Another day, Another PCLOS - Xfce Edition 2011-07

Following the releases of PCLinuxOS 2011.6 and PCLinuxOS 2011.07 MiniMe KDE comes PCLinuxOS Phoenix XFCE Edition 2011-07 Final. As you can probably gather, it features the low-weight high-performance Xfce desktop which makes it perfect for machines a few years old. It also can be quite pretty and configurable.

This release comes with Linux 2.6.38.8 with PAE and BFS versions available in repositories. Xorg X Server 1.10.3, GCC 4.5.2, and Xfce 4.8.1 provide the foundation for Firefox 5.0, Thunderbird 3.1.11, and a new LibreOffice installer. Not surprisingly, it also features a similar brushed metal theme found in the other PCLOS releases except in this spin, the bull mascot is replaced by a Phoenix.

"Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly." It offers many features enjoyed in other larger desktop such as built-in file manager with remote support, configurable panel, drag & drop launchers, graphical configuration tools, and graphical removable media controls.  Bruce Byfield said recently that "No other desktop I'm aware of balances convenience and speed half so well."

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to like my machine as it wouldn't boot for me. It hung and gave up. In looking around the PCLOS forum it appears I'm the only one. So don't let my experience dissuade you from giving it a test drive. In fact, its users sound very enthusiastic. Here's a screenshot from the project: