Testimonials From Veteran PCLinuxOS Users

Linux Superior To Windows, Definitively
by µT6

Years ago, I had to install a cheap, crappy tv tuner card because I didn't have a tv in my room.

At that time, I was migrating to Linux, so the whole process was a bit scary. But weird enough, the tv card worked on Linux, and Linux only!

I disassembled the machine that had the tv tuner card configured and working years ago, because I had a tv in my room again. So, I wiped files and configs from that time. I also put the tv tuner card in a box, just in case I might need it again in the future.

Thanks to recent events in my house, I needed a tv in my room again (thank you thief, thank you so much). So, I put that old crappy tv card to service again. I tried to make it work in Windows again, with new drivers I found. I succeeded, partially. It didn't produce sound, and it refused to change channels, so it was stuck on channel 63. It also didn't give me access to the RCA connector, so I couldn't use the cable box.

Thanks to a damaged video card on the new pc I assembled that won't work on Linux, I quickly installed the old PC I had stored, installed the tv tuner card and then installed minime. I configured the card through PCC, and then added TVTime to Minime.

The tv tuner card worked immediately, without questions, and I had access to both the RCA and cable inputs.

How is it possible that a tv card designed to work on Windows XP refused to work with their specific drivers and the specific app, but works almost out of the box in Linux where it is not supposed to work?

Well, PCLinuxOS to the rescue again!

Desktop Perfection
by ThirdOfSix

Sometimes, it takes me awhile to get to like a particular look. But it is just like family, I always end up liking each one.

I did not expect how I reacted to the latest (2013.04) release of LXDE.

WOW!

Every time I boot a machine with it, it just grabs me.

It is like being out in the woods and coming across a family of baby animals or seeing a particularly lovely lady smiling at you.

My monitors are old and somewhat dim compared to new ones, so a lot of visuals just don't work well with them.

This is the exception.

I rarely rave over anything. I really liked the new desktop for the 64 bit KDE release. I thought that it would remain my favorite for a while.

Then I installed the latest LXDE.

Again, WOW!

People using other distributions just have no idea what they are missing by not joining this community.

Thanks to all who contributed.

Life Is Good!
by exploder

Just one of those days when I switched on my PC and realized how good I have it. I may not have any money, don't have a very new PC, but here I am enjoying my favorite Queen concert on a computer that is running like a top! This computer spent most of it's life sitting under my desk because the main-board is a real piece of crap. Despite all of this PCLinuxOS MiniMe makes this thing very usable and fast.

This PC has a 2009 Foxconn main board that, at one time, would destroy a SATA hard drive in three times of booting up. I went through three or four hard drives before a BIOS update finally resolved the problem. After that, there were problems with the sound getting stuck in an infinite loop, and Plymouth always displayed huge and ugly. The computer was a total piece of junk in my opinion.

When my newer rig's main board failed, I had to make do with whatever parts I had available, and I thought the Foxconn system was better than nothing. I tried PCLInuxOS MiniMe because I knew PCLinuxOS had the very best hardware support out there. I was not disappointed. Also, I hate reinstalling my OS all the time and fighting with software to get things working.

I had seen people on other forums with really fast boot times, but I never had that kind of luck on any of my computers. PCLinuxOS gave me a fast boot, Plymouth displayed nice and everything just worked like it should. When I went in to tweak things for maximum performance, there really was not much to do. Just about all the tweaks were already in place right out of the box!

When I had my last eye operation, I had to run something else for a while because I just could not see well enough to read the text in the KDE menu, and I could not see well enough to go about making things the way I needed. I had to use something that had white text with a black background, and it was still a real struggle to do much. The only thing I could really use was the web browser with the text as big as I could make it, and even then, I had to have my face right on the screen to read anything.

People on this forum helped me to make the text in Firefox big enough to where I could see it. Forum members here also gave me the support and encouragement to make it through a really bad situation. They really cared, and it made a world of difference. I was so happy when I could finally see good enough to use KDE again!

My at the time my 7 year old son Trent helped me, too. Without Trent's help, I would not have been able to install updates or fix things with what I had to temporarily run until I recovered. I did not like the OS I had to use while I was recovering. It ran like crap, looked like crap, and I never trusted the updates that were offered. With PCLinuxOS, I knew the updates were tested, and also that if there was a problem, it would be fixed pretty darn quick.

The few times I have had problems with PCLinuxOS, people on the forum went above and beyond to help me. You just don't see that kind of support and dedication very often, but I see it here all the time. I really like the people in this forum, too. Around here, you feel like you really know the people you interact with. It really feels like they are an extension of your family and it is a pleasure participating on the forum.

I am sitting here right now listening to Queen Live at Wembley Stadium while I write this, and I was thinking to myself that before switching to PCLinuxOS, I spent most of my time fighting with the computer, rather than enjoying it. Now I have a pretty decent music collection, and I am enjoying it on a machine that I used to think was only good for spare parts.

I have written testimonials here before, but it never hurts to thank people again for doing so much to make things so good for others. I want to thank every single person here for everything they have done to make PCLinuxOS and this forum so good. I appreciate everything all of you have done, and I can't thank you enough for everything you have done for me.

You folks are the best!