



PCLinuxOS 2K4: Mandrake Meets The Live CD 182
NoahsLinuxArk2K3 writes "For those of you who may not be familiar with PCLinuxOS, it's a Linux distro derived from Mandrake Linux 9.2, developed by none other than Texstar from PCLinuxOnline (best known for his RPM work for the same distro). The new distro is primarily a Live CD, but can also be installed to the hard drive. It is still in preview release, but at 306 hits per day, it's already #8 on the DistroWatch charts. This review is the first of its kind to surface and it is looking very promising." Update: 12/30 03:18 GMT by T :
A semi-anonymous reader writes "For those who dont have a high speed connection, PCLinuxOS 2K4 Preview 4 is available from OSDisc.com for a few bucks." Probably soon it will be at cheapbytes, too.
Quite Amazing (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Quite Amazing (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Quite Amazing (Score:1, Insightful)
now Yoper is barely keeping current
Re:Quite Amazing (Score:2)
Some bored linux users will do anything to push their "distro of the week". Distrowatch isn't in on it and they were nice when asked about their rankings, but anyone with half a brain knows those results are far from accurate. So no, I won't be counting this distro as any sort of record breaker, at least not any type of record that matters.
Re:Quite Amazing (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, the DistroWatch ranking is nothing but a light-hearted popularity contest created for fun (and to laugh at those who take it seriously). In contrast, PCLinuxOS is a serious and promising distro worth watching, especially if you are a Mandrake fan.
Because Mandrake rocks, and so does Texstar (-: (Score:2)
Posted from the world's only 2.6-ready-OOtB Linux distribution: Mandrake 9.2. Running 2.6.0-1mdk as I type. Also running XFree86 4.4 recompiled (rpm -bb) from Cooker with no issues: if I was any more leading-edge, people would be throwing chunks of frozen foam at me. (-:
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Holy shit! (Score:5, Informative)
Well most anyone's that used Mandrake Linux and third-party packages will have heard of Texstar sometime during their package-seeking. Texstar is one of the biggest names in the Mandrake community, and his packages are usually of pretty high caliber. I think he may have even done packages for some other popular distros, as well.
I'm pretty glad, myself, that if anyone was going to be making a Mandrake-based distro, it's Texstar. He seems to know his way around a Mandrake system or two.
Re:Holy shit! (Score:2)
I've been running Mandrake on my server for around three years now, and I've never heard of him.
Mind you, I don't have any cause to use any packages that don't come with the distro, so perhaps that's why? Or perhaps it's because -- even when I have sought out packages in the past (for RedHat), as a non-coder I don't recall ever paying any attention to the author/packag
Re:Holy shit! (Score:1)
Well, you instantly isolate yourself from Texstar's target audience when you mention "server", lol.
I myself don't usually pay much attention to a packager's name most of the time (Although you have to admit, it's very comforting to know it's a trusted source), but in the short time that I used Mandrake (I started out w/Linux when 8.2 was hot stuff), I installed Texstar's packages quite often to upgrade software, and also get new programs.
Sorry for the late reply, heh.
Re:Holy shit! (Score:1)
Mandrake is great anyway, live CD is even better.. (Score:5, Insightful)
But a Live CD is just awesome, think of all the new users who can try Linux for the first time, not as Knoppix, which is translated from German, but Mandrake! What a great way to learn about and be introduced to Linux!
Re:Mandrake is great anyway, live CD is even bette (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Mandrake is great anyway, live CD is even bette (Score:2)
In addition, almost all of what you're referring to can be configured by
Re:Mandrake is great anyway, live CD is even bette (Score:5, Informative)
Another thing is that Textar is mainly releasing an bugfix/update of mandrake. Nice, but 99% of the work is done by mandrakesoft. The world of GPL.
Re:Mandrake is great anyway, live CD is even bette (Score:5, Informative)
Texstar did an absolutely admirable job of packaging fabulous RPMs to fix some of the atrociousness that came with out-of-the-box Mandrake back in 9.0/9.1 (and 8.2 if I remember properly). Check out the default font configuration on 9.1 to see an example of what I'm talking about - I couldn't look at the desktop, it pained my eyes. Between Texstar's RPMs and the PLF RPMs, you can actually make Mandrake 9.1 into a usable system.
If Texstar is going to build on Mandrake and take a 95% distro and make it into a 100% distro out of the box rather than distribute piecemeal patches fixing the things Mandrakesoft screwed up, then by all means, more power to him. That's fully in the spirit of the GPL and of Linux in general. And I should again point out that Mandrake got its start as basically a bugfixed/patched up version of RedHat - anybody else remember their first releases when it looked like they had just done a Find/Replace on "RedHat" and typed in "Linux Mandrake"?
