PCLinuxOS LXDE For Linux

PCLinuxOS LXDE is an open source and freely distributed edition of the popular PCLinuxOS Linux operating system built around the lightweight LXDE desktop environment. PCLinuxOS is a distribution of Linux derived from Mandrake, now known as Mandriva.

The system is distributed as two Live CD ISO-hybrid images, one for each of the supported hardware platforms (64-bit and 32-bit) and designed to be written to blank CD discs or deployed to USB flash drives of 1 GB or bigger.

The boot menu is quite identical with the ones found on other PCLinuxOS editions, except for the background image. It lets users to start the live environment with default settings or without the boot splash, as well as to boot in safe graphics mode.

Users can boot the operating system in failsafe mode, drop to a shell prompt, check the media for errors (only if using a CD disc), run a memory diagnostic test, copy the entire live environment to RAM, and install the distribution to a local disk drive without testing it (not recommended).

Before entering the graphical session, users will be asked to choose a keyboard layout. After that, they will be notified about the usernames and passwords used on the Live CD. The LXDE desktop environment is comprised of two panels, a top one for switching between virtual workspaces and accessing the calendar and language switcher, and a bottom one for accessing the main menu, launching applications and interacting with running programs and the system tray area.

Default applications include the PCManFM file manager, Leafpad text editor, Evince document viewer, GPicView image viewer, Mozilla Firefox web browser, gFTP file transfer client, Sylpheed email client, XChat IRC client, AbiWord word processor, DeaDBeeF audio player, QMPlay2 video player, and Synaptic Package Manager.

Summing up, PCLinuxOS LXDE is a decent, stable, reliable and lightweight distribution of Linux that uses a beautiful desktop environment and supports low-end machines or computers with old hardware components.