As I mentioned on Part 1 of this review the version of PCLinuxOS I am using is the MiniMe 2008 edition. This edition comes with very few applications pre-installed. The regular edition of PCLinuxOS, already populated with the most common and popular applications for each task, is soon to be released. However, for those of us that already know what applications we need, the MiniMe edition is actually preferred. It is very easy to install the needed applications from Synaptic (the package manager), and you end up with a leaner setup.

While I am talking about adding applications, I think it is important to mention that PCLinuxOS offers something that I wish other distributions offered too. Besides the normal repositories, PCLinuxOS offers special high-bandwidth repository servers. This are only available for those that contribute financially to the distribution. Contributions can be as small as $20, just a bit more than a Chinese restaurant meal. But, I think the PCLinuxOS developers (and I am not one of them) are more than deserving of these. I think that these voluntary donations are a good way of showing gratitude and ensuring that this great distribution continues providing us with such a delightful computer usage experience, aside from the fact that they make downloading hundreds of megabytes worth of applications a lot easier. Nevertheless, you can use the regular repositories and everything else in PCLinuxOS at no cost at all.

However, what if you don’t know what applications you need to accomplish certain tasks? Well, you can always consult the PCLinuxOS Forums.

General and ThinkPad T61 Specific Recommendations

As I said in Part 1, I had no hardware related issues with this release of PCLinuxOS. However, since MiniMe is such a bare bones release by default, I thought I would point you in the right direction with a few basic packages. So lets use Synaptic to add these.

More Here

Also:

PCLinuxOS is at the heart of it’s own ecosystem of remasters. During the month I want to check them out. The first one is the MiniMe 2008 edition.

What is the MiniMe 2008 edition about

The default PCLinuxOS 2007 is a complete distribution with a collection of software to get started. The decision on which collection has been made by the PCLinuxOS team. In a world where “choice” is the main operative word it isn’t a bad idea to create the smallest and barest possible distribution possible. So you move on to DSL or Puppy Linux.

“Hold on!”, some might say, “I want to have more choice in building up my PCLinuxOS system, not something else”. IF you recognize yourself in this, the MiniMe edition was made for you. The PCLinuxOS team is quite clear about their target audience.

PCLOS Day 10 - 2008 MiniME Edition Impressions