tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post3015258001650565387..comments2024-03-26T17:37:35.499+00:00Comments on Linux notes from DarkDuck: Simply SimplyMEPIS 11.0DarkDuck (m)http://www.blogger.com/profile/06273784224243667602noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-31880441192864133002012-01-14T21:24:17.180+00:002012-01-14T21:24:17.180+00:00@Anonymous:
There's nothing wrong in Mepis, as...@Anonymous:<br />There's nothing wrong in Mepis, as I wrote. If you use it, and like it, that's great.<br />You're in Mepis' niche.<br />I am not, and my post was about it, wasn't it?DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-77048731246849228792012-01-14T03:34:37.429+00:002012-01-14T03:34:37.429+00:00I run Mepis. I don't care if it's not &quo...I run Mepis. I don't care if it's not "cutting edge," it works and I can get things done. Sometimes I want "boring" (not that it really is). <br /><br />Not every distro works on all hardware. But Mepis works on my Dell E1405 laptop and even have dual-screen working out of the box with v11 on my desktop.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-53654144802366414692012-01-13T22:26:28.522+00:002012-01-13T22:26:28.522+00:00@Anonymous3:
Spice, salt and uniqueness means that...@Anonymous3:<br />Spice, salt and uniqueness means that distribution should have its own face, easily distinguishable from others. Please wait for my next review. It will be a system with Debian roots, although not Debian itself. It is very similar in methods of working to Debian, hence to Mepis. But it has something which make it different.<br />About installations... There's good Russian proverb: "Don't tell me what I should do, and I won't tell you where you should go to". As soon as you started your recommendations about "what I should do", here is your address to go to: <a href="http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2011/06/why-do-i-do-live-system-reviews.html" rel="nofollow">Why do I do Live system reviews</a>. Take care!DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-17470031570283716082012-01-13T22:20:51.824+00:002012-01-13T22:20:51.824+00:00@m_pav:
I saw AUFS option in Unetbootin menu too. ...@m_pav:<br />I saw AUFS option in Unetbootin menu too. But there was no explanation, that's why I went into Default option. Anyway, I only have 1Gb memory on my laptop, so I would not get best results.<br />I did run 32-bit version, because of hardware. And I downloaded the ISO via official link. It means that either official link leads to old distribution, or 32-bit version has older kernel compared to 64-bit.<br />Having issues with wireless card and Synaptic in Live run, it would be tricky to investigate anything about community repositories. And here we have a vicious circle. I don't want to install a system which does not work for me (wireless in Live should work, otherwise how can I be sure it works in installed system?). And without installation I can't check how non-working things can be improved.<br />From my perspective, and I reflected this <a href="http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2011/06/why-do-i-do-live-system-reviews.html" rel="nofollow">in here</a>, system should work in Live run without additional tweaks. Otherwise it is just a piece of crap which only fanboys can pray on. It won't attract new users, especially newbies.DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-29201793070855197532012-01-13T22:10:26.188+00:002012-01-13T22:10:26.188+00:00@Anonymous2 (cowonjolt):
Thanks for your comment. ...@Anonymous2 (cowonjolt):<br />Thanks for your comment. I read your discussion about this post on forum.mepiscommunity.org. I think you're one of few who actually accept constructive critic. Others are just blindly decline any review if it does not shout "Mepis is the best". Mepis is not the best, neither it is the worst. It has its own niche of middle-level stable distros.DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-28888972866718004812012-01-13T22:07:36.012+00:002012-01-13T22:07:36.012+00:00@Anonymous1:
As I said, there's nothing wrong ...@Anonymous1:<br />As I said, there's nothing wrong with SimplyMEPIS. It is a decent distribution which you can work with. But for my taste, it is too bland.DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-27124871021560158442012-01-13T14:02:37.975+00:002012-01-13T14:02:37.975+00:00I've been using Mepis for nearly six years (no...I've been using Mepis for nearly six years (now on 11.0.0.9 64bit). Although there are minor issues (not deal-breakers), it's solid and reliable, and totally configurable. No boring there, then. Perhaps DarkDuck could elaborate on what salt, spice and uniqueness would satisfy him/her.<br /><br />I've tried the latest Mint, Mageia, openSUSE, Fedora, dreamlinux, Arch, and one or two more: none come close.<br /><br />Had DarkDuck gone for a full install, and TESTED it properly, I'm sure the review would have been infinitely more positive.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-57012672549691727792012-01-13T09:39:10.399+00:002012-01-13T09:39:10.399+00:00I have run Mepis on all of my production machines ...I have run Mepis on all of my production machines for the last 6-7 years and I have to agree with you that Mepis is boring, at least for anybody that is looking for the next greatest thing, but Mepis is fantastic for those that have grown tired of all the distro hopping because it just works.<br /><br />The unetbootin derived grub screen you experienced lacks a critical component of the Mepis Live on thumb drive experience, so it's no surprise that you were stuck in a read-only live session. When run from a DVD, or a thumb drive created from the tools provided within the Mepis System Assistant to create a bootable thumb drive, you will see 4 menu entries, Default, AUFS, Troubleshooting, and Test_and_explore_hardware. Choosing aufs will give users a read-write system using the host systems ram, but they'll need at least 2GB to get a suitable experience, but once your RAM is full, it is lockdown city.