PC/OS Future Releases

PC/OS, PC/OS Appliance and PC/OS Minimal Install CD and PC/OS Server will solely be based on LTS releases. For right now 8.04 being the LTS will get the support of maintenance packs. There will only be a DVD and Appliance version of PC/OS 8.10 that will recieve all Maintenance Packs and no support options whatsoever except forum support, these interim releases will help build up to the LTS releases.

1. Why am I going this route?

No one has come on wanting to be a developer or to assist in the production of PC/OS. Im recieving minimal to no financial support Im one man and I cant support 5 different versions of PC/OS. I have a day job and I cant give that up to work on PC/OS solely, maybe someday but that someday is not today.

2. Does this mean PC/OS is dead?

No, the project will live on but I have to stabilize the releases and as one man I cant keep up with the thousands of Canonical developers without jepardizing my day job and I have to be able to support site hosting etc. Things will slow down a bit tho.

3. You just created PC/OS to try and make money!!!!!

Also untrue, I created PC/OS to create a Linux distribution that everyone can contribute to and that the average user can use. From the reviews and from the feedback I have recieved I have achieved that goal. People wanted a ufw GUI frontend and they got it, people wanted a Media Center solution and they got it, people wanted easy to use server management tools via Webmin and other tools shipped with server and they got it. try getting Canonical, Red Hat or Novell to listen to their users, they dont and they could care less. For example, users want multimedia codecs and playback to work out of the box, do the others do it? No. People want a user friendly experience and with PC/OS they got it. I also have to listen to my contributing users who use PC/OS in production environments who dont want to update every 6 months. Servers dont get updated every 6 months and I am not going to congest the download servers with OS releases no ones going to use. Im having a hard time getting people to test 8.04 Server because they inform me they are happy with 7.10.2 server. The plan to roll out new ISO images every 6 months will keep going as well.

You can get PC/OS commercial support for 7.10.2 and for 8.04 as well as forum support and I will gladly give e-mail support. I get close to 80 e-mails a day regarding PC/OS so if you e-mail me please be patient or ask in the forums. For users who have bought PC/OS merchandise through Cafepress, thank you very much.

Packages for PC/OS 8.04 Media Center has been released

I have been asked by PC/OS Users that own media center hardware if they can still use their PC/OS machines as a media center.  I have often referred them to Elisa in the Ubuntu repositories but today I have released the PC/OS 8.04 Media Center Extension.  This adds Elisa and all the codecs necessary to have a working Media Center out of the box.  I released it as an ISO so that all you have to do is burn the CD and install via CD-ROM.  Im looking at doing the same with MythTV.  These will never be part of the base ISO because not everyones hardware who runs PC/OS may have the horsepower so users will need the seperate ISO. To install view the readme for instructions.  You can get The PC/OS 8.04 Media Center frrom the downloads section on the pc-os.org website.

BTW, this is only for PC/OS 8.04 ONLY.  It will not work with PC/OS 7.10.2.  Im not planning a PC/OS 7.10.2 release.