The latest version of PCLinuxOS LXDE can be downloaded from Softpedia

Apr 15, 2014 09:53 GMT  ·  By

PCLinuxOS LXDE 2014.04, a free and easy-to-use Linux-based operating system for desktops or laptops based on LXDE, is now available for download.

The developers of PCLinuxOS have released a new version of the famous Linux distribution, featuring LXDE, one of the lightest desktop environments available right now. Even if the system is perfectly capable of running on modern computers, this particular version of PCLinuxOS is aimed at low-end hardware.

“The ‘Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment’ is an extremely fast-performing and energy-saving desktop environment. Maintained by an international community of developers, it comes with a beautiful interface, multi-language support, standard keyboard short cuts and additional features like tabbed file browsing.”

“LXDE uses less CPU and less RAM than other environments. It is especially designed for cloud computers with low hardware specifications, such as netbooks, mobile devices (e.g. MIDs) or older computers,” reads the official announcement.

PCLinuxOS LXDE 2014.04 is based on Linux kernel 3.12.16, which is actually a long-term support version. This is not the latest one available, but this version of the kernel has proved to be quite reliable and stable. The fact that it's an LTS release also means that it will continue to receive updates for some time.

The developers implemented a number of important features and changes. For example, NVIDIA and ATI fglrx support has been added (this includes proprietary drivers that perform well in intensive applications, like games), multimedia playback support has been enabled for many popular formats, wireless support has been added for many network devices, users get improved printer support for many local and networked printer devices, and Addlocale allows users to convert PCLinuxOS into over 60 languages.

Also, the LibreOfficeManager has been implemented and users can install LibreOffice with support for over 100 languages, MyLiveCD has been added and it allows users to take a snapshot of the current installation and burn it to a LiveCD/DVD, and PCLinuxOS-liveusb will permit users to install PCLinuxOS on a USB key disk.

A number of other smaller applications were also added: BleachBit, evince, Firefox, flash-player-plugin, GIMP, gpicview, Simpleburn, leafpad, lxdecc, DeadBeef, nano, pcmanfm, screenie, Umplayer, sylpheed, and xchat.

The system requirements for PCLinuxOS LXDE 2014.04 are also quite low: an Intel or AMD processor, minimum 384 MB of RAM, 3 GB of HDD space, and an NVIDIA, ATI HD4000, or Intel GPU.

More details about this Linux distribution can be found in the official changelog. You can download PCLinuxOS LXDE 2014.04 right now from Softpedia.