One among my outdated favourite Linux distros is again – and it is nonetheless an important Home windows escape

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• PCLinuxOS is rising in recognition once more.
• This Home windows-user-friendly distro will really feel like dwelling.
• You’ll be able to obtain and set up PCLinuxOS without spending a dime.

Ten or so years in the past, I bear in mind a Linux distribution that was set to take the world by storm.

That distribution was PCLinuxOS. The objective was to be one thing any Home windows person might log into and really feel proper at dwelling. Again then, it wasn’t almost as straightforward to create/theme a desktop to appear like no matter Home windows iteration was common, however builders and designers positive did attempt.

PCLinuxOS was the cream of the crop. For some time.

After which it appeared to fade into the ether. It was nonetheless there, solely it had fallen out of favor. If I needed to guess why that occurred, I might say it is most likely because of the rise of distributions like Linux Mint and elementaryOS, each of which resemble the desktops for which customers have turn into accustomed.

It was form of unhappy, as a result of PCLinuxOS was all the time at or close to the highest of the record for user-friendly Linux distributions.

The opposite day, nevertheless, I popped over to Distrowatch, solely to seek out that PCLinuxOS was again on the Web page Hit Rankings at No. 34. Certain, that is a great distance from the highest, but it surely actually beats complete obscurity.

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Out of curiosity, I made a decision to enterprise to the PCLinuxOS web site and located that it was not solely nonetheless there, however had a clear-cut set of targets, that are:

• Try to make the Linux expertise accessible, particularly for brand new customers
• Be stability and performant
• Supply a strong out-of-the-box expertise
• Make it versatile and customizable
• Have sturdy neighborhood assist
• Proceed as a rolling launch mannequin

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PCLinuxOS additionally contains the MyLiveCD instrument, so you possibly can create custom-made dwell disks out of your set up.

However how effectively did PCLinux maintain up? Did it evolve into a contemporary desktop OS that anybody might use, or was it caught within the throes of the Home windows XP period?

Plasma meets PCLinuxOS

While you set up a distribution that makes use of the KDE Plasma desktop, you usually know what you are getting; there will be a panel, desktop menu, desktop launchers, and extra. It is a uncommon event {that a} distribution can shock you with KDE Plasma.

PCLinuxOS didn’t shock me. Though it is a pretty simple tackle KDE Plasma, there’s nonetheless a touch of the outdated PCLinuxOS available. Do not get me mistaken, that is nonetheless very a lot KDE Plasma, however in the event you ever spent a lot time with PCLinuxOS, you will completely get what I am speaking about. 

The largest inform, nevertheless, is the file supervisor. Again after I was utilizing PCLinuxOS, the file supervisor was PCManFM. On the time, PCManFM was the fanciest of all of the file managers as a result of it had extra options and was much more versatile. 

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Naturally, different file managers caught as much as PCManFM, so it makes good sense that the developer would stick to the desktop’s default (comparable to Dolphin for KDE Plasma and Thunar for Xfce).

As a complete, it is a nice mixture of nostalgia and newness, and I prefer it.

The apps

PCLinuxOS contains loads of apps to get you up and working, comparable to LibreOffice, MMEX Cash Supervisor, Audacity, Bleachbit (disk cleaner), Celluloid (film/video participant), Straightforward Flatpak Supervisor, Firefox, GIMP, GParted, Handbrake, NVIDIA driver installer, NitroShare (file switch), Spotify, Timeshift, and rather more.

There are such a lot of preinstalled apps that you simply most likely will not must open the app retailer for some time. The record is well-rounded and full.

Settings

As I stated, KDE Plasma is entrance and middle with PCLinuxOS. Naturally, the builders have chosen a darkish theme because the default (Why, Universe, why?), but it surely’s very straightforward to alter that from Settings > World Theme.

Along with the standard KDE Settings app, there’s additionally the PCLinuxOS Management Heart, the place you possibly can handle file sharing, networking, {hardware}, system, native disks, safety, and boot. 

For instance, in the event you open the Management Heart and click on Community Sharing, you will see which you could simply arrange SMB shares. Or in principle. While you click on Community Sharing > Share drives and directories, you will see an error that Samba have to be put in. 

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It could be good if the builders included an easy-access button on this web page for putting in samba-server. Thankfully, it is only a matter of opening the terminal and issuing the command:

sudo dnf set up samba-server

When you try this, return to the Share drives part of the Management Heart and set your first share up.

One good shock with that is that the Management Heart even permits you to add new Samba customers proper from the GUI (one thing different distributions don’t do). This makes it a lot simpler to arrange a Samba share that may be accessed by customers in your LAN.

I’ve to say that PCLinuxOS is, as soon as once more, a viable possibility for individuals who need to migrate from Home windows to a way more dependable, safe, and versatile working system.

Obtain an ISO for PCLinuxOS, burn it to a flash drive, and set up it on a spare pc. You would possibly end up utilizing it greater than you try this Home windows machine below your desk.