Remain blissfully ignorant, or experience nirvana today with this powerful, lightweight, and highly customizable release from PCLinuxOS. Zen Mini provides a useful LiveCD and a minimal list of applications making this an ideal distribution for people looking to manufacture their own environment. As a user with much previous Zen Mini experience I found this slim distribution to be an excellent choice for older hardware or a small hard drive. Unfortunately rumors suggest that one of the primary contributors for this release, Siamer, may be ending his time with PCLinuxOS due to shortage of time. He will be missed, but I have high hopes that Zen Mini will carry on in the future.
PCLinuxOS Zen Mini 2011 Features
- A minimalistic application list, and interface, perfect for those who enjoy customization.
- Say your last goodbyes to Gnome 2.32.0 with Drak3d and Compiz Fusion providing the desktop effects.
- Available in many different languages using addlocale 4.0.
- Excellent support for most sound, graphic, and peripheral devices.
- The PCLinuxOS Control Center makes all of your options and settings easy to find.
PCLinuxOS Zen Mini 2011 Applications
- Firefox 5.0.1
- Synaptic Package Manager 0.57.2
- GParted 0.7.1
- Gedit 2.30.4
- Gnome Terminal 3.0.1
- Nautilus 2.32.2.1
- File Roller Archive Manager 2.32.2
- LibreOffice 3.4.2
PCLinuxOS Zen Mini 2011 Installation
The installation process went smoothly as usual, and it was effectively swift. The boot menu also embodies the elegant Zen Mini theme, and provides the option to boot from the LiveCD or to Install PCLinuxOS Zen Mini. If you choose to start the installation process, you will first be asked to select your keyboard settings. Then you can configure your hard drives for installation or configure several advanced boot options. You are then asked to restart to proceed with the next steps. After the restart you can select your time settings and login information and you will immediately arrive at the login screen. The whole process only took a few minutes, I was actually very impressed.
PCLinuxOS Zen Mini 2011 Desktop
I thoroughly enjoyed the sleek and elegant desktop environment, everything is neatly arranged and easy to find. Even the login screen is very stylish and obviously highly customized. The desktop provides a few icons to setup some useful applications, a network manager icon, and a couple of Nautilus Launchers. There is only a single panel along the bottom of the screen, but the Gnome interface is highly customizable as most people already know. The introduction of Drak3d with Compiz fusion certainly adds a whole new layer of functionality and, of course, personality to your desktop. I intend to cover all of the details of Drak3d, as well as the PCLinuxOS Control Center in future posts for those seeking further details.
PCLinuxOS Zen Mini 2011 Menus
The Zen Mini menu structure was excellently organized, and very easy to navigate. The menu can be found by clicking on the Zen icon at the far left of the main panel. Many of the popular installed applications can be found neatly arranged into categories inside the main menu. You will also find a sub-menu for places which will open your file browser, and another for system administration and preferences options. Also conveniently located at the bottom of the main menu you can find a lock screen option, a logout user option, and a system shutdown option. Launchers for most newly installed applications will automatically appear in the application categories of the main menu as well.
PCLinuxOS Zen Mini 2011 Panels
Zen Mini did add some style to the Gnome panel making it easier on the eyes. As always properties and settings can be found by right clicking on an empty spot inside the panel. The pop-up menu also offers the ability to add new panels to the desktop, or click add to panel to see the available applets. The usual list of Gnome applets are available, some of them include weather notifications, a system monitor, disk mounter, and sticky notes. By default the main panel already holds a menu icon, a few launchers, a show desktop button, and the system notification area where you can keep an eye on the status of your computer and some applications.
PCLinuxOS Zen Mini 2011 Software
The Synaptic package manager is available if you are interested in installing additional software. You can find a launcher for Synaptic on the left side of the bottom panel. With Synaptic you can also check for package updates to keep your system stable and secure. The ability to manage your repositories via a GUI is also quite convenient. The Synaptic package manager interface is easy to navigate, the shortcut bar across the top of the window will help you with most of the basic functions. From the shortcut bar you can search for available packages, search for upgrades, mark all upgrades, or apply all changes. Simply mark the packages you wish to install and press apply.
PCLinuxOS Zen Mini 2011 File Manager
The default file manager is Nautilus which you can launch at any time simply by double clicking on the computer or home folder icons which sit on the desktop. Other important locations on your computer can also be found inside the places tab of the main menu. Nautilus is famed for its simplicity and reliability. The interface is well designed and highly customizable, and it looks good with the default window theme. When the Nautilus window opens you will have a number of important locations on your system listed on the left hand panel, there is also a useful toolbar along the top of the screen. Nautilus is highly stable and offers top level reliability for connecting to servers and devices.
PCLinuxOS Zen Mini 2011 Themes
Zen Mini offers a number of exceptionally stylish window themes that will offer your desktop a new look whenever you wish. As usual you can reach your desktop settings by right clicking on the desktop and clicking on the change desktop background option from the popup menu, then you can select the themes tab from the top of the window. The default theme appears to be a custom theme created for Zen Mini and it goes perfectly with the wallpaper and many applications in my opinion. Pressing customize at the bottom of the themes window gives you the ability to create and save your own themes exactly as you prefer, mouse pointers, icons, and all the rest.
PCLinuxOS Zen Mini 2011 Wallpapers
As mentioned above you can change your desktop background at any time by right clicking on an empty spot on the desktop, and clicking on the change desktop background option. Unfortunately only the default theme is available, but there are still many options for you to spice up your desktop if the Zen look is not your thing, I love it however! After opening the appearance preferences window just click get more backgrounds online to search through a variety of unique wallpapers. After making your selection you have the ability to zoom, scale, center, style and stretch your images to fit your needs, this allows you to experience a lot of different looks.
PCLinuxOS Zen Mini 2011 Synopsis
Zen Mini also delivers exciting 3D effects using Drak3D and Compiz Fusion. This allows you to experience the rotating 3D desktop cube, enhanced window transparencies, wobbly windows, and much more. And to make all of your settings easier to find, you can find an icon that says configure your compute in the Gnome panel. This will open the PCLinuxOS Control Center where many of your options and settings can be configured from one location. All said, the stability and integrity of this distribution deserves far more recognition than I can offer. Be sure to try Zen Mini today!
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