2007 Repositories

Something that is asked about quite a bit in the PCLinuxOS support IRC channel is “how to change repositories”.  One of the main reasons this is needed is that not all repositories are reachable depending on your geographic location.  Some of the repositories are also down at random intervals.  To equip the standard PCLinuxOS user with how to change repos, we first need to understand how the repository is structured, how the developers use the repositories, and how the community should make use of repositories.

How Are the Repositories Setup?

First and foremost, the repositories are setup in a “trickle down” model.  Updates are pushed first to the PASS server.  Only people who have donated 20 USD or more to PCLinuxOS have access to this server.  It’s fast.  It’s furious.  It’s also the first place where packages land.

Within 24-48 hours, the updates to PASS trickle out first to the Ibiblio repository…which is the MAIN repository from which all others are updated.  That means that there is only ONE repository for PCLinuxOS…all repositories are copies of the same one.  So if you have more than one repository enabled in synaptic…make sure you drop it down to a single one.

How Do the Developers Use Repositories?

The developers use different parts of the repository in the following manner.  All stable packages and software are in the repository base.  That means that if anyone updates a stock install, they’ll get the most stable packages and software.

If you are a bit adventurous, you can try out the testing portion of the repository.  The developers of PCLinuxOS push software and packages into testing that they are unsure about.  This might make some people a bit unsure themselves

Developers have a private unstable repository that they push their bleeding edge software to.  Other developers test these packages and provide feedback via the developer mailing list (private mailing list…not to be confused with the public ‘testers’ mailing list).  Once the package/software has passed preliminary testing on all the developers systems, it is pushed out into the public testing repository.

How Can You Help?

It is important for users to help pclinuxos succeed by reporting bugs in the pclinuxos forum so that developers can track them and keep people informed of fixes.  How can you help report bugs?  The way I do this is by keeping my main installation at stable and I install Virtualbox (use synaptic…it’s in the repositories!) to install PCLinuxOS again.  I then use that virtual machine to run a fully updated testing version of PCLinuxOS.  I use the Virtualbox snapshots feature to take a snapshot before a large update so that if things break, I can rollback to the previous snapshot.  It works out rather nicely and allows me to test the packages coming down the pipe.

If you do find a bug, please make sure you register for the main forums at http://pclinuxos.com and let the developers know what problem you’ve run across.  Make sure to search the forum first   Someone might have reported that bug already!

Hopefully, this will clarify a few questions people have about the PCLinuxOS repositories and the workflow in between them.

How to Change Repositories:  http://docs.pclinuxos.com/wiki/Repositories

PCLinuxOS Repositories originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on September 27, 2008.

PCLinuxOS has a rolling release cycle. With this type of cycle, updates are continuously applied to the software repository so much so that after a bit of time, a snapshot of the repository would constitute a new release…say 2007.01 or something similar. This has always been the way PCLinuxOS is released as many of us that have been with it since the early days can attest to.

The other nice thing about the rolling release cycle is that there are no set dates to releasing. This means that the release is up to the developers. As PCLinuxOS has proven many times over…it’s about perfection. Texstar doesn’t release until he feels everything has been thoroughly tested…so much so that he often times will hold off weeks at a time for a release just to clamp down on the final small bugs that might only effect 5% of the user base. The quality of product the dev team produces is astounding because of this.

The last thing I love about a rolling release is that updates are seamless. For many of us that had Preview .81 or .71 on our boxes in the earlier days of PCLinuxOS, we found that updating all the way to .93a was a snap. That’s right, 3-5 releases could be upated via synaptic without incident. This was a huge draw to me in the early days. PCLinuxOS was originally forked from Mandriva 9.2 and developed away from it…when we rebased this past year for 2007 it was due to glibc/GCC4 updates that our small developer team wouldn’t be able to do. This rebase would prevent a user from updating .71 to 2007 now…but the concept of seamless upgrades is still one that PCLOS developers strive for. It’s going to be quite nice as development continues to be able to do this.

Is PCLinuxOS and the rolling release perfect? No. Do others get it right with a standard release cycle? Yes. Could PCLinuxOS benefit from a standard release cycle? It depends on what your definition of benefit is. If, by benefit, you mean always maintaining a set schedule of releases and giving PCLOS a software development/business type of feel…yes, it would benefit. But if you’re thinking of benefit from the perspective of an active dev team that feels little pressure or deadline…a thriving community of satisfied users that can count on seamless upgrades…I’d say that NO it wouldn’t benefit PCLinuxOS at all.

