out. Warrens mistake came when MEPIS switched to an Ubuntu core from Debian
and back to Debian all in the same year. This took users on a roller coaster
ride and many like me stuck with Ubuntu rather than switch back to Debian.
There have a few other missteps, IMO. They stuck with KDE 3.5 too long
before they supported KDE 4.x. I have followed the distro quite closely and
always have it on my computer, but not as my daily distribution.
MEPIS is primarily a KDE distribution whereas Ubuntu uses GNOME. Kubuntu
would be a better comparison. MEPIS is based on Debian stable whereas
Kubuntu is based on Debian sid (unstable). This means that Kubuntu's repos
are fresher, meaning that the versions of Kubuntu applications are newer.
The development cycle of Ubuntu is slow and follows no timetable. Kubuntu
follows a six month cycle. Kubuntu is more strictly based on KDE. It has
most OTB KDE apps such as Kmail for email. MEPIS installs Firefox and
Thunderbird and therefore is more customised. Also MEPIS has several
utilities of its own that are not part of any other distribution.
SimplyMEPIS is comparable to PCLinuxOS which is an RPM* KDE distribution in
that they are both small distributions with one main developer who happen to
know each other. PCLOS is a fork of Mandrake (now Mandriva) and MEPIS was
made with Mandrake in mind, but has always been a Debian distro. The big
difference between MEPIS and PCLOS (aside from package management) is that
MEPIS has both 32 and 64 bit versions and PCLOS is only 32-bit.
I think that users who do not mind a slower pace, like a small community,
have modest application needs and just want something that works well should
give SimplyMEPIS a try. Users who want the latest and greatest, use lots of
unusual applications, like tailoring their desktop and like a fixed
development cycle should stick with Kubuntu.
* (For those unfamiliar with package management, there are several different
package management systems, the two biggest are DEB and RPM. DEB is used by
Debian based systems and RPM is used by Red Hat based systems (Fedora,
Mandriva, openSuSE, etc.). DEB based systems use apt and RPM uses a variety
of front ends or engines, such as yum, yast/zypper and urpmi. More
distributions use RPM, but DEBs are more commonplace now due to the success
of Ubuntu, Mint and Debian derivatives like MEPIS. PCLOS confuses things
further by installing RPMs with apt. )
Roy
Using Kubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, 64-bit
Location: Canada
On 24 October 2010 09:44, Scott <scottro@nyc.rr.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 12:48:24PM -0000, papasmurf wrote:
> > HI FOLKS:
>
>
> > Followed this Top Five Mistakes thread closly. Found it interesting, even
> though, most of the time, your're talking WAY over my head. One thing I did
> notice: No mention was made of Mepis-Linux; Good or Bad. Stumbled upon their
> website awhile back; am considering this as my desktop choice, when ready to
> 'make the plunge'.
>
> Don't worry about it being over your head. It's like beginning
> anything--at the beginning, you have no clue, and gradually, bits and
> pieces start to make sense. Then, as time passes, without you noticing,
> you're the one giving the answers.
>
> > NOT intending to start another 'flame war' here; just expressing my own
> personal opinion....which I notice just about EVERY Linux user does very
> often[Exercising Free Will and Opinions are like butts: Everybody HAS one,
> ROFL!]. TTFN.....Old Tom aka papasmurf in NH
>
> I really like Mepis (and Antix.) They would have been Ubuntu had Ubuntu
> not happened. Seriously, Warren became ill, then Ubuntu came out, and
> that's why it didn't become more popular.
>
> They have a very good forum, with developers being quick to participate
> and help even the newcomers. They have good hardware support and like
> many others, focus on making it accessible to newcomers. They're also
> based on Debian. They were one of the first, and one of the best when
> they started, at making it accessible. I remember in their early days,
> hanging out on their forums and giving my Debian wisdom, which I had at
> the time. :)
>
> Then, as I said, Warren became ill, which slowed development, and also,
> Ubuntu came on the scene. Still, it's certainly a good recommendation
> for beginners.
>
> --
> Scott Robbins
> PGP keyID EB3467D6
> ( 1B48 077D 66F6 9DB0 FDC2 A409 FA54 EB34 67D6 )
> gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys EB3467D6
>
> Xander: Calm may work for Locutus of the Borg here, but I'm
> freaked out, and I intend to stay that way.
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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