Re:Mandrake is great anyway, live CD is even bette (Score:2)
Re:Mandrake is great anyway, live CD is even bette (Score:2)
Yeah, but Mandrake beat them to the punch with MandrakeMove. I find it very much similar in function and feel to a Knoppix/Drake bastard child, although it lacked a bit of the applications that I'm used to with Mandrake. It was much like Mandrake Light.
Re:Mandrake is great anyway, live CD is even bette (Score:2)
LiveCD installers (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:LiveCD installers (Score:5, Insightful)
Taking Debian as an example, it may be worthwhile looking at having a liveCD net-installer image, so you can boot up into a full-system and choose to kick off a net install at any time. But on a regular installation cd, you do not want a liveCD, why? Well the point of having a cd is so you don't have to download so many packages (if any), and if you use up space on the cd with the liveCD then you will likely send more people hitting the mirrors.
I recently had to install a system as a basic desktop. I did both types of knoppix-installer runs (debian and knoppix) and either way I felt I had a slightly mish-mashed system which I didn't really want to keep working with. So I got the latest daily image of the net-inst cd for debian-installer, experienced one minor problem (had to hand prod the network up) and had a system up under my control in no time. The old debian installer is just that, old! The new debian installer is looking great [debian.org] (providing the ports can come together) and while it may still be in development, asking why liveCD when compared to the old installer is a waste of time. Why liveCD Vs the new installer ... well I think it's a matter of horses for courses. If you want a quick means to a certain setup, liveCDs should be great, but if you want to setup a system with what you want, it's probably never going to happen from a liveCD except where the liveCD is simply a glorified front-end to the regular installer and then your liveCD has the decreased space for packages that got me started!
Re:LiveCD installers (Score:5, Insightful)
It takes me roughly 1 hour to install any OS, windows or linux. Since I just have the one system and its getting rather old, that is at minimum of one hour when I cannot be productive computer wise. If I use a LiveCD then as soon as the CD boots I can keep going while the system installs in the background.
Your point about space is good and I would like to see a LiveCD based Net install. That would work great for new computer users. The CD has the LiveCD image, whatever other files fit and it downloads anything else. However, the CD boots and runs and there is very little wasted space there. You copy the CD to the HDD and its good.
a LiveCD based install just seems like the future of computer installs. Friends of mine who install windows for a living often bemoan how the installer is silent, like it would be better to have some kind of background music while it runs. That's the kind of thing that non-geek people see as progress. Also it just makes me happier, less down time, more powerful visual interface.
Re:LiveCD installers (Score:2)
poor penguin (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Why Mandrake? (Score:3, Funny)
If one is petrified, how does one take anything other than what is given?
Nurse, pass me my gloves and lubricant, and that huge turnip shaped mandrake root ...
Great for demoing (Score:1)
#1 with a Bullet (Score:5, Funny)
Way to shoot it directly to #1 with a bullet and a slashdotting!!!
Re:#1 with a Bullet (Score:2)
HURRY!!!!
Re:God dammit! (Score:1, Interesting)
it's the holidays, when those lamers have nothing to do but spam
I wonder if CmdrTaco can implement some filter for ASCII art, or goatse links, both shouldn't be that hard at all, and in both cases, the post's score is -1 automatically.
Re:God dammit! (Score:1, Insightful)
There actually are lameness filters to prevent a lot of the ASCII art.
What's unfortunate, is more restrictions will probably be placed on posting which will likely prevent some legitimate posts from
Re:God dammit! (Score:2)
Now mod me +1 Flamebait
Ah, so it wasn't that I'm offtopic - somebody tell me, is that new LiveCD better than knoppix? And if so, how?
Re:God dammit! (Score:1, Interesting)
BitTorrent? (Score:2)
Mandrake est francais ! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Mandrake est francais ! (Score:1)
Blah... (Score:2)
"Out of the box" gratis commercial software? (Score:2)
Why is this distribution any different? The legal powers-that-be in all the other distros say that they can't ship with Java/Flash/whatever. I don't ask from a "how have they done wrong" perspective; I'm hoping that there has been some background research done that could mean other distributions can start shipping wit
Re:"Out of the box" gratis commercial software? (Score:2)
On the other hand, if you created a script to FTP the latest version from their own websites, and then set them up, it might pass the legal sniff test.
