Everyone is familiar with PCLinuxOS by now. And most of us have preconceived thoughts and opinions on this Linux distribution. And yet, I could not get my head around the attraction of this distro over Ubuntu, Simply Mepis, Linux Mint, Freespire or any other beginner-friendly Linux release. I mean, yes, PCLinuxOS is very polished and attractive. It takes the best that Mandriva has to offer and then adds to it with features its developers felt like were lacking in Mandriva itself.

So, in this article, I opted to take a look at the GNOME release of PCLinuxOS so I could see how much of a difference another desktop over KDE can make.

Running LiveCD. One thing to appreciate about PCLinuxOS from the beginner's perspective is the care put into their first run wizard. Important features listed below are addressed immediately.

Right off the bat, like most distros, you are asked to select your keyboard setup.
Also like other distros, time zone selection is provided right away. Unfortunately,

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