Reader's Letters

Letters to the Editor:

I have PCLinux loaded on my 2GB memory stick so it loads from there on ANY PC! I just tried it on my basic laptop and found that configuring the built-in Broadcom wireless card was a breeze. I had previously put the Broadcom BCM43xx files in a folder on my windoze partition which were accessible from root. Using the tools in PCLinux I simply had to type in the WEP key for my wireless modem/router (a Netgear device) and hey presto! The blue wireless LED came on and I am in touch with you. I just have to work out how to save the settings to my memory stick. Just wish a few more games were in the setup by default. Will try the 2007 version soon.

Morrison H

Hello all,

As a relatively new Linux user (12 months), I have tried many distros starting with Ubuntu, and then went onto experiment with Fedora, Sabayon, Sam just to name a few. I came upon PCLinuxOS just by accident and wow am I impressed. Whilst the 'community' is not as robust as the Ubuntu community the product speaks for itself. I keep other distros on my system but now rarely even go to them as PCLinuxOS does it all with gusto! Thanks to all the developers for a great product!

Tony C

Great Magazine!!! I'm a Linux noob and found these articles VERY helpful / informative. Keep them coming!

Steve B

Hi,

I am an entirely 100% newbie to Linux and wish to both thank you and compliment you on a job well done. Having absolutely zero experience with Linux I am presently trying to go through that oh so painful part of trying to figure out what Linux is all about. The part where you choose a distro to use to see if you can actually like Linux and make it work. I've downloaded nearly 50 different distros in the last couple days to burn to CD and then try at my leisure to see if I'm totally stupid or can convert to Linux. PCLinux was the very last one I downloaded.

While it was downloading I was also trying to make copies of any pertinent paperwork that might apply. Manuals, FAQs, etc, to make things easier as I start out. In the process I came across the link to the PCLinuxOS magazine for July 2007. Lord Bless you for all the wonderful information you included in that issue. I honestly can say that after reading that one magazine I now know more about Linux and how it operates than after nearly 3 months of seeking information online. And it was written in a manner that made it easy for me to understand without making me feel like a total idiot or speaking down to me.

In my mind, the single greatest sin of any computer user is that we forget that at one time or another each and every last one of us was a "NEWBIE" that was begging for help to understand this great new world of computers. We look down or speak down to those newbies like we are God and forget at one time they were us. In your magazine you do not do this and for that I cannot commend you enough. You also have achieved that wonderful ability to be able to write articles that are both helpful to the new and the more wiser and knowledgeable Linux user at the same time. That ability is almost a God given gift that few of us ever are capable of. Cherish it. And keep right on using it to help those like myself learn about Linux and the great wonders it promises to come. Only good can come from wise use of that gift like you are doing now.

I was brought up on Microsoft Windows from the very first when DOS came out. It is like anything else. A learning experience. And what you learn is learned through years of effort in the computer world. Your magazine and the way it is written takes years off that learning curve for so many and in so many ways I cannot begin to list them all. But this I can tell you. After reading this one copy of your magazine I probably have taken at least 2 years off my learning curve of being able to operate a Linux based computer. That is saying a lot.

It has been years since anything gave me that boyhood thrill to see or receive. Your magazine is the first thing in so many years to do that I can't even believe it. I actually sat here and read the entire magazine page by page until I was totally finished. I didn't skip one detail anywhere in it. It was like one of those thriller books you get into as a young man or woman that grabs you and you can't sit it down until totally finished. And I can't wait to go back and download all the rest of those available back copies you have on your site. I'll probably be up all night long reading your magazine from cover to cover in each issue.

You not once tried to cram something down my throat the way Microsoft has begun doing to their customers. Not once did you try to tell me in certain ways that I wasn't smart enough to know what I want or need on my own computer like so many of the Microsoft crowd do nowadays. And don't get me wrong, I love Windows and how it operates. Except for the security issues that is. And the price of the software you really need. But those issues aside I really do enjoy Windows. However, when Microsoft began forcing people to go out and totally rebuild or replace their computers every three years it began to be to expensive to use Windows. When they began to force people to change operating systems every three years it became to expensive. And when they started forcing people to go out and buy all new software every three years to go with the new computer and the new operating system because they made the new stuff refuse to work with any of your older software it became to expensive. VISTA became the last straw for me. It is nothing but eye candy for Windows XP and yet they try to force me to replace all my Microsoft Office applications at hundreds of dollars each to go with it. That was when I knew I had to do something else.