Re:"Out of the box" gratis commercial software? (Score:1)
what ot
Re:"Out of the box" gratis commercial software? (Score:2)
Looking for a PowerPC version (Score:1)
Re:Looking for a PowerPC version (Score:1)
Gentoo has a PPC Gnome/KDE LiveCD. You can purchase it here:v iewitem [gentoo.org] for $10.
http://store.gentoo.org/index.php?item=23&action=
Here is the link for the Gentoo Press Release:
http://www.gentoo.org/news/20030603-ppclivecd.xml [gentoo.org]
Isn't it about time for a Live-DVD? (Score:4, Interesting)
But in the meantime, anybody got a bit torrent for PCLinuxOS up?
-Rick
Re:Isn't it about time for a Live-DVD? (Score:1)
Re:Isn't it about time for a Live-DVD? (Score:1)
But if Mandrake plans to sell these a DVD might work better for them.
Re:Isn't it about time for a Live-DVD? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Isn't it about time for a Live-DVD? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Isn't it about time for a Live-DVD? (Score:2, Interesting)
I agree, and what I'd really LOVE to see is packet writing enabled, so those with DVD-RW burners could have their home directories and system settings stored on the DVD between uses.
Re:Isn't it about time for a Live-DVD? (Score:2)
Re:Isn't it about time for a Live-DVD? (Score:1)
Re:Isn't it about time for a Live-DVD? (Score:2)
I'm not sure if Mandrake has solved this problem, but their web page says something about using a 'USB key' to save settings.
Re:Isn't it about time for a Live-DVD? (Score:2)
They have some really nice uses once you actually think about how you could use one-- keep a mixture of important windows
Re:Isn't it about time for a Live-DVD? (Score:1)
Re:Isn't it about time for a Live-DVD? (Score:2)
A Download Link (Score:2)
Download PCLinuxOS [ibiblio.org]
(Hopefully, we'll have a hard time slashdotting Ibiblio.org)
More Direct Link (Score:4, Informative)
Since most of the other posts at +2 (Score:5, Informative)
I tried PCLinuxOS a couple of weeks go. It's a live CD a la Knoppix, but based on Mandrake instead of Debian. What I liked about the distro was that it found all the hardware, like Knoppix. I also liked the fact that it was really simple to find various apps in the menues, but that's not very unlike Knoppix, is it? I use Debian ayway, so Knoppix feels quite all right to me. PCLinuxOS is good in most of the ways that Knoppix are.
However, PCLinux were (at the time I used it, in the beginning of December) not very well localized. I'm used to Norwegian keyboard lay-out, and when I can't find the '|' and '@' symbols, I'm pretty much fucked (especially the latter. Try connecting to an email-address or a Jabber-account without '@'!). What I'm trying to say, is that it's not quite as well localized as Knoppix is. Most programmers (who use US lay-out anyway) or Americans wouldn't notice, but persoally, I get confused. In Knoppix, I just choose my keyboard lay-out by right-clicking on the flag in the system tray, and I type '@' by pressing '@'. PCLinuxOS just doesn't have that option, so it's obviously a very American product, although based on the French Mandrake. That's one point in favour of Knoppix. Oh, and when you exit Knoppix, it will eject the CD and ask you to hit ENTER before the computer turns off, as if by magic (but by ACPI/APM).
So, personally, I don't see any reason to use PCLinuxOS instead of Knoppix, but if you use Mandrake or Red Hat, it's probably the rescue CD you want. Or if you use American keyboard layout. No matter what, PCLinuxOS has very good hardware detection, so if you can't be bothered to make your own rescue CD, you might just as well use that as anything else. It's good. Submit bug reports. I know I should have.
And it has many of the apps you want to demonstrate to most wannabee nerds.
Re:Since most of the other posts at +2 (Score:4, Informative)
I am sure PCLinuxOS probably does as good a job, knowing the quality of all the old Texstar RPMs. I predict we'll all be hearing a lot more from these upstarts, and see them presenting a serious challenge to the most popular distros, especially with the major PR fuckup that RedHat has brought upon itself with Fedora (sorry, it had to be said) and with the middling quality of the Mandrake 9.2 release (as with the last several Mandrake releases, unfortunately - always _almost_ great).
Re:Since most of the other posts at +2 (Score:2)
Also, I must commend you for not cock-blocking your friend. Nobody likes a cockblocker, unless it's an incredibly funny story and involves a fat chick.
Re:Since most of the other posts at +2 (Score:1)
BTW, my friend claims he later rejected the woman for political reasons, so he's obviously got his own built-in cock-blocker.
Re:Since most of the other posts at +2 (Score:2)
Shame on your friend. He could have had his fun and then dropped her later!
Solution? (Score:1, Offtopic)
HD install (Score:3, Informative)
Canadians with dialup, I'll save you a few bucks. (Score:2, Informative)
See my site for CDs at $5 Canadian/distro shipping included.
I'm not running a real business, just trying to provide a source for cheap media for those who don't have highspeed.
