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ZDNET Highlights
- The popularity of PCLinuxOS is increasing again.
- This Windows-user-friendly distro will feel right at home.
- You can download and install PCLinuxOS for free.
About ten years ago, I remember a Linux distribution that was ready to take the world by storm.
That distribution was PCLinuxOS. The goal was to create something that any Windows user could log in to and feel at home. At the time, it wasn’t that easy to create/theme a desktop to look like whatever Windows iteration was popular, but developers and designers certainly tried.
PCLinuxOS was a great achievement. For a while.
And then it disappeared into the sky. It was still there, only it had fallen out of favor. If I had to guess why this happened, I’d say it’s probably due to the rise of distributions like Linux Mint and ElementaryOS, both of which resemble the desktops that users have become accustomed to.
This was kind of sad, because PCLinuxOS was always at or near the top of the list of user-friendly Linux distributions.
However, the other day, I went to DistroWatch, only to find that PCLinuxOS was back to No. 34 in the page hit rankings. Sure, it’s a long way from the top, but it sure beats total obscurity.
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Out of curiosity, I decided to visit the PCLinuxOS website and found that not only was it still there, but it had a clear set of goals, which are:
- Strive to make the Linux experience accessible, especially to new users
- Be stable and performant
- Provide a robust out-of-the-box experience
- Make it flexible and customizable
- Have strong community support
- Continue as rolling release model
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PCLinuxOS also includes the MyLiveCD tool, allowing you to create a customized live disk from your installation.
But how well did PCLinux hold up? Did it evolve into a modern desktop OS that anyone could use, or was it stuck in the throes of the Windows XP era?
Plasma meets PCLinuxOS
When you install a distribution that uses the KDE Plasma desktop, you usually know what you’re getting; There will be a panel, desktop menu, desktop launcher and more. It is a rare occasion that a distribution can surprise you with KDE Plasma.
PCLinuxOS doesn’t surprise me. Although it’s fairly straightforward on KDE Plasma, there are still hints of the old PCLinuxOS present. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very much KDE Plasma, but if you’ve ever spent much time with PCLinuxOS, you’ll totally understand what I’m talking about.
However, the biggest thing is the file manager. When I was using PCLinuxOS, the file manager was PCManFM. At that time, PCManFM was the most preferred among all file managers because it had more features and was far more flexible.
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Naturally, other file managers caught on to PCManFM, so it makes perfect sense that the developer would stick with the desktop defaults (like Dolphin for KDE Plasma and Thunar for XFCE).
Overall, it’s a pleasant mix of nostalgia and newness and I love it.
apps
PCLinuxOS includes plenty of apps to keep you up and running, like LibreOffice, MMEX Money Manager, Audacity, BleachBit (disk cleaner), Celluloid (movie/video player), Easy Flatpak Manager, Firefox, GIMP, GParted, Handbrake, NVIDIA Driver Installer, NitroShare (file transfer), Spotify, TimeShift, and many more.
There are enough preinstalled apps to keep you going.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
There are so many preinstalled apps that you probably won’t need to open the App Store for a while. The list is well detailed and complete.
settings
As I said, KDE Plasma is front and center with PCLinuxOS. Naturally, the developers have chosen a dark theme as the default (why, universe, why?), but it’s very easy to change it from Settings > Global Theme.
In addition to the usual KDE Settings app, there’s also the PCLinuxOS Control Center, where you can take care of file sharing, networking, hardware, system, local disks, security, and boot.
Control Center is an addition to the KDE Plasma Settings app.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
For example, if you open Control Center and click on Network Sharing, you’ll see that you can easily set up an SMB share. Or in theory. When you click on Network Sharing > Share Drives and Directories, you will see an error that Samba must be installed.
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It would be nice if the developers included an easy access button on this page to install Samba-server. Luckily, it’s simply a matter of opening a terminal and issuing the command:
sudo dnf install samba-server
Once you’ve done that, go back to the Shared Drives section of Control Center and set up your first share.
A nice surprise with this is that the Control Center also allows you to add new Samba users directly from the GUI (some other distributions do not do this). This makes it very easy to set up a Samba share that can be accessed by users on your LAN.
Adding users to Samba has never been easier.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
I must say that PCLinuxOS is, once again, a viable option for those who want to move from Windows to a much more reliable, secure, and flexible operating system.
Download the ISO for PCLinuxOS, burn it to a flash drive, and install it on a spare computer. You might find yourself using it more than the Windows machine under your desk.
