There are a few distros I am always keeping my eye on a little more than others. Most of the time I do this by joining the forums, getting on the mailing lists and signing up for all their newsletters and such. One of these is PCLinuxOS, which I review last fall with the release of Big Daddy (still love that name). Over the past three months, various different test and release candidates have been showing up on the web and each time I spend a bit on updating the previous install to see what the changes are. Well, they are right on the edge of making this their final release, so I felt it was time to really shake the tree and fall out of there.

For those not fully aware of PCLinuxOS, it's history is not as long as some other distros, but it is based on one of the old school packages Mandriva. So much of the control functionality, ease of configuration one gets with Mandriva comes along, but you don't get the politics of Mandriva and a much better community feel and approach, which has made PCLinuxOS one of the most popular distros going.

Another fun fact is that the lead on PCLinuxOS, Texstar is obviously from Texas, which always makes my Texas bride happy when I do anything to benefit something from the lonestar state. So back home to Texas we go and let's see how 2007 looks for PCLinuxOS.

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