Katie's Testimonial

10/15/09

I have been an enthusiastic user of PCLinuxOS for sometime now, but each day as I peruse these forums I feel like I need to say, "Thank you" again. My adventures in Linux began several years ago with the book, "Kiss The Blue Screen of Death Goodbye" and its included CD.

An acquaintance of mine then suggested I try SUSE 9.0 — which I loved because of the way it updated. However, I have always been an advocate of using an OS you have a good local support group for — and my friend moved away. The forum people were great, but not the same thing.

Next came MEPIS — a users group in a nearby city was pushing it through their installfest. It worked fine until one time I made the mistake of accepting an update that wasn't able to download all the files needed — "OK" was far from OK. And the users group was really far above me and didn't seem to have time for beginners (for whom they had done the installs).

Then I heard about PCLinuxOS 2007 — WOW! I shadowed the forums for several months trying to learn all I could (& find out if they were beginner friendly). I ordered a CD from a provider and it installed easily & was beautiful — and "just worked".

I went through the "big update" — no big deal (except I tried to reboot before it was finished on my first machine — so I re-installed and tried again — perfect). It plays with older machines, virtual machines, and some newer ones — and am having a ball.

Am I M$ free? Not quite, but mainly because I do so much OCR work & desktop publishing. I know there are Linux programs for those — and am hoping that someday they will work for me — but they aren't quite what I need right this minute. However, I love the ability to keep a P4 machine online 24/7/365 and know it won't be infected or compromised (I keep M$ as far away from the internet as possible).

Two observations, if I may (& this is really why I am writing).

  1. I am constantly amazed at how friendly everyone is around here — thank you from the bottom of my heart — This place is amazing!!! And every time I check in here I find that I have missed anywhere from 4 to 10 or 12 screens of new posts!! (Amazing! Some forums you wonder if anyone is reading — This place is so busy — and I learn so much every day)
  2. Tex and the Gang — Thank you. Updates — WOW: I installed the automatic updates and I cannot believe how busy you folks are (& how dedicated you folks are). Some days only a couple updates, but most days 6-8 updates (I had to be away for a couple days recently and came back to see 30-some updates — I only missed 2 days). Tex and the Gang — You folks are just amazing and I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate all that you do for the community. I'm sure there are days you wonder if anyone notices — I notice every day and I am so thankful for all you do.

katie