[ Thanks to Amiel
Heyde for this review. ]
Printer, camera, scanner–all detected and configured in less
than 2 minutes. PCLinuxOS has knocked my socks off!
I thought it was about time I upgraded the aging Ubuntu 5.10
installation that was running on my mum’s laptop. She used it from
time to time, but mostly used Windows, especially since she bought
a new HP Laserjet 1020. According to the
OpenPrinting Database it was possible to configure the printer
but it certainly wasn’t simple.
I had planned to give mum OpenSUSE 10.2, since I have been very
pleased with it overall for my own use. However when the printer
didn’t want to work, I didn’t have time to mess around for
hours.
“I had heard that PCLinuxOS had good hardware support, so I
thought I would put it to the test. After installation I went to
the Control Center and went to attempt to install the HP Laserjet
1020. I was pleased to see that it automatically detected it, but
my surprise came when a message popped up telling me that the
printer required firmware that needed to be downloaded from the
internet. I gave it the OK to get the firmware, and within a minute
I was printing! I did not have to set any options, select any
ports, or models.
What really got me excited was that when I went back to my
laptop running openSUSE 10.3 beta, CUPS had automatically detected
the printer on mum’s laptop and I could now print over the network
with absolutely no configuration on my part.
I decided to try our Canon scanner and Kodak camera. Xsane
instantly detected my scanner and after connection of my camera I
was prompted to download the pictures in digiKam. I was very
impressed!
If I was configuring these devices in Windows, I would have had
to find the discs or download the relevant drivers and go through a
lengthy install process (most likely including system reboots). It
is obvious that Linux has a long way to go, but this experience
shows that in some areas Linux (PCLOS in particular) far
outperforms Windows in terms of ease of use. I will be recommending
PCLinuxOS from now on, and am looking forward to see it bring Linux
to the masses.