And lo and behold there was Linux. I had tried it just as little as about four years ago and could make absolutely no sense of it at all back then. Now Linux has progressed to the point where many distros look and operate very similar to Windows. AND IT DOES IT FOR FREE. PCLinux seems to be one of those distros that does exactly that. It appears at the onset to be one distro that will allow a newbie like myself to make that last jump from the Microsoft sinking ship. And I don't think I'll need a four year course at a college to be able to do it. Many Linux flavors today even have the new 3D GUI that Microsoft says can't be duplicated in any Windows operating system except Vista.

So from the bottom of my heart I wish to thank all of you both at PCLinux and at the PCLinux OS Magazine for assisting me in being able to finally learn and be able to use Linux at home in a constructive manner. I, my wife, and my daughter all have our own desktop computers. My daughter and I both have laptops also. And on top of all that I have been trying to figure out how to afford to set up at least one if not two file servers to keep all our important information on in a safe manner. Plus we have been interested in setting up a new media center edition of a computer for all our shareable files and movies and music etc. The Microsoft cheapest server software is hundreds of dollars per copy plus operating systems to go with each. Not to mention the individual computer copies of all the various software we use and need each day. Linux can basically save me literally thousands of dollars just maintaining my own home computers.

Not to mention the horribly hard part of trying to teach my daughter and wife a completely new way to use computers without Windows. PCLinuxOS appears to nearly take all that effort away overnight. And I dreaded that part the most. You have lifted a horribly heavy burden off my heart with PCLinux and your magazine. Even my daughter who is extremely ADHD and has tremendous times trying to learn new things can understand your magazine. It explains things to her in a way even she can understand and be able to make sense of again without making her feel like someone is talking down to her. We cannot thank you enough for that.

I've taken up enough of your time and will let you go now. Just wanted you to know that what you do is good, that it succeeds where so many others totally fail, and it is so clearly appreciated by so many of us. Give yourself and your team one great big pat on the back. God Bless and thank each and every one of you.

Sincerely,
Allen W

First and Foremost Hello to all and congratulations on PCLinuxOS! Here's a little background to my story. I live in Greece and I have been using Linux since 1997. I started with SuSE version 6.0 and had kept updated my lowly PII all the way to version 10.2 of Open SuSE. I was not very happy when I upgraded to 10.2 and lost the ability to use arecord. A small thing huh?

Anyway, this summer my son and I are visiting my parents in Spring, TX. I should also mention that my 17 yr old son is probably better versed with Linux than I am. My parents asked me to take a look at my mom's computer (PIII with 512MB). When she logged on to her Windows XP box she had to get up and leave for about 10 minutes while the silly thing connected to the Internet. I tried installing SuSE 10.2 on the box but it just kept freezing at odd moments and the response of the computer was not really satisfactory. I then tried Ubuntu but it could not configure the Riva 128 video card properly. So far Linux was 0 for 2.

While I was working on this, my dad was busy spoiling my son with a new laptop. Since we don't have a decent LUG in our neck of the woods in Greece we decided to take a trip to the Houston LUG and see what kind of information they might have for us. While we were there one of the users brought over a CD of PCLinuxOS final and I tried it on my son's new laptop. Impressive.

When I got home I installed it on my mom's box in less than 30 minutes. I updated the box over night and viola! It works like champ. No setup problems, no vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf, no vim /etc/fstab. It found the USB wheel mouse (SuSE didn't) and the USB flash drive that I had forgotten to remove was also set up automatically. It even set up the rinky-dink HP multi-function ink jet. I really liked the touch with the NTP daemon.

This distro is just great. My parents were really impressed since they had been prepped by the windows propaganda to buy a new computer. I am now teaching my mom how to use Open Office, Evolution and Firefox. The only thing I have left to do is set up a backup job in cron and see about doing a little better job with filtering spam. I would be interested in hearing how other users have set up their mailing systems. Well I think I have about used up my word count.

Thanks again,
Rod C

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