PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniMe - Dual Review
One of the things Carl and I toyed with when discussing CandyFOSS is doing dual-reviews — where we both review the distribution at the same time. Cool, right?
Today we’re taking a look at PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniMe, the latest and greatest from the PCLinuxOS guys, just minimalised so you only get what you need and you add what you want on top of it. The download consists of a pleasing sub-300meg ISO file, with tools and tutorials around to help you put it on a 512meg USB flash drive (something that can’t be said for full 700meg CD images).
The boot sequence is very familiar to 2007. You’re presented with a grub screen offering the live environment, various safe modes, memory tests, media checks, a RAM mode (for ultra-fast operation) and a plain console.
After that you get a few loading screens, before being quizzed about your language, location, etc.
Curiously, the network setup has been left out of this process. In 2007 you are asked to setup all your network devices and, considering the prevalence of networking these days, this would have been left in. Anway, after that and a quick login, we’re on the desktop.
While I quite like the Vista-esque swirls and window decorations, Carl wanted me to highlight now much he despises the 2008 theme compared to the 2007. In his words: “It’s a poor attempt at copying Vista that makes the whole thing look amateurish and even quite rough in some places!”
One thing we do agree on is the awesomeness of the Mandriva Administration Center. You can do everything from in here and its layout is easy to navigate, helping people get things done, rather than forcing them unwillingly through hoops. That said, it does have some issues. I tried to set up a www server (for little more reason than me seeing the option and thinking “COOL!”), clicked the button, ok’d the dialogue asking me to install a few things and BANG; it told me it had failed to install something or other, but didn’t give me any clue on how to fix it.
Naturally, I tried to access the web to find out what the problem was and noticed that I couldn’t get anywhere: the ethernet card still hadn’t been set up. What would be nice to radically simplify things would be an auto-setup. Or at least a proper prompt saying: “You’re trying to access the internet but you haven’t setup your devices yet. Would you like to set them up? Yes|No”
Installation to hard disk is pretty simple using a modified version of the Mandriva Draklive-Installer. It gives good options and friendly defaults: offering the choice between real HD and USB HD. Unfortunately at this point, PCLOS decided that I didn’t have any disk drive. Carl didn’t hit this so I’ll let him take over for a bit:
Installation was fast, clean and simple if you have a good, clean and simple hardware setup. Tizz was testing this on an old SCSI-based machine and that’s not particularly typical these days… Still it’s something that should be covered.
I was asked where I wanted to install, whether I wanted to resize partitions, generate my own set of partitions or let the installer do it all for me, and then started copying files. It finished off asking about installing grub and that was all pretty simple.
One thing to mention is that PCLOS MiniMe is quite a chunk faster than my Ubuntu install and even PCLOS 2007. I think this is probably down to the fact that MiniMe is mini. Less to load = faster to load. I don’t mean that as a criticism, either. I think a lot of the bigger, better respected distributions could learn something from their smaller, portable brothers.
Back to Tizz.
I certainly agree about the speed in the Live environment. It feels about twice as fast as a full-cd LiveCD but does it save you any time if you’re installing it? I use Firefox. Carl uses Firefox. Most Linux users use Firefox. If you were installing this to be your main system, all the non-Konqueror users would have to install that. The same applies to a few other ultra-popular applications.
To conclude, PCLOS 2008 MiniMe is a pretty good start, let down by a few regressions and few improvements over 2007 (from what we saw). Neither of us would recommend this release for new users. They should wait for the full release where hopefully a few of our issues might be worked out.
Pros:
+ Simple installer
+ Superb system administration
+ Light and therefore fast
Cons:
- Default theme is a bit hit and miss. This was one of the nicest things about 2007 and it’s a pity that 2008 is comparatively ugly
- No automatic network setup
- Relatively poor hardware support for SCSI users
- Some popular applications are missing (yet easily installable)
- The K menu is still poor. This should be fixed when PCLOS moves to KDE4.
February 12th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Good review! I’ve been using minime on my laptop since it was made public, and there are some other quirks about it. Well first, let me go back; people should be told about that little “Utilities” folder that you see on the desktop after installing the OS. In there is actually shortcuts to utilities to setting up the network, your vid card, and a few other helpful options. I would have preferred 2 or 3 shortcuts straight on the desktop to configure network, video, and sound.
Otherwise, minime has issues with getting stuff from Synaptic. Very weird considering how easy it was with PCLOS 2007 and other distros. I think minime is a testing environment for the full 2008 version…..
February 12th, 2008 at 9:04 am
I agree that the MiniMe is just too much effort but I’m really looking forward to the final version.
