Introduced custom distribution release PCLinuxOS 2021.02 . The distribution was founded in 2003 based on Mandrake Linux, but later branched off into a standalone project. The peak in popularity of PCLinuxOS came in 2010, in which, according to a poll of readers of the Linux Journal magazine, PCLinuxOS was second only to Ubuntu in popularity (in the 2013 ranking, PCLinuxOS already took 10th place). The distribution is aimed at live use, but also supports installation on a hard drive. To download prepared boot images with KDE desktops (full 3.5 GB and downsized 1.5 GB), MATE (2.4 GB) and Xfce (2.2 GB). Separately, the community is developing builds based on the Trinity, Openbox and LXQt desktops.
PCLinuxOS is distinguished by the use of the classic sysvinit init system and the use of management tools Debian GNU / Linux APT packages combined with RPM package manager. PCLinuxOS belongs to the class of rolling distributions, in which package updates are constantly released and the user at any time has the opportunity to upgrade to the latest versions of programs without waiting for the next release of the distribution kit. The PCLinuxOS repository contains about 15,000 packages.
The basic package includes such applications as Timeshift backup utility, Bitwarden password manager, Darktable photo processing system, GIMP image editor, Digikam image collection management system, Megasync cloud storage synchronization utility, Teamviewer remote access system, system Rambox application manager, Simplenotes note-taking program, Kodi multimedia center, Caliber e-book reader, Skrooge finance package, Firefox browser, Thunderbird email client, Strawberry music player and VLC video player.
The new release has updated package versions, including the Linux kernel. Optimized the speed of the installation media. Improved compatibility with VirtualBox, and made it easier to install add-ons for guests running in VirtualBox. The installer has added support for the F2FS file system.