PCLinuxOS installation media has been updated so new installations do not require such a large update to get current. This release features Kernel and application updates, bug fixes and security updates, with a focus on speed and stability. PCLinuxOS is officially released in three editions: KDE Plasma, MATE and XFCE desktops. Community editions featuring Trinity, Openbox and LXQT desktops are also available. All the editions can run on the computer alone, or in Virtualbox. PCLinuxOS is an old school rolling release desktop distribution and has been serving the Linux community for 18 years.

The PCLinuxOS Magazine staff is pleased to announce the release of the February 2021 issue. With the exception of a brief period in 2009, The PCLinuxOS Magazine has been published on a monthly basis since September, 2006. The PCLinuxOS Magazine is a product of the PCLinuxOS community, published by volunteers from the community.

• Focus Stacking In PCLinuxOS

  Focus stacking is the process of taking many pictures with different elements of the image in focus, and then combining the images so that the resultant image is in focus.

  It's a little related to HDR (High Dynamic Range) in that in HDR one combines the dynamic ranges of many images into one HDR image. In focus stacking, the user combines the in-focus regions of various images to render one image.

  In this post we will talk about how I focus stack in Linux. 

• Yelp For Help

  I would have continued developing for winhlp32 and onward to HTML-based Windows help, except that I kind of got left in the dust when things moved from 16-bit to 32-bit. I could barely afford my 16-bit C/C++ compiler when I got it. I saved and scraped together the money to buy it, and couldn't afford to upgrade to a 32-bit development environment. As a result, the rest of the world moved on with 32-bit programming, and I was unable to continue developing my 16-bit programs (there are others) into 32-bit programs.

  So, that fire to create hypertext documents never really burned out for me. Embers of that fire still smolder today. Even though the rest of the world moved on to 32-bit help, I continued to create 16-bit help/hypertext for a while longer. I pretty much quit when things moved on to HTML based help systems. Fortunately, Yelp gives users several ways to create hypertext documents. You can use HTML, XML, DocBook, Mallard, and other file types to create the files that Yelp is able to read.

  Also in the PCLinuxOS repository is a set of special tools, called yelp-tools. These tools are not installed by default, but can easily be installed via Synaptic. They allow you to properly create the "helpful" hypertext documents that Yelp can read. Getting into all the different tools and file types that can be used to create help/hypertext documents is quite a bit beyond the scope of this article, as well as my ability to talk intelligently about them. Still, you can explore them on your own, as I will most likely do at some point. You can find more information about getting started with DocBook here. Mallard also has some getting-started tutorials here. And, of course, you can find HTML information just about everywhere and anywhere. One thing I've already noticed is that both DocBook and Mallard are both XML based, so if you already know some XML, you'll be ahead of the game. 

• PCLinuxOS Screenshot Showcase

 

• PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight - NoIBnds

  I was a Computer geek at work starting with Win 3.1 - by the time of WinXP and all the problems I was always working fixing other peoples computers. I had a friend that thought computers were only for Guns & Porn, so he would trash XP every month or so. So then I went looking for an OS he could use and not trash. Tried Red Hat, Mepis, and then PCLinuxOS around the end of 2003 with Preview 4. I had a question and emailed Tex and he answered back. I was hooked and I have been using PCLinuxOS since then. Even my friend has been using it since then and has never trashed a computer since. 

• PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: The Cat

  Why and when did you start using Linux?
  Just one year after our family bought our first PC with Win95, it already started freezing, breaking. All the wonders from MS. Since then, I started looking for an alternative to that crap. I heard about Linux, but back in the 90's there were very few people, books and resources about it in Brazil. So, after a frustrating period with a Mac (which let me down when it simply stopped functioning), I found Linux in Switzerland. My first distro was Linux Mint, which was quite friendly to use, but that broke my computer after every biannual big update, and the users' forum was useless. So, after learning about the evil systemd, I read something about the Resistance, the Few Ones who kept the flame of tradition! And here am I with PCLinuxOS, since the glorious year of 2014!

  What specific equipment do you currently use with PCLinuxOS?
  Two notebooks, one is a Lenovo with Intel i5, the other one is an old (and brave) single core Toshiba Satellite!

  Do you feel that your use of Linux influences the reactions you receive from your computer peers or family? If so, how?
  People still believe that Linux is for engineers, geeks and the like, so some think you're some kind of hacker, or genius. When you show them the graphical desktop, with all looking "normal", with icons, and Firefox and all the like, they get amazed!

• [PCLinuxOS] Screenshot Showcase

• Good Words, Good Deeds, Good News

• Welcome From The Chief Editor

  Here's To Hoping that 2021 is far, far better than the 2020 that we all have endured. It's going to take some time to see how much impact the COVID-19 pandemic will have on society and many entrenched habits/trends that have existed for many, many years. But, any time something of this magnitude hits society, there's almost no way it can't have an impact. We'll never be able to go back to the old "normal." That old "normal" will be replaced with a new "normal" that will supplant it in ways we cannot yet begin to imagine.

• Mind Your Step: Going On Sabbatical

  If you have watched videos about Linux on YouTube, especially ones that compare various distributions, did you notice that most of those videos do not even mention PCLinuxOS.

  It does not do us well when it comes to public exposure of the distribution. But in this case, it is a good thing. Sometimes, not being popular has its benefits.

  What I am saying is that the less popular a technology or product is, the less likely cybercriminals will spend time trying whatever it is they do on these products.

  [...]

  I am considering installing Nextcloud on my webspace after moving the original website to Neocities. So far, It seems to work, but with a few quirks.

  The webspace assigned contains 100GB of storage and runs in a container configured with 512MB of RAM, and enough bandwidth for a low traffic website, which this website has been for the past 24 years!

  I have not decided whether to go for it or not, being that this is a low traffic website, and that Nextcloud was designed for high traffic servers. What attracts me to this solution is the high level of security built into the application.

  The fact that this website existed for 24 years without a data breach or other attack is proof that the less popular a technology, product or idea is, the less it becomes vulnerable (or even feasible) to cyberattacks.

  Case in point, the Slackware website is still accessed through HTTP instead of HTTPS, due to the fact that almost no one new to Linux has even heard of Slackware, let alone trying to install that distribution on their machines. At least my website is accessed only through HTTPS, which is important as I do not want my website to be tagged as Not Secure by Google simply because I did not enable HTTPS for my website.

  Another solution I am considering is to use a product such as WordPress, but not allowing any accounts to be created. (The main website for PCLinuxOS does just that!)

  I know that I just mentioned that WordPress is a popular product for building websites. But the way it is used on the main PCLinuxOS website is an exception to that theory.