| The CRYPT Mag |
Another Live CD
This time I tried out another Linux distro on disk.......PCLinuxOS version 7, to be more exact.
This distro feels more like my normal set up as its based on Mandrake albeit an earlier version than mine.
As you can see, I haven't played with the backdrops or anything else. This is how your desktop will look before you mess around with it.
You could, of course, customize all this. Here’s a very simple game of Tetris running.
As I said, its based on Mandrake, so everything looked familiar to me. It doesn't boot as fast as Knoppix, but just having names I recognized in the menu made up for that.
The CD has a wide range of software set up and ready to go.
For those with a modem that gets recognized, or on a router like mine is, the Internet can be accessed readily with the likes of Apollon, Bit Torrent, Azureus, Limewire as well as FTP software, IRC, Messenger, and browsers like Mozilla, Firefox and Konqueror. All in all, something for everyone there.
The list of software on the disk has some of the best, like Open Office, a fax program, music players, rippers, encoders, in short, loads!!!
Here’s a bit of déjà vu for you…albeit the first draft………..
While using the CD, I wrote this using Open Office, saved the grabs and the document to my USB memory stick while listening to Mp3's stored on the P.C. hard drive.
You may notice that I had a lot of fun using this distro...........
Of course, the distro has lots more on it, and it wasn't long until I discovered the virus checker included. It uses F-Prot, which I wrote about in the last issue (you did read that, didn't you?)
The thing that bugged me was it wasn't using the command line as such but had a natty little GUI. Back onto the net and downloaded the RPM for that for my installation...I'm always pleased to learn something new! The GUI they had included was QTF-Prot. Please remember F-Prot isn't included in the RPM for QTF-Prot, so it is only the GUI for the checker.
This is a wonderful distro and proves that you could run this entirely from CD and simply set it up so everything saves to your existing drive. Remember as well that Linux prefers to save to a FAT32 partition (any Linux filesystem partition wouldn’t have any problems either), there have been reported problems writing to NTFS partitions and it isn't recommended.
All is not lost, though, why not just save the entire distro to a partition instead?
Yeah, that option is included as well. This is a really beautiful distro. If you really don't want to install it, you don't need to, but it is noticeably slower than Knoppix. I feel this is outweighed by all the nice little touches that using Mandrake as the base OS gives you, but, as is everything in Linux land, it is your own choice. Installing it to your drive would get rid of any slowness…..
This distro uses KDE 3.2.2 and KDE is as smooth as silk running here. With all the software set up ready to go, you don't need much of an excuse simply to install it and keep it on the drive for a sustained trial. If you have an always-on connection to the net, it makes it even more irresistible, but it isn't essential. On the PCLinuxOS webpage, you can keep the installation up to date by simply downloading the updates.......
I still haven't mentioned the likes of the CD burning software that's included (K3B). Yes, of course, it writes DVD's as well...........
If you have a TV card fitted, there's a TV tuner program installed as well. It even has Realplayer installed.
Go on, give this a try !!!
This is a very nice way to sample how a Linux installation looks and works. It has a wide-ranging set of software pre configured and ready to use. Play your movies, music......write documents, spreadsheets, use the Net. Get to know how powerful and easy this OS can be !!!
Highly recommended.
The disk can be had from a variety of covermounts on Linux magazines or downloaded at the webpage.
You know it makes sense !!!!
By Ian Urie
| © RIYAN Productions |