I’d like to hear what readers think about rolling updates and how they see these as beneficial or not beneficial to a distribution. Thanks for reading!

The Absent PCLinuxOS Release Cycle originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on October 23, 2007.

Is this wrong? Not at all. Each day, many non-commercial distro makes wake up and check various distributions for updated security fixes. They pull source rpms, updated tar.gz’s, and debs into their distro, make minor adjustments, and drop it into their repository. Distros share with one another…they take and hopefully give back. If not monetarily, at least by the number of users that they have that may report bugs or provide fixes.

So what’s the beef that some Distrowatch Weekly commenter’s seem to have with PCLinuxOS? During the past 3 weeks of comments on the DW, some have been hounding PCLinuxOS with accusations saying that the developers hide things from their community and that PCLinuxOS eradicates changelogs and/or lights small dogs on fire while chopping kittens to bits in blenders, etc.

Myth #1: PCLinuxOS Hides the Fact it is Mandriva based (False)

PCLinuxOS.com has always had an “About” link on every single webpage it has ever had. Let’s look at what information has been conveyed there:

“PCLinuxOS was originally based on another distribution under the name of Mandriva
and shares many features of Mandriva such as the Control Center and the
Draklive Installer. Texstar and team would like to thank the
developers, contributors and others associated with Mandriva who may
have indirectly contributed to the PCLinuxOS distribution.”

Let’s look at some other distro front pages to see how they compare. Sabayon Linux has their footer at the bottom with Gentoo in it…but no mention on the front page as to what they’re based on. No real ‘about’ link there either. Move on to Ubuntu. No mention of Debian on the front page. You have to visit the Community >> The Ubuntu Story link in order to find that it is based on Debian. Once again, no ‘about’ link on the front page.

Let’s take a look at the PCLinuxOS Page on Distrowatch shall we? This has been utterly unchanged in 4 years:

“PCLinuxOS is an English only live CD initially based on Mandrake Linux
that runs entirely from a bootable CD. Data on the CD is uncompressed
on the fly, allowing up to 2GB of programs on one CD including a
complete X server, KDE desktop, OpenOffice.org and many more
applications all ready to use. In addition to the live CD, you can also
install PCLinuxOS to your hard drive with an easy-to-use
livecd-installer. Additional applications can be added or removed from
your hard drive using a friendly apt-get front end via Synaptic.”

If that paragraph is an attempt to hide things, I’m Miles Davis.

Considering these two points, I’d say PCLinuxOS hasn’t been ‘hiding’ the fact that it is Mandriva based. I’d say they’re doing quite well with where they have this information. I welcome any comments with information otherwise. If you have specific examples, please make sure they’re from a developer and not a general user…because if general users are where we’re getting our information from, every distro is in trouble.

Laying to Rest the Mandriva/PCLOS Debate originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on July 30, 2007.

It’s important to note that the last test release took place 6 days ago…so that could be part of things…but it’s also important to note that PCLOS forums have seen over 700 new members in the past week an a half. That’s quite a bit of interest in my favorite Desktop Linux Makes me happy to be part of the team of people that help make this distro special.

Give this a digg if you find it worthy info

PCLinuxOS passes Ubuntu originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on May 2, 2007.

Many blogs also have taken up this topic and, when determining the best Linux desktop, gushed about Xandros, Freespire, Ubuntu, and MEPIS. The thing I find odd is that they forget the little guy that’s outpacing all the others…and that little guy is PCLinuxOS. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why PCLinuxOS is, IMHO, the best Linux flavor for new users.

1. Hardware Versatility & Compatibility

PCLinuxOS comes in three flavors for the current .93a release. Those three are minime, Junior, and Big Daddy. Minime is a minimal 299MB iso with a functional KDE desktop. I’ve seen postings in the forum that this runs nicely on a 350Mhz PII and I’ve successfully had it running on a Celeron 900 with 256MB PC100 RAM. So I know that it works for older computers. If you don’t want a speedy desktop that you can custom build with synaptic and would rather have a few default applications installed right away…try Junior. You can also get the whole she-bang using “Big Daddy”. It’s really up to you…I dig this concept as well since it allows you to build from the ground up or hit the ground running right away.

