[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"The last time I tried to install Linux, I had to spend hours configuring all my drivers to work … gave up and installed Windows."

There's been much progress, but even today that can be a problem with some Linux distros, including some of the majors. It had me bollixed, in fact, until a Freeper turned me onto PCLinuxOS. Very nice, and loaded without issue onto two laptops that Ubuntu couldn't handle.

[doc1019]

Thanks, just what I was looking for. Will give it a try.

[twntaipan]

You point to one of the cool facts about Linux. If Ubuntu doesn’t work for you, something else probably will.

And the price doesn’t change! Free!

[goldstategop]

I liked it so much I kept it on my laptop. It detected my wireless card on the Live CD. Amazing. The desktop is an elegant and beautiful beautiful. The Synaptic graphical package manager makes updating software a breeze. I can even run Internet Explorer on it! Its really a very simple Linux based off Mandriva and someone familiar with Windows should be comfortable working in the KDE desktop environment. Linux has a lot of free software and the best thing about PCLinuxOS is the price - FREE! Can't beat it!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[shorty_harris]

PCLinuxOS is really nice (using it right now), although I usually use Mepis. I installed it on a no-name computer I bought at Frys (it was their linux computer, running Linspire). After I installed PCLinuxOS, I left it sitting unused for a few months. When I finally fired it up again yesterday, there were over 100 updates available, including some critical core components. I thought, if this doesn't wreck things, I'll be impressed. Well, to my surprise, it *didn't* wreck anything, and it still runs fine!

I installed my network printer without too much problem, and I installed Wine to run my favorite image viewer, Irfanview. So far, so good.

The one thing that concerns me about PCLinuxOS though, is that it's essentially a one-man operation. What happens if the developer goes away (anyone remember Libranet)?