Call me Relieved..

Story: MEPIS founder clarifies MEPIS/Ubuntu relationshipTotal Replies: 12
Author Content
devnet

Feb 18, 2007
3:26 PM EDT
[sarcasm]Boy,

I sure was wondering about this. This was an itch that needed to be scratched. Plus, the zen of Warren has graced my knowlege banks now with this fantastic nugget:[/sarcasm]

Quoting:I took pieces available in the Debian pools and created a unique user experience or, if you will, artistic expression.


MEPIS and artistic expression are two words I don't find colliding in the same sentence.

jimf

Feb 18, 2007
3:34 PM EDT
Watsa matter devnet? You don't like pyramids ;-)...
tuxtom

Feb 18, 2007
5:27 PM EDT
I've yet to find a perfect distro, but MEPIS has been my desktop for the past 2 1/2 years. I've tried just about everything else and it is the only one that comes the closest to my needs...albeit with some customization. There's a reason it's up there on distrowatch. (PCLinuxOS is catching up fast, though!!!)
bigg

Feb 18, 2007
6:07 PM EDT
Gotta agree, this wasn't keeping me up at night. I guess the determination of what is newsworthy is subjective.
number6x

Feb 19, 2007
4:19 AM EDT
I've found mepis to be a great distro for people switching from Windows.

I'm debian biased, because of years of working with debian (although I've been spending more time using Slackware derivatives lately).

PCLOS could be the next best. If you want to create your own live cd's, PCLOS is hands down the easiest.

This is just my opinion. If I had a Red Hat background and had more rpm experience, I would probably prefer PCLOS over mepis for switchers. My experience with one platform over the other just leads to a slightly higher comfort level.

Zenwalk is about the most perfect distro for my personality, but doing a major upgrade on a Slackware based distro is a lesson in details and patience (its often easier to back up data and re-install a new version than to try to upgrade).
jdixon

Feb 19, 2007
4:40 AM EDT
> doing a major upgrade on a Slackware based distro is a lesson in details and patience (its often easier to back up data and re-install a new version than to try to upgrade).

Well, Patrick has always stated that that's the preferred method for upgrading Slackware. Why should the derivatives be any different? And while I've sometimes managed an upgrade without performing a clean install, I've found that clean installs are normally better. With the large hard drives available nowadays, it's not that hard to backup everything you need before reinstalling. It's even easier if you keep /home, /usr/local, and possibly /var/spool on a separate partition.
herzeleid

Feb 19, 2007
8:43 AM EDT
Quoting: tuxtom: I've yet to find a perfect distro, but MEPIS has been my desktop for the past 2 1/2 years.
tuxtom, I could have sworn that you used windoze on the desktop, not linux. Is the mepis just a vmware instance, or something like that?
devnet

Feb 19, 2007
9:32 PM EDT
All I know is that I used MEPIS before it was cool to use it (2003.06 anyone?) and it left a rancid taste in my mouth...mainly from the censorship and inability to take criticism from it's own community members.

BTW everyone...this RPM vs. Debian thing is a piss poor excuse for using a distro. I started on slackware, I've used gentoo, I've installed and configured PC-BSD, I've done the Red Hat and CentOS jig...overall, it's Linux. It shouldn't matter if its a deb or an rpm...especially nowadays since we have yum and apt4rpm. So using that excuse and a subway token will get you on the subway...
jimf

Feb 19, 2007
10:50 PM EDT
> it left a rancid taste in my mouth

I understand, still, I just tried the latest 6.5 beta from Mepis. It's a nice build, and a good place for a noob to learn the basics.

> 2003.06 anyone?

As you well remember ;-)

> RPM vs. Debian thing is a piss poor excuse for using a distro

Perhaps... The gap in relibility and handeling of relationships has closed considerably. Still, I think the Debian packaging retains a slight edge. Perhaps enough to advise it over rpm. In any case, It's my first choice.

number6x

Feb 20, 2007
9:34 AM EDT
devnet,

I didn't rpm vs. .deb in the sense of a vi vs. emacs kind of thing, but more a measure of experience producing a level of comfort.

If I had used an rpm distro like Red Hat or Mandrake for many years, I would probably lean a little more towards PCLOS than to Mepis. Since I have used debian for many years, I lean a little more towards Mepis. I guess I'm not good at conveying my thoughts.

I'm not saying one is better than the other, but that my experience with debian gives me a greater level of comfort with mepis than I have with PCLOS. That's why I tend to suggest mepis to friends looking to switch. I used to push Libranet on them. Libranet was far superior to mepis.

I also used Suse as my 'commercial' desktop for many years. Because of Yast, I never really had to deal with rpm's even though SuSE uses them. So I never developed the experience that would lead to a greater level of comfort.

Our experience level can lead to a bias. It does not mean that one system is better than the other, but easier for us to live with and use.

That said, my laptop is running Zenwalk (a Slackware derivative) and my Desktop is debian with XFCE. I think the desktop was first installed with Libranet and had IceWM on it. For servers I usually install debian. I should learn more about Fedora I guess.

jdixon

Feb 20, 2007
10:40 AM EDT
> I should learn more about Fedora I guess.

Fedora is OK for learning about Red Hat, but it's not designed to be a stable distribution, so I wouldn't recommend it for servers. It's probably better as a desktop/testing distribution. If you want to play with Red Hat without the fees, take a look at CentOS.
devnet

Feb 20, 2007
10:59 AM EDT
We use CentOS at work here...we also use Debian Testing (or at least I do) because I like-a the apt :)

I feel quite good that I can go from using Gentoo, Slack, Debian, and CentOS and not be hindered at all or inconvenienced the least bit. I hope more people can do the same...it beneficial for Linux in general.
number6x

Feb 20, 2007
1:00 PM EDT
Thanks for the tip.

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