Hardware detection with PCLinuxOS is fantastic. Wireless and ndiswrapper are configured through a central control center (see #4). PCLinuxOS is compatible with many old computers as well as new ones. PCLinuxOS will detect just about anything you throw at it. Most Linux does now but with the LiveCD project at berlios, PCLOS has an ace in it’s hand…it’s a fantastic project that allows great hardware detection. I’ve seen so many people have operational PCLOS desktops immediately after install…no tweaking needed. I’m amazed at this aspect of this distro.

If you want the solid performance of PCLinuxOS with full access to all repositories and software updates on a speedier desktop, you might try SAM Linux. SAM is PCLinuxOS as a base with XFCE for a desktop. SAM worked quite nicely on my Celeron 900 as well with even more speed than minime…which is understandable since XFCE is notibly faster due to less bloat.

PCLinuxOS has been nothing but solid for all my computing needs, whether XFCE, Gnome, or KDE. In all, hardware on PCLinuxOS is just as much a no brainer as it is on Ubuntu, MEPIS, Xandros, and Freespire…with three flavors to choose from.
2. Software

PCLinuxOS is meant for the desktop. It’s meant to be used for your day to day operation. It’s user-centric, not developer-centric. Since PCLOS is geared toward every day users and for desktop operation it contains access to thousands of programs that desktop users find useful. With less emphasys on maintaining packages for the server, the lead developer is able to concentrate on the desktop and actually listen to us, the users…and listen he does. PCLinuxOS is one of the only distros out there that I know of where I got a response from the head developer when I asked him a question or wanted a program added to the repository. That sets it apart from other distros. Texstar (the head developer) takes pride in his product and listens to his intended audience for direction…he doesn’t just hear them…he listens. 5,000+ software packages (and counting) in the official repository speak volumes for this fact.

3. It Just Works

Many new users go distro hopping, trying to find something that ‘just works’ for them. People often say in the official forums that PCLinuxOS is “The Distro Hopper Stopper“. It does seem to fill what is missing for so many new users. There’s a reason it has raced into the top ten distros at distrowatch.com this year…for so many users, it just works. ATI and Nvidia drivers are only a synaptic intall away…everything works right out of the box. This is one of the reasons new users should consider PCLinuxOS.

If one were to compare shopping for any product out there with shopping for a Linux distro…would you want the product that required you to ‘fix it’ before you could use it? You just order XYZ mp3 player from Amazon…but when it arrives, you have to configure it, tweak it, and hack it until it’s usable. To me, this doesn’t make sense. If I find a distro that requires less configuring and tweaking to get me up and running and one that provides the best experience…I’d stick with it.

For me, there is no other choice. I use PCLinuxOS because it requires me to invest the least amount of time (and since my wife uses it as well, the least amount of worry) spent configuring, compiling, and setting things up. PCLinuxOS users’ needs are no different than other Linux distro users. They need to edit, listen to, and organize their music. They need to design the layout of that web page. They need to develop programs and write code. They need to slice and dice all aspects of their desktop experience. If you are one of those other distro users, I commend you for using Linux since it puts you in the drivers seat. Keep at it and keep at using and spreading Open Source software and Linux. If you’ve made the switch to desktop Linux and haven’t tried PCLinuxOS in the past month, I recommend you do so…you’re missing out on a gem of a distro made for you, the desktop Linux user.

I also commend PCLinuxOS for providing the users with the “desktop experience” it provides which allows those users to do this fluidly and with the greatest amount of efficiency. People that try and use PCLinuxOS know right away that something is different. It’s the attention to detail and fluid design that combine together give the user that “desktop experience” that no other distro can. For me, it made using Linux fun.

4. PCLinuxOS Control Center

When I first switched to Desktop Linux, I immediately noticed that there wasn’t a control panel where I could go for a ‘one stop shopping place’ to control my applications and running services. Having been a slackware user for about 4 years at the time, it didn’t matter much to me…but when I thought of new users coming in as Windows refugees or having no computer experience…it made me cringe. How could Linux not provide a central place to control their system? Sure, KDE has the control panel to control appearance, layout, and behavior…but what about network interfaces? Can everyone use ifconfig? Does everyone know how to modprobe? Most likely not.

PCLinuxOS makes a fantastic effort in this realm. With the PCLinuxOS Control Center, you are in the drivers seat of your operating system…not along for the ride. You control boot options, hardware, mount points, networking, security, system configurations, sharing, network services, authentication, and groupware; all from a handy control center that is point-click easy. The Control Center is the single greatest reason I’ve converted more users to PCLinuxOS than any other distro. It’s also the single greatest reason that new users should consider PCLinuxOS first before all other flavors of Linux.