<br /><br />Concerning the Live-media kernel version, The latest 64-bit DVD (SimplyMEPIS-small-DVD_11.0.09_64.iso) runs a 2.6.36-1-mepis64-smp kernel, not a 2.6.31.<br /><br />There is a trick to wireless connections with networkmanager, which I agree has to be addressed, the icon in the notification area is a tiny little dot that is near on impossible to see at any resolution and if you are clever enough to find it, a connection is impossible without first answering yes to kwallet twice, another item that IMHO requires attention. Couple this with an older kernel and the stable version of xorg and associated libraries, it's no wonder wireless can be an issue for some as this is in part responsible for the poorer hardware support, however if you have a lan cable handy, with a hard disk install, you can simply enable the community repos and get a 2.6.39 kernel which is all that is usually required to get most wireless adapters functioning after a reboot.<br /><br />Based on Debian stable, you have to expect the inevitable older packages and of course, hardware detection, but with the aid of the Community Repository and the immense flexibility of Mepis, it can be easily upgraded to keep up with the top of the pops distros and actually out-perform them as does my 18 month old production laptop.<br /><br />I have to admit that I do sometimes get a little frustrated by the limits of running older stable xorg and libraries because we lose out on the latest and greatest hardware support, but it is far more valuable to me to have a system I can absolutely trust to run my IT business and my home computers.<br /><br />Notes on the installer and portions of the aesthetically boring tool set are no indication of this distros suitability because in reality, users tend to install with intent to use, not repeat the install over and over again, however, compared to e.g. Ubuntus installer, it is lightning fast, taking only 2-3 minutes to do its work on semi-modern machines, altered only by the time it takes to format the partitions, with larger partitions obviously taking longer. Day to day usage is vastly more important to 99.99% of users than the installer or the tool set.<br /><br />Mike Pm_pavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05153070784856827371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-4389885628566129432012-01-13T02:05:43.454+00:002012-01-13T02:05:43.454+00:00DarkDuck, I have used Mepis since 2004 and have ro...DarkDuck, I have used Mepis since 2004 and have rode the ups and downs of it including the Ubuntu stint that I was totally against. Overall I find your review pretty fair for an initial run of the OS. However once it's updated to include the community repositories it starts to become a different duck altogether and the farther you push it the better it gets. My current Mepis-11 install is running kernel 3.1.0-1 pae and kde 4.7.4 and it's fast and furious... I would not trade for anything offered today and I have tried the latest Mint, Ubuntu, and Fedora and was not impressed with them compared to what I have. The wireless issue has persisted far to long in Mepis especially when a quick install of Wicd usually does the trick and if not Ceni will. Was not aware of your site here till I saw mention of this review with a link on our forum today. Take care, cowonjoltAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-87317152680341015092012-01-13T00:24:15.386+00:002012-01-13T00:24:15.386+00:00Mepis is not sexy, nor has it ever been leading/bl...Mepis is not sexy, nor has it ever been leading/bleeding edge. It is, however, stable, feature-rich and well-documented, as you said. If those are the attributes you seek, it would be a very good choice. Cosmetic items like colors and backgrounds are easy to change. Opinions differ, but I think it's one of the best KDE distros. While I have and will continue to try others, I have not been able to move completely away from Mepis. It's loaded on all of my computers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-31185192606854781002012-01-12T23:56:26.507+00:002012-01-12T23:56:26.507+00:00@someslack:
I have to agree with you about the fac...@someslack:<br />I have to agree with you about the fact that Mepis loses its positions. It is far from the top now, I am afraid.<br />But, as you confirmed, it is still stable, feature-rich and well-documented.DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-37862393161256304222012-01-12T23:39:10.927+00:002012-01-12T23:39:10.927+00:00I used to use Mepis as my main desktop in the past...I used to use Mepis as my main desktop in the past. I think it doesn't really make much sense as it did back then, when, compared to others, it was a user friendly, modern distribution. I think it somewhat lags behind now. It's still stable, thanks to debian's stable branch, but it's not as polished as other today's distros to attract Linux newcomers, nor does it make a lot of sense for power users that will probably just run plain Debian. Also, its installer and custom configuration tools look and feel dated.<br /><br />I think its strong points is stability, a fairly modern (functionally not aesthetically) and feature packed desktop (thanks to KDE), a well written user's manual, and a great dedicated and friendly community.<br /><br />PS. As for the network problems you mention, I generally tend not to trust Live sessions too much, so maybe a regular install might solve the issue? Or maybe there is some 'forbidden' firmware that is not utilized thanks to debian?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com