!

All bread related similes aside, the PCLinuxOS thisg was really great.

Must dash, loads to do before the Frau gets back.

Toño said...

Nice weather conditions on your screenshot...;)
Yes, Mr. Mac, do your best please before your beautiful wife comes back.

Antipodeesse said...

Yes, but is it sexy? And does it clean the toilet?

mr. mac said...

HP, It isn't sexy and nor does it clean the toilet. Fortunately, I am and I do ;-)

Mr. Urs said...

Uff, I'm better than this new toy. I fulfill at least one of Antipodeesse's criterias.

mr. mac said...

I'm sure you do cleaning as well gomad! That fulfills both criteria.