Santa Claus has Linux in his sack -- PCLinuxOS 2014.12 is here
Christmas is almost here, and I am so excited! Yes, I am looking forward to getting gifts, but more importantly, I like giving them. When you reach a certain age, a gift becomes just another thing taking up space in your home. The gifts I really want -- processors, RAM, graphics cards -- are too expensive to ask friends and family for. Some nice underwear and socks will do me just fine -- my current pairs are holier than Christmas itself.
Luckily, Linux is free, and makes the perfect gift for the nerd in your life. Today, Santa Claus pulls Linux from his sack a bit early -- PCLinuxOS 2014.12 sees release, and it looks awesome. If you have never tried a Linux-based operating system before, this is a great choice.
"PCLinuxOS 2014.12 isos have been released for Full Monty, KDE, MATE and LXDE. Highlights include kernel 3.18.1, ffmpeg 2.5.1, mesa 10.4.0, SysVinit (no systemd) and all popular applications such as Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice and VLC have been updated to their latest versions. Please note if you have been keeping up with your PCLinuxOS software updates then there is NO NEED to install fresh from a 2014.12 iso", says Bill Reynolds, aka Texstar.
Reynolds further explains, "these ISOS are final releases based on legacy technology. Future releases will default to grub2 and support uefi and gpt partition formats. Please see the individual appropriate DE specific page, listed under Get PCLinuxOS, for further details and download links for the version that most interests you. Also there is still time to participate in our gofundme holiday fund raiser to be used to purchase needed hardware to advance the distribution. Please help if you can. Merry Christmas from all of us at PCLinuxOS!"
If you aren't familiar with "Full Monty", it is a customized version of KDE, designed by the PCLinuxOS team. As you can see above, it is a bit simplistic, so some advanced users may not like it; however, I find it to be a really nice design for Linux newcomers. With that said, vanilla KDE, MATE and LXDE are hardly difficult, so any flavor can be a rewarding experience for both beginners and experts alike. LXDE in particular is a smart choice for less-powerful systems, though.
If you are interested, you can download the operating system by clicking here. Tell me which of the four desktop environments you choose in the comments below.
Photo Credit: OPOLJA / Shutterstock