dunbar

I was all but forced to hang up Mandriva 2008 x86_64 DVD 2008 (whatever happened to simple names like 'Mandrake x.x"?).

I couldn't get Flash installed properly, even following the directions.

I couldn't edit mime types.

The browser that was included could not be upgraded by browsers within the repositories - some kind of permissions thing.

It was slow as molasses on my Celeron D 3.33GHz system.

I had once been pointed towards PCLinuxOS by folks over at USALUG, but initially I was, well, 'turned off' by the name. The last thing I wanted to try was 'Windows XP but running on Linux', and 'PCLinuxOS' sounded like just that. I had tried Lindows and FreeSpire and LinSpire... that was also very slow. So I waited regarding PCLinuxOS until just 2 months ago.

I booted the PCLinuxOS MiniMe 2008 distro on a Dell Inspiron 2200 and I found out I could run it (on a laptop, no less!). PCLinuxOS was just basic KDE, and offered a lot of what I wanted. Ubuntu had failed me months before, the latest Ubuntu CD I tried still would not boot very well, so I felt PCLinuxOS deserved it's one try.

Eventually, it replaced Windows XP on the Inspiron, and replaced Mandriva bleh bleh bleh bleh on the desktop.

Although I can still see some issues with documentation, I feel that this distro deserves the attention that I once gave to Slackware and ArchLinux.

Time to dig in to Linux again, and see if things have improved in the various areas where I was so disappointed over the past 5+ years.