This is my way of contributing back. $5 pays for the CDs, a padded envelope and shipping by whatever method I can afford with the remaining money.
livecd script (Score:1, Informative)
http://livecd.berlios.de/
The hard work is tuning it. cloop makes u for nice compression but getting mysql and apache in there is a bit harder. I've made one too
So if you have time to spend , maybe spend it on a home-brew live-cd ?
The steps:
* install mandrake
* install busybox and cloop
* get the script
* run it with some additional flags
* burn the iso
It's also wurth to do for pursonal use. Like, c
MandrakeMove didn't work for me (Score:2)
On my P2-300 with an ATI Mach-somethingorother, it booted up, X11 failed to start, and then it quit! The message as to why it failed scrolled off the screen, and it didn't leave me in command-line mode or anything useful.
OK, so maybe it can't figure out my video card but why can't it come up in VGA, or at least command-line, mode?
I'm still dowloading PC Linux on my laptop. I'll let you know this after
Mandrake vs Suse (Score:1)
I wish we could stop parroting this old canard. It's a smear of all who run Mandrake, without any thought behind it.
Dude, I for one run Mandrake on my machines, because, after struggling with Suse's bugs for 4 years, I'd wasted enough time on bit-twiddling. Not to mention that Suse9 is simply busted.
Time is an important factor these days. I don't run Linux, just to spend endless hours fiddling with scripts and researching stupid mistakes. I need to get actual wor
Got this yesterday... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm a Mandrake user, and regularly use Knoppix to access my email (in fact, I'm using it right now since I'd forgotten my Slashdot password).
I'd taken a look at MandrakeMove, and was very unimpressed - it's basically stripped of anything useful except for a few office tools, and doesn't come with enough codecs to handle multimedia in a useful manner. In contrast, I've already burned several copies of PCLinuxOS for my coworkers - it's quite good.
Knoppix still seems to have better hardware detection. For example, on my home machine PCLinuxOS didn't seem to properly initialize the sound card, or find my second CD ROM - both of which Knoppix does properly. And it doesn't seem to have as many developer tools, although I didn't get a chance to fully explore it. For a "normal" user, the selection seems complete, though.
I also didn't see any way of setting up a permanent data store (like Knoppix's Persistant Home Directory). But this is a preview release, and I may have simply missed it.
PCLinuxOS is basically everything that MandrakeMove should have been, but wasn't. Where MandrakeMove feels like crippleware, PCLinuxOS feels like a full version of Mandrake on CD - with all the eyecandy. The look and feel is awesome. I'm looking forward to the full release.
Re:Got this yesterday... (Score:2)
In contrast, Knoppix "just works" out of the box. It just doesn't look as slick.
Re:Got this yesterday... (Score:1)
From madadmin's review on Mad Penguin (http://madpenguin.org/Article757.html):
"A feature that is being implemented (but not quite ready) is the ability to use a USB mass storage device such as a pen drive as your
livecd home=usb
When I used this option, I booted the machine and logged in as the 'demo' user with KDE.
Immediately I received a DCOP error: "Could not read network connection list.
Very Impressed (Score:2, Interesting)
You can tell that the creators of this distro have put a lot of work into the user interface. Just about everything is configurable through the configuration tools, allowing 'users' to fully configure their system without having to understand where the operating system keeps it's
from the and-it's-not-knoppix dept. (Score:2)
For those with KM266 chipset (Score:2)
Re:more like Cockdrake (Score:1)
Re:To the GNAA.. (Score:1)
Re:holy shit the trolls are taking over (Score:1)
Pathetic.
Re:holy shit the trolls are taking over (Score:1)
Re:holy shit the trolls are taking over (Score:2)
Re:holy shit the trolls are taking over (Score:1, Funny)
Latest netcraft survey reveals: innovative trolling is dying. ( The cat thing was a pretty cool twist on an old theme though. )
YLFIRe:holy shit the trolls are taking over (Score:1)
Time to clarify. (Score:1)
Maybe the BSD is dead too, if theres some kind of inside joke about BSD...
Yea (Mod parent up) (Score:1)
Thanks!
Re:THE KING IS ALIVE (Score:2)
Re:Mandrake is the best! Always will be! (Score:1)
Whoa, if you aren't a flaming fanboy I don't know what you are.
Re:Mandrake is the best! Always will be! (Score:1)
Lol, thanks for the laugh, it's been pretty boring today.
P.S. -- For the record, Slackware and Gentoo are the only Linux distros I run anymore.
Re:Mandrake is the best! Always will be! (Score:1)
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/everclear/volvod
Re:Would you trust anything from Houston? (Score:1, Informative)