PCLinuxOS KDE Darkstar 11/22-Update: switch to standard PCLinuxOS

[crosscourt]

This is the minimalist version that uses KDE 5.26.3, includes Ventoy and now uses Network Manager like all the other KDE distros. You can decide what apps you want to install rather than having to remove them at install. 6.07 kernel is in use and the repos include a lot of apps such as Chrome, CPU-X, kdiskmark as well as others that typically you have to go search and install separately. Libreoffice 7.3.7, Firefox is default. Iso was only 1.6gb.
So far its excellent and will be testing it more.

[crosscourt]

Just went thru some multimedia tests and no issues. I added both Clementine and Audacious along with bleachbit,hardinfo, system monitor, ksysguard,Chrome, and Thunderbird. If you want more apps install the regular version of PCLinuxOS 7/22 instead. Particularly for those of you who dont use or want all the K-apps, this is a great distro to try. I also had no auto connect issues with my wifi with KDE.

[tlmiller]

I installed this on a VM. It's nice that it's up to date for the most part, but still using apt-get instead of updating to the newer apt is annoying. They did create an alias for apt, but it's just that, an alias of apt-get. Minor issue. But still annoying. Only got to test it a tiny bit though, after I did updates and rebooted it's borked beyond redemption. freezes HARD instead of loading desktop. Pretty much what I've come to expect from PCLOS, pretty but utterly nonfunctional.

[crosscourt]

I did multiple installs with no issues but I did real installs not VM. Didnt have any major issues and find PCLOS doesnt have more minor issues than my other distros overall. No hard freezes at all.

[crosscourt]

Tried the more recent 1/23 version and wasnt as happy with it as I had expected. Ended up installing PCLOS 12/26 standard version and really like it so far. App choices are good but not excessive, with ventoy,cpu-x, LibreOffice, Firefox and Thunderbird by default. Many other good apps included like Zoom but still had to add quite a few apps such as k3b,strawberry,hardinfo,kdiskmark, vlc and Chrome. PCLOS uses SysV not SysD and its a lot faster than I expected. It now uses network manager for wifi with no problems but didnt detect my printers after install. You have to add the system-config-printer gui package and the canon printer drivers/gui and it finally works. They didnt have the full KDE system tray installed so removed the stray widgets and added system tray to the system. Small oddities but Im assuming they were being minimal in nature and allowing you to make that decision.
It uses the most recent KDE 5.26.5 and the 6.0.13 kernel. Im running it on my Dell e6440 and havent had any issues. Wifi was detected just fine and using synaptic to update was a snap. Overall a great experience so far and it always takes me back to the Mandriva days when I first started using RPM based distros. Definitely the best RPM distro in my opinion unless you tolerate OpenSUSE as it does offer a very polished KDE experience, Fedora is a bit too cutting edge and releases too often, and Mageia/OpenMandriva have too many issues.
Will test multimedia, gaming and office apps next.
I use to be very involved with the PCLOS community as a long time forum member. Returned to the forums recently and had to redo my account as I had been gone too long. Still one of the best online communities around.

[crosscourt]

Multimedia and gaming tests went fine. Resource usage is amazingly low and the best Ive seen this year with a KDE based distro at 390mb.