(New to this series? Read all the other days from DAY ONE. HERE)

I think we may have found our perfect LXDE distro. PCLOS LXDE is a bit of a surprise. After I thoroughly blasted the Gnome and KDE versions I avoided adding it to this series, but was convinced by a commenter to give it a try.

I am glad we did.

Quintin

I like it.

I did not like the Gnome and KDE versions, but the LXDE version is good.

It sports a proper control center similar to what its bigger siblings have, but it also sports the very lightweight LXDE desktop environment.

Installation is predictably easy, and what I really find surprising is that there is none of the cluttered menus that I so hated about the heavier versions.

It sports utilities for a lot of printers and a whole whiz of customization tools.

I guess this would be a good distro to give grandma, it more featured than Linux Mint LXDE, and the splitting of the root and user accounts a-la Mandriva makes me feel safer having an end user tooling around on it. (This makes me wonder if there are lightweight Mandriva versions…)

OpenOffice is lacking, as is wont with lightweight distros, but there is an installer for it similar to what the other PCLOS versions have.

Incidentally there is a PCLOS XFCE version as well, and I bet it will be a good choice as well. Unfortunately PCLOS LXDE is the last distro test driven in this series.

Elzje

I like the control center. I read some of the comments on this series and on other entries, and I often see comments along the lines of “If you click here and take these steps you could easily do X or Y” (Yep guys, she actually reads the comments – Q)

I want to have as much as possible of what I do together. PCLOS makes this easy, once I realized that everything could be found in the control center I was much happier. (I prefer the stuff I need to be in menus, control centers can become a very confusing place – Q)

The separate root account presents a conundrum. For me it makes sense to have a setup where one password can give me root privileges when I need to do something, especially when helping Quintin with something that he tries to let me do. In the case of my mom in law I can understand having a separate root account – she can break things, but if root is inaccessible the computer can be kept “safe.”

(That is true – I find it easier to say ‘type sudo reboot – okay now type your password’ as opposed to telling Elzje what the password is.)

Other things, it has the browser I prefer (Firefox), I can get OpenOffice if I want, and most other things are taken care off.

Questions and answers

1. Is it reasonably quick?
   One of the quickest. The LXDE environment makes it very lightweight as well.
2. Can you use the Internet with ease?
   Yes. Firefox is installed and works like a charm.
3. Can You Edit Documents and Spreadsheets?
   Yes and no. It does not come with OpenOffice pre-installed, but that is taken care of with an installer script.
4. How easy is e-mail use?
   You have Sylpheed. I’d prefer Thunderbird to be included by default – it is available via the repositories though.
5. Are Codecs available for all the common formats?
   Yes. What else is needed you can get via the repository.
6. How hard is it to join networks?
   A non issue. The control center also adds functionality that is lacking in other distros in this series in this department.
7. Is it a swap-in for a higher end distro?
   Yes. If you use one of the higher end PCLOS versions on your computer the LXDE version is a very nice companion to these. Rounds of the PCLOS family nicely.

Summary

After a lazy weekend where I tended to my aquariums and spent time with the kids I really enjoyed taking some time with Elzje and PCLOS LXDE.

The fact that it was so surprisingly likeable rounds off this series nicely for me. It is good to end a project like this on a high note, and PCLOS LXDE did that.

Next up we review this series and deliver our verdict on which lightweight distro fits what application best. (The verdict is UP and available to read HERE)

Want to try out PCLOS LXDE – The download page for the version tested here can be found at THIS LINK.

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