5. The Community

Sometimes, smaller is better. Go with me on this and get your minds out of the gutter. PCLinuxOS has quite a bit smaller community than Ubuntu, MEPIS, Mandriva, and Fedora Core. All of those distros have quite a huge following. So how is it that such a small distro can march into the top ten at distrowatch and hold its own? The community is a huge reason. This small community has produced some of the greatest tools for their users: The wiki, the New User Guides, PCLinuxOS Magazine, Kids Safe PCLinuxOS, and countless other projects and startups. There are so many things happening within the community right now, there’s always a place to become involved or to stand back and watch things happen (politely tagging along for the ride). I really feel great about the directions that PCLOS is moving in and the future of this desktop. The thing I take most heart in is that the developers listen to their community.

As a Slackware user, I remember getting flamed quite heavily in an IRC channel I joined after first installing it. Rightly so…I was asking the dumbest questions and not even trying to search for things…but of course, I didn’t know how to search. Had someone shown me the proper way of doing things, I might have had a flameless time with Slack. With PCLinuxOS, I envy new users. They get to be a part of a community that welcomes them in and treats them as equals regardless of experience level. They get a fantastic wiki that takes their hand and walks them through setting up their desktop and feeling comfortable in their new environment. Many of the “gee whiz” items that new users ask about and get flamed for are solved for them in the wiki and if it isn’t, the forums are friendly and welcoming.

6. Try Before you “Buy”

PCLinuxOS is a Live CD. You can boot up and run the entire operating system without installing it. This allows you to take a look at things before you “buy” (you don’t buy since it is 100% free) aka commit it to a hard disk. Ubuntu went in this direction as well with their last version. SuSe also has a Live CD as well. This is a great way for new Linux users to experience Linux. With Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS, it is taken a step further…you’re able to install the operating system while using the Live CD. After the install is finished, a reboot and you’re up into your shiny, new desktop.

One of the niftiest features of PCLinuxOS as a Live CD is that you can install the CD to RAM and pull out the disk. This means that you’re running the entire operating system from RAM…which also means fantastic speed. PCLinuxOS becomes a Live RAM distro at that point. It does take a while to load to RAM, but after you’re up and running you’ll be amazed at the speed. You can install the OS in this mode as well.

7. Community Projects

I am the webmaster and administrator at MyPCLinuxOS.com. This is a community projects site for PCLinuxOS. If the community has a want or need for the OS, we start a project and rally support around it. We then take that idea and make it a reality. The new user guides and wiki were a product of this and other fantastic projects are springing up ever single day. There is a SOHO edition in the works, a MythTV Edition, the PCLinuxOS Beautification Project, Edulos – PCLinuxOS Eduction Edition, the PCLinuxOS Magazine Project (now on it’s third issue), and other projects. I encourage you to get involved if you use PCLinuxOS and help give back to your favorite distro. If you’re not using PCLinuxOS and are curious about what’s going on, come on in and register at MyPCLinuxOS…drop us a comment or question and we’ll do our best to help you get the information you need. Please remember that this website is ONLY for community projects…all official help requests should go to the official forums at pclinuxos.com.

8. Pride and Ownership

All of the reasons above combine to make this last reason hit home. The userbase of PCLinuxOS really takes pride in their distro. The pride comes from having a stake in the way in which PCLinuxOS is developed. See, Texstar is a unique developer in that he listens to his users and adapts his development to suit them. Of course, you can’t please everyone but Tex does a fantastic job with about 90% of the userbase and the other 10% are a synaptic install away from being happy.

When you have a community that develops with you, you develop with the community. Texstar has seen this happen from the early and small beginnings when PcLinuxOS was just a fork of Mandrake 9.2. Fast forward to today where PCLinuxOS is a conglomeration of many different distros with an active community that takes pride and ownership of their favorite desktop Linux. I don’t know how he did it, but others should take note and duplicate it. PCLinuxOS is near and dear to its users and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

In closing, I really feel that PCLinuxOS is on track to be the best Linux desktop users can get for free today. I’m sure there are supporters of other distros out there that are saying “But my_distro does this too!” or “my_distro has all of the things you’re talking about as well”. In that case, congratulations on finding a great fit for you! I commend you for using Linux and am glad we’re members of the same community! Just remember that the same size glove does not fit everyone…if you’re helping others in their Linux journey…make sure that your bias toward one distro doesn’t limit the choices that the new user deserves. I always give new users that I help the choice between all of the major desktop-centric distros before I tell them which one I think is best…it’s great to see what happens when the decide. And remember, if your distro is the best for that new user…they’ll choose it and use it. Just make sure that in the spirit of open source you do not limit their choices in the beginning. Hopefully, you’ll take another look at PCLinuxOS and include it in the list of those you present to new users!

