Linux distributions for older hardware often come with frugal software and modified, lean desktops. Work environments like Gnome and KDE on the other hand are not suitable for older hardware. Their numerous additional programs and visual effects add too much of a burden for older machines, and makes working with these interfaces impossibly slow.

Therefore, the developers of the PCLinuxOS have radically downsized the software and interface of the popular KDE desktop to adapt it for older hardware. The results of this downsizing have been packaged into a lean version of the distribution with which users can click together a Linux derivative.

PCLinuxOS [1] has continuously been maintained and evolved for the past twelve years. It is a popular distribution in the United States and has a large developer community. Originally based on Mandrake, the operating system has been going its own way for years now and is now available in various versions for 32- and 64-bit architectures.

KDE has emerged as the primary desktop. The developers for PCLinuxOS have focused their efforts on easy operability and all-around use. To comply with the wishes of many users, PCLinuxOS also comes as an ISO image with the alternative work environments MATE and LXDE.

The MiniMe version of PCLinuxOS is one particularly interesting innovation. It represents a significantly trimmed-down edition that includes the KDE desktop.

It can be quickly adapted by the user, once it is installed on bulk storage. You can use its own graphical tools to put together a unique distribution based on PCLinuxOS.

The MiniMe version comes as an ISO image of just under 570MB for 32-bit hardware. There is also a 650MB image for 64-bit architectures. Both images are available on the homepage for the distribution [2].

Unique Characteristics

One of the unique characteristics of the PCLinuxOS is its highly simplified system management. Beginners and newcomers to Linux have no problem administering the operating system even without previous experience.

The centerpiece of the system management is the PCLinuxOS Control Center , which was originally developed by Mandrake. For 10 years, it has had continuous maintenance and development and still counts as an innovative tool for system administration.

As with Yast from openSUSE, the control center bundles all of the important settings options into a unified interface with various categories. Because the dialogs all have the same graphical user interface, there is no need for a beginner to invest time in learning how to operate the system (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Oldie but goodie. The control center bundles all of the settings options together.

Ready to Start

The operating system offers various options when it starts for the first time in the GRUB boot manager. For example, the user can boot in live mode and simultaneously install the system on bulk storage. We used live mode for performing the first test.

This test was carried out on a 10-year-old HP Compaq Notebook equipped with Dothan, a second-generation 2GHz Pentium M processor, which has only 512MB working memory. The operating system booted from a USB stick into a no-frills KDE desktop on this outdated computer with surprising speed after a localization query. The desktop contains only a few icons and a starter for installation on bulk storage (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The desktop looks spartan and tidy.

One look at the menu for the MiniMe version reveals a radically slimmed-down system. Although there are many menu entries, these contain little software. Only the More Applications | Configuration menu includes numerous entries. Typical application menus such as Office , Entertainment , and Graphics do not exist.

The system has a well-known graphical assistant from Mandriva. It helps the user generate a locally installed system via one click on the Install PCLinuxOS button on the desktop.

This installation process does not include set up of user accounts. It is only after finishing the installation and executing a warm start that the automatically called routine asks for the access data for a root and user account. Then, it is on to the KDE desktop where the system shows how modest it is.

The system load on the single core processor is very small, and an empty desktop without any applications installed requires just 220MB of working memory.

Rolling

At first glance, the current version of PCLinuxOS 12.2014 looks dated. In fact, the installation assistant with the 3.18.1 kernel and KDE SC 4.14.3 installs somewhat dated software.

However, because the PCLinuxOS distribution has been functioning for years according to the rolling release mechanism, you can update the system easily after the initial installation. Classic update cycles like those found in customary Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Debian, and openSUSE are not required for PCLinuxOS.

The U.S. Mandriva derivative uses APT RPM together with Synaptic, for package administration. Synaptic is a graphics attachment found in the Software Center menu. Updating the installation is accomplished in three mouse clicks.

First, you need to click on the Reload button that sits at the top left in the Synaptic window in order to read in the package sources. Second, mark all of the packages that need updating by clicking on the Mark All Upgrades button. And, third, you can start the update by clicking on Apply (Figure 3).

Figure 3: You can update the system with just three mouse clicks.

The system will also automatically supplement the kernel firmware files needed for the operation of proprietary hardware components.

People Speak More Than One Language

Outside the United States, PCLinuxOS was a wallflower for a long time because the lack of support for local languages. Now, there is nothing to complain about with the localization feature.

