Updated: April 25, 2015
I've sort of done what I promised myself I would not do again. I've taken PCLinuxOS for another spin, despite my rather sad conclusion back in 2012 regarding this distro and its future viability. But I thought it might be cool to test it, and see if it could rekindle the awesome glory that it once had.
To get underway, I chose the KDE version, Full Monty edition, which means a whole DVD of goodies. In other words, pretty much anything that can be crammed onto the media, you ought to find it. Test box? My latest Lenovo G50 machine, with its daunting array of buzzwords, including UEFI, Secure Boot, GPT, and friends. We commence.
How it all went ... not
Unfortunately, PCLinuxOS would not boot from this laptop, at all. I tried the UEFI mode first, and it was not detected, much like what happened with Netrunner during my early distro testing. Then, I switched to Legacy mode, but still, it would not boot. Not even when I tried using DVD instead of USB. Eventually, I gave up here.
I tried something else next. My older LG laptop, which comes with 4GB RAM and an Nvidia card, but it's all proper legacy in all regards. Indeed, PCLinuxOS 2014.12 booted happily on this machine, and soon enough, I was logged into a busy KDE desktop.
Full Monty comes with six virtual workspaces, each one featuring tons of shortcuts for different programs across several categories. It's all very busy, and frankly, feels like a giant list rather than a purposeful setup. Then, the visual theme is also somewhat old, much in line with this distro's glory days, 2009-2011. Not bad, but definitely not modern and not quite as appealing as some recent distributions.
Then, I tried connecting to a Wireless network, so I could begin my testing session. Alas, PCLinuxOS was not able to detect my card, which is a very old, very standard Intel 5100 thingie, and it has always worked without a hitch with dozens if not hundreds of other distros. Moreover, the live session was really sluggish, as it tried to shuffle all that data into the memory.
Gracefully, I ended it there, using a 32GB SD card to copy the few screenshots that I've collected, and then transfer them into my network. I powered off PCLinuxOS 2014.12, quite angry with myself, almost having known in advance what the results would be.
Conclusion
PCLinuxOS 2014.12 might be a good distro. I will never know. For me, it's a relic of the past, a system that does not cope well with modern technologies and with an inadequate hardware support. That's a no-go right from the start. Then, the live session was really slow, and the KDE theme is outdated. The distro simply hasn't moved on.
Sadly, this will be the very last PCLinuxOS test for me. For real. If something drastic changes in the future, then yes, sure. But the way it's designed, and simply breezes on ignoring the reality, it no longer has a rightful respected place alongside other, more modern distros. Just remembering how awesome it was, ah well. There. Good bye.
Cheers.