February 12th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
The guys from PCLOS told everybody that there is a Utilities folder for setting up things like network or installing the drivers for your video card.
still think thats the best color for start up users. And for style Polyester. If they put together blue color plus Polyester style it’s going to be just beautiful 
And this is the reason why is called MINI because it’s mini system and you have quick access to a Linux distribution and check whats on it. And then if you like it you’ll use it. I agree on the Vista like theme though. I think they should put some more blue color
Anyways still waiting for PCLOS 2008 full not Mini
February 12th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I downloaded and installed mini-me after trying the livecd. I think it is great all around, but i also did not like the default theme either (matter of personal taste).
The Utilities folder on the desktop has everything you need to set up your internet,3d card, and everything else.
what really makes 2008 mini-me is the fact that KPPP Dialer is installed for of that still use dialup connections. I use a cell phone hooked to the pc for cellular internet, but you set it up just like a old fashioned mode. All Linux distributions should have a PPP dialer installed by default, at least till they ban dialup.
Once connected to the internet, open synaptic and install what you need.
start with your favorite. i installed firfox, amarok,open arena, saurbraten, nexuiz, alien arena 2007, and a few other programs.
One thing the lame review above did not point out is that you can click on the Remaster button and make your own iso to burn to cd or dvd. Now you have a bootable cd/dvd with all your favorite programs installed and set up the way you like them.
The above review was so sparse they are wasting your reading time by writing this ‘review..oops Dual review.
Download the ISO and give it a try, i bet you will be Very Happy with it.
SlippJigg
February 12th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
One thing you should also know..
PCLinuxOS Minime 2008 was not publicly released. It never was released via front page of pclinuxos.com…it was done via a forum post in the pclinuxos forums. Why?
Because it is not intended for consumption from end users but rather…remaster builders.
February 12th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I must disagree on several points.
1. Its too much effort? just boot, setup your connection, open Synaptic and start clicking, how hard is that.
2. No auto nic setup? The main reason this was changed form what I heard, was all the complaints 2007 got about too many questions at boot.
3. Its fast because it Mini? From all the test I have done its fast when fully configured, I have 3gb+ installed and its is still fast.
4. Poor scsi support? Come on get a SATA, no one will support scsi soon.
5. Some popular apps are missing? Why even mention that, when you state how easy it is to remedy?
6. Don’t like the theme or wallpaper? Dont worry it will be different on the final.
I must admit after using PClinuxOS for several years I am biased.
February 12th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Sorry for the second reply but I have seen No issues with updating from Synaptic. I have it installed and fully loaded on 6+ systems.
enjoy.
February 13th, 2008 at 2:12 am
Thanks for the comments everybody!
> Its too much effort? just boot, setup your connection, open Synaptic and start clicking, how hard is that.
We really meant that it was a lot of effort compared to having the correct applications already installed. There is just too much most users need to install - but this is just a MiniMe trait. I’m sure the final will have good bundled software.
> Poor scsi support? Come on get a SATA, no one will support scsi soon.
One of the main arguments FOR Linux should always be strong hardware support. I don’t understand why Distros are dropping legacy hardware support when plenty of other Distributions manage to keep supporting the same hardware and more.
> No auto nic setup? The main reason this was changed form what I heard, was all the complaints 2007 got about too many questions at boot.
We didn’t mean ask another question, just for it to automatically look at the network ports and see if they’re connected, then connect to them over DHCP. If Windows can do it…
February 16th, 2008 at 8:44 am
The transfer of some functions from inital bootup to the utilities folder was done in response to people who said that this was all too much for people who did not want to go through all this just to run a live CD, often for no more than to recover files from a broken windows installation. As Tizz said, too many questions at boot.
On my hardware, PCLOS Mini-Me failed to detect the correct screen resolution, but this was easily rectified through the control centre. Apart from that, I have installed every bit of software from the repositories (where I have had no issues at all with Synaptic) that I had with PCLOS2007 and then some, and it still goes faster.
Often your experience with one distro or another depends a lot on your hardware. Overall, though, with minimal tweaking, it’s going like a dream on my hardware.
February 25th, 2008 at 1:45 am
> Poor scsi support? Come on get a SATA, no one will support scsi soon.
I disagree with that statement; the first place most users toy with linux is on and old machine to see how it goes (rather than going gung-ho and erasing their Windows installation).
To stop supporting legacy drivers would create an unnecessary block between potential users and the end system. After all, if it can’t install on my “play” machine, why would I ever consider putting it on my proper one?
February 25th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I have tried Ubuntu (kde and gnome), as well a puppy and DSL. Pclinuxos is just a simple as any of thease. However when I tried to install on ntfs it would not resize. I had to use fdisk and repair my ntfs partition. Puppy seems to be the most capable. I have been able to install wine to run the few windows based programs I need . Recently tried wubi and have to say it is pretty impressive, but a bit slow because of the virtual thing. Linux will take over the desktop soon. Which one?I think it will be up to the user and it is great that they will have a choice.