MEPIS Linux Loses Another Support Site

I don't know Warren personally and I can only guess his motives, but I believe Devnet hinted at what may come to be found as the truth...Commercial and Corporate Income. Not a bad thing in the grand scheme...I don't begrudge anyone the right to make a living at his trade or talent. However, there are potentially millions of people who will now see that "the open source philosophy" is no longer fully embraced by Mepis et al. Pity...while I try not to get bogged down in the politics and philosophies of Linux, there are times when you simply just have to take a stand. I think you screwed up Warren. While Jason and I may have had our rather loud and heated disagreements in the past, I have nothing but respect for his work and sacrifice in bringing us what he did.

I personally hope Warren the best in his efforts...he has expanded the Linux Universe with Mepis and is to be applauded...but the applause is dying and I am afraid with this most recent move I detect some shallow breathing coming from Mepis.

Helios

Hi Helios,

This is sort of what was nagging me when I posted in:

http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/14546/

For the record, I did not really expect my fears to come true. And it's still too early to say anything difinitive.

I should explain that I did not respond to your request to elaborate because I did not really have a good argument. Just a nagging feeling.

At the time of my post, I never in my wildest dreams expected Warren to completely blow off a trusted and talented DevTeam...I'm still a bit conflicted about it...but then again, I am not heavily involved in Mepis so I probably miss or skirt some of the important factors. Like I said, the political drama gets to be a bit much. Being involved as the founder of a new website and an effort to bring developers and users together, I have been focused on that and have probably let some important events slip by. This thing with Jason's site was a strong jolt.

As an aside, we have been instrumental in the migration of Linux and OpenOffice for two seperate schools. We have seen PCLinuxOS adopted as their preferred OS and I must say I am pleased. A point of contention was raised when we were trying to decide which alternate distro we would offer if PCLOS was not suitable for some reason. Mepis was "vigorously" discussed and dropped in favor of Kubuntu. Seems a combination of fate and intuition intervened in that decision. I am not suggesting the line form for a Mepis Death March...but immediate treatment for a severe injury is certainly in order.

The first time I heard about Mepis and tried it out, I loved it. For some reason, I also had the feeling that Mepis is a commercial, not for sharing distro. Well the latest news confirmed that. I too have no problem with making a living out of talent, but not sharing and only taking is not right (in my opinion). To tell the truth, Kubuntu is far better on the long run. It is as good as Mepis, if not better technically, but far more in-line with FOSS. The only thing I see Mepis better than Kubuntu is the install from LiveCD. Mepis is easy and very quick. I am sure Kubuntu will be there if not further ahead give it time. For some reason, couple weeks ago, I wiped out Mepis of my test machine and replaced it with Kubuntu. I must have known something without realizing it. Any ways, my good machine has Suse. Like I said, I have nothing against commercial products as long as it is in-line with FOSS.

I tried Kubuntu recently but I think it still has a ways to go (no GIMP, firefox or thunderbird). You might try Kanotix for a great Debinan based system that is much more polished than Kubuntu, IMO. You can install from the live CD.

I have tried PCLinux, Kanotix (Pretty good but didn't spend much time with it). I like Kubuntu for the spirit. True, it needs a lot more polish, but don't forget, it has been out only for few months. I used Synaptic on Kubuntu, it worked great. I did updates periodically and it is fantastic (forget Windows). I do recall I had to download FF, FB and it was not a big deal to install. I make use of InkScape more than GIMP. I am sure they will have those very soon. Isn't FOSS great, you don't like one, you find another.