OK, so PCQuest Linux 2005 may not be ideal in all areas. Having said that, it looks like some pretty fair improvements have been made when compared to the challenges they faced the year before. A good, solid distro. I only saw one flaw that had me concerned in this review.

Last year, I reviewed PCQuest Linux 2004, and found it to be an interesting distro, with good multimedia support and a decent set of installed apps. It’s 2005 now, and PCQ Linux 2005 has been released. It is based on Fedora Core 3, with many modifications. After spending some time with PCQ, I can recommend it as a good, fun distro to work with.

The software was distributed on three CDs free of cost with the March 2005 issue of PC Quest magazine. As far as I could determine there is no DVD version, or a downloadable version.

PCQ’s installation process is very similar to that of Fedora or Red Hat. PCQ Linux does not support any European languages; instead, it offers English and six major Indian languages. There are 14 package installation options, including SuperComputer, Grid Computing, Portal Server, Edge Server, Groupware Server, and Remote Boot Server.

Two of the most interesting installation options provided with PCQ Linux 2005 are Supercomputing and Grid Computing. PCQ Linux includes OSCAR (Open Source Cluster Application Resources) and some management utilities to help you set up your own backyard supercomputer, limited only by the number of machines you have. An article in the magazine covers the initial setup, hardware requirements, and network configuration. [Read the rest]