Why I Choose PCLinuxOS originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on October 13, 2006.

First, don’t be intimidated by the shell. It’s more powerful than a cmd line in windows and you’ll have complete control of your computer from the confines of this awesome tool. Plus, you’re about 15-20 seconds away from having your desktop back up and running by executing only a few commands.

In order to fix your xorg.conf file, it’s important that we become root…so login as root and let’s fix your xorg.conf file in 4 commands.

First, let’s get to the right directory to work with xorg.conf:

[root@lostmain ~] cd /etc/X11

Next, let’s remove all xorg.conf files and any backups (usually saved as xorg.conf.old or xorg.conf.bak) with the next command:

[root@lostmain X11] rm -f xorg.conf*

The -f flag forces the deleting of the files without prompting and the * means that we’ll delete any file that starts with xorg.conf. That means xorg.conf.bak and xorg.conf.old will be deleted right along with our original xorg.conf file as well. Now let’s fix this by using the shell PCLinuxOS Control Center. That’s right, you don’t have to have KDE fired up and running to access the PCLinuxOS Control Center…you can do it right here:

[root@lostmain X11]mcc

Now use arrow keys to go into hardware and configure the display. When choosing a monitor, the quickest and easiest way to get back into a GUI is to use the “Generic” setting. I chose Generic 1280X1024 @ 76 for my Samsung Syncmaster 710N 17″ LCD screen. Next up, If you have the ATI or Nvidia driver installed, it will ask you if you’d like to use it (choose yes). It will then ask if you’d like to change any options…the default is usually ok. Now it will take you in to test the configuration. If you see the rainbow test screen, you’re set. If not, you’ll have to change things (normally resolution) until you’re able to see it. The test screen will ask you if you’d like to use the settings it is using to test the screen…hit yes (it might be “ok”, I’m going from memory here) and you’ll be dropped right back to the shell.

Now we could just start kdm/xdm and an Xsession here…but it’s much easier for new users to simply reboot so:

[root@lostmain X11] reboot

Next time you start up things should be back to normal. Isn’t it nice to be able to have quick resolution to many Linux problems via the PCLinuxOS Control Center? What a great tool!

That was one of the main reasons I chose PCLinuxOS over other desktops…it has the PCLinuxOS Control Center available for me to configure samba, groupware, LDAP, Printers, etc….pretty much anything I need to configure in Linux is ready and waiting for me in this fantastic control center. It usually puts new users at ease as well since they’re used to the control panel in Windows. I know when I was first introduced to Linux I noted that there was not a central place where I could control all things Linux (although /etc in Slackware is handy ). This Control Center puts all other distros to shame it’s so complete. Plus, if you’re missing anything…a quick word to the devs and chances are you’ll see it included very soon. So get used to that PCLinuxOS Control Center!! Remember that you can call it via the shell as well with the pcc command. Hopefully, this little tip has been helpful to you.

PCLinuxOS .93 xorg.conf problem quick fix originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on October 4, 2006.

Devnet: Please tell us a bit about how you got your start in Linux/Computers/Open Source…

Texstar: My first successful Linux install was Red Hat. I later found Mandrake which was nothing more than Red Hat with KDE at the time. I moved to Linux after watching Microsoft abuse their monopoly on the desktop. I formally provided unofficial 3rd party rpm updates to Mandrake users between releases until that function was taken over by Mandrakeclub.

Devnet: What type of person do you see yourself as?

Texstar: I’m kind of quiet, laid back, humerous and easy going person. I don’t take life too seriously. I look for the good in people. I enjoy chatting with fellow Linux users on our IRC channel (efnet #PCLinuxOS). What a great bunch of people…except for that Lewis guy. Just kidding Lewis! We love you, we really do

Devnet: Why did you start PCLinuxOS?

Texstar: To provide an outlet for my crazy desire to package source code without having to deal with egos, arrogance and politics. I love to package. It is like a puzzle where all the pieces have to fit together or the code doesn’t work.
That is my favorite part of doing PCLOS. The other reason is I wanted something that worked out of the box, looked fabulous and didn’t require a technical degree from college to get it working.