To operate the derivative in a different language, you should install the addlocale package via Synaptic in PCLinuxOS MiniMe. Then, click in the start menu on the Software Center group and use root rights to activate the Localization Manager . You can then select the country settings you would like to install from the list of countries (Figure 4).

Figure 4: You can install packages for additional languages with just a few clicks.

Now the routine will download the necessary language files from the Internet and install them. The next step involves the assistant asking for the accompanying keyboard layout, which is available in various versions. In the last step, the assistant will ask for the time zone and then execute a warm start. After requesting modification of the folder name, the system begins to work entirely in the new language.

Supplementary Software

The MiniMe version of PCLinuxOS has few sizable applications. All of the larger programs like Gimp, LibreOffice, Firefox, and Thunderbird are lacking. Even surfing the Internet has to be done with Konqueror. Nonetheless, the Synaptic package manager lists just under 14,000 packages. You can select, modify, and install packages from this list as desired.

So-called installation managers are a unique feature of PCLinuxOS. The managers serve to simplify the process of downloading and installing certain software packages. The managers are actually scripts that take care of the work of searching for various packages when installing larger applications.

For example, LibreOffice and the ebook administrator Calibre can be integrated into the operating system with the help of an installation manager. The localization manager in turn simplifies the process of dealing with multiple language systems. For LibreOffice, it is necessary to also install the lomanager package from Synaptic. For Calibre, you will need the calibre-manager . These corresponding managers are found in the Software Center submenu.

A click on the manager downloads the assistant for the current version from the Internet and installs it. LibreOffice offers the option of selecting a language. The installation manager remains in theSoftware Center menu after successful integration of the program, and can later be used via a few clicks to update or de-install the corresponding program (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Programs such as LibreOffice and Calibre are administered by an installation manager.

Generating an Image

After installing all the desired apps and completing the configuration work, the system can be converted to an ISO image and then used for other installations. PCLinuxOS uses the command-line tool mylivecd to do this.

The MiniMe version comes with the tool included. It is a good idea to install the graphics front end mylivegtk from the package sources to make this work easier and to avoid having to learn about the required parameters.

The front end is located in the submenu Archiving under the entry MyLiveGTK . At first, it may look somewhat complicated, but because the most important settings are made automatically, the ISO image can be generated with one click on the Execute button to the lower left in the program window. Clicking on the ISO Options button opens a dialog for adding personal information to the ISO image (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Although seemingly complicated, the image generator is actually simple and functional.

One click on the Execute button and the program will generate the image and at the same time provide progress reports at the bottom of the program window. Note that writing the ISO image requires considerable computing work and also significant compute time even on up-to-date, high-performance machines with multicore processors.

The process can take several hours on older, single-core machines depending on the size of the software packages that have been added. After the process is complete, you can transfer the image as usual onto an optical data storage device and then install the preconfigured system from there onto other machines.

USB Stick

You can put the modified PCLinuxOS system on a USB stick by using the PCLinuxOS Live USB Creator tool. This tool comes integrated into the system and is located in the Additional Applications | Configuration menu.

Before you start out, you should prepare the memory stick to receive the operating system by formatting the stick with the filesystem ext2/3/4. The formatting is easy with graphical tools like GParted and cfdisk. Then, you should remove the stick from the system and start Creator.

Creator requires that the stick be reinserted into the computer so that the tool can find the stick. Then, the tool asks whether you would like to write one or more distributions to the medium. In the next step, you specify whether the flash stick should be generated from an existing ISO image or from a live CD. After selecting the desired ISO image, you need to give the installation a name. Then the assistant will transfer the data to the memory stick.

In the following step, the tool presents a number of boot options for the new distribution on the USB stick. Selections are made by setting a checkmark in the corresponding check box.

Provided the USB stick will be used for storing personal data, you should activate Persistent boot (write access to the data storage device) . Otherwise, only read access will be granted to the memory stick.

In this last step, it's a good idea to specify where the setup should write the boot manager GRUB. In order for the computer to start from a USB stick, the setup must be in the master boot record (MBR) of the stick. Now you have a completely individualized operating system that is installable on a new computer just like a standard Linux distribution.

Conclusion

You can quickly create a customized operating system using MiniMe from PCLinuxOS. Such a system will run well on older hardware because of the trimmed-down KDE desktop. Because the developers have been maintaining this system for more than 10 years, there should be no unpleasant surprises or defects in terms of stability or hardware incompatibilities.

A customized system like this is especially well suited for older hardware and heterogeneous components, such as computers for a school district, where modern hardware is typically the exception.