Devnet: How did you come up with the name?

Texstar: It is Linux for your Personal Computer. I wanted something generic that people could easily relate to and the name matches our website.

Devnet: Who is your target audience with PCLinuxOS?

Texstar: Someone who might be considering Linux for the first time. PCLOS gives them the opportunity to boot from a livecd, test for hardware compatibility and play around with it. Later if they like it they can also install it to their hard drive.

Devnet: How large is the community surrounding PCLinuxOS?

Texstar: I’m not sure how many people are using PCLOS but our website has over 6500 registered users.

Devnet: How many developers work on PCLinuxOS?

Texstar: 12-15 people are directly involved in the development of pclos and many others who provide volunteer support in various capacities.

Devnet: What would you say to someone (like some of those posting on this blog) who states, “PCLOS is just Mandrake/driva repackaged with slight mods?”

Texstar: You know, if we took Mandriva 10.2 (2005) and slapped some graphics on it and called it PCLOS then they would have a valid argument but that is simply not the case. We took Mandrake 9.2 as our base and have built up around it. We have our own kernel developed by ocilent, our own KDE which is packaged totally different than Mandriva. Our menu system is different. Our gcc is different. We have our own custom graphics and iconsets. We use a different package management system utilizing apt-get with a synaptic frontend and a valid upgrade path. Many people are still running Preview 4 fully updated.

We do utilize code from Mandriva as well as Fedora, SuSE, Yoper and others for that matter. I’ve seen patches and repackaged rpms in Mandriva’s source that came directly from Fedora. Does that mean they are ripping off Fedoras code because they didn’t come up with the patch/code themselves? I don’t think so.
Opensource allows one to share and share alike.

Devnet: PCLinuxOS is still in a “Preview” version meaning it hasn’t released a ‘full version’. Where would you like to be with PCLOS and the first full version? (features of 1.0, etc.)

Texstar: I’d like to have everything work properly out of the box for the first time Linux user. No fiddling with configuration files, plugins and drivers.
Everything just works.

Devnet: Will PCLinuxOS always be free to download and use?

Texstar: As far as I know. Sometime next year I’d like to provide boxed sets with an instruction manual for a modest fee.

Devnet: Have you read the experiment on YALB and if so, do you agree with its conclusions?

Texstar: As long as Mrs. Devnet is happy then I am happy. Honestly, I think we still have a long way to go to get to where I would like PCLOS to be but in time we will get there. The fun part is being along for the ride and seeing how far we can push the limits of opensource.

Devnet: What do you tell users who think rpms only invite dependency problems in package management? (For us Debian users )

Texstar: With Debian, if you want to upgrade your system you run apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade or you run Synaptic which is a frontend to apt-get. In PCLOS, if you want to update your system, you run apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade or you run Synaptic which is a frontend to apt-get. The only difference is ours are rpms and theirs are debs. Debian’s advantage is they have a larger repository with over 12000 packages and ours is just now topping out at close to 4000.

Devnet: Does PCLOS have any plans on porting to other architectures (i.e., power pc)?

Texstar: We have no plans to port PCLOS to other architectures other than maybe a 64 bit version later this year.

Devnet: Some distros ship with mp3 support and some without. Why is PCLOS downloadable with mp3 support when some of the big names such as Ubuntu and Fedora without?

Texstar: I don’t know anything about that. Seems like some do and some don’t for whatever reasons.

Devnet: Where does one go to get involved with PCLOS?

Texstar: www.pclinuxonline.com is our website.

Devnet: If a train left New York going 60mph and another from San Francisco going 50mph, what would the gross national product of Cuba be?

Texstar: The gross national product of Cuba as of 2003 was 10.6 billion.

—End of Interview

I want to personally thank Texstar for taking time out of development of Preview .9 of PCLinuxOS to talk with Yet Another Linux Blog. I also would like to thank him and all those involved with development of PCLinuxOS for providing a distro out there that ‘just works’ for my wife. We are now happily Windows Free on all computers save one that dual boots Windows for my work. Still to come, I’ll be taking a detailed look at each of the distros we examined in the experiment and offering input from my wife as to what they might be able to build toward to attract new users (new to Linux that is). I’ve also got a couple of tips and tricks articles coming up that I’ve been working on steadily. Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Experiment: Interview with Texstar of PCLinuxOS originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on June 8, 2005.