Getting to know you, MEPIS...

Hi! It's me again. I've finally been able to setup MEPIS to work in a slightly similar way to my Kubuntu setup.

You heard it right. I'm a Kubuntu user. But for quite some time now, I've been curious about MEPIS. It has been one of the most recommended Debian/KDE-based desktop Linux distros in the Ubuntu community. And now that it's Ubuntu-based, it's even more recommended to those who really just want some stuff out of the box. But multimedia codecs or default install stuff isn't the real reason why I've been curious about MEPIS, but rather looking for a really good KDE-based desktop Linux distro. And while Kubuntu has many things going for it, there are still some areas that I'm not quite satisfied with. Some of these things, I think, are met by MEPIS.

Anyway, enough about that. I'm really here to ask some things about MEPIS. Not about how to do this or that, but more about MEPIS' uniqueness or character. Simply put, what makes MEPIS unique and what makes MEPIS tick? Hope I'm posting in the right place. The section says it's for people new to MEPIS...

1. What makes MEPIS special or unique (aside from the pre-installed codecs and plugins)? Now that it's based on Ubuntu, I'm even more curious as to what MEPIS has to offer.

2. Repositories: I noticed that MEPIS both has its own repository and also Ubuntu's repositories. How does that work? What does the MEPIS repository contain? How often is it updated? For example, KDE 3.5.4 was released for Kubuntu. But it seems I can't install that without disabling the MEPIS repository.

3. How is MEPIS developed? Is it primarily a one-man effort? What I heard before was that Mr. Woodford makes his own scripts for MEPIS (whatever they are...)? Are there other developers besides him? How involved is the community? I'm a little bit wary of one-man distros because it's fate greatly depends on the fate of that one man...

Sorry for such long questions. I'm basically trying to get a picture of MEPIS' identity. Thanks for taking the time!

1. Good hardware compatibility. OnTheGo, to take your desktop with you on a USB drive. An initial configuration and package selection that I just happen to personally like. Some nice utilities.

2. The mepis repository just has a few extra utilities, configuration settings and the onthego stuff. It shouldn't have anything to do with KDE 3.5.4 because there are no KDE packages in it. I don't think 3.5.4 is in the normal ubuntu repos, you have to add special ones: http://kubuntu.org/announcements/kde-354.php

3. I know very little about that, but it does seem to be mostly Warren. I wouldn't worry about that though considering how easy it is to switch over to kubuntu or debian -- if he's assassinated by anti-mepis dissidents tomorrow just change your repositories and do a dist-upgrade.

1. OnTheGo. sounds nice. have to discover it.
Anything else?

2. I browsed the repo (http://apt.mepis.org/6.0/pool/). Found a few stuff in there. KDE 3.5.3 is there, though.

3. I see. But I wouldn't be switching to MEPIS from Kubuntu if there's a prospect/possibility that I would have to go back to Kubuntu... Anyway, I'm also really interested in community involvement in the project, and of other developers.

Thanks for your input. Still waiting for some more. ;D

[ko]

Originally Posted by Jucato

1. OnTheGo. sounds nice. have to discover it.
Anything else?

2. I browsed the repo (http://apt.mepis.org/6.0/pool/). Found a few stuff in there. KDE 3.5.3 is there, though.

3. I see. But I wouldn't be switching to MEPIS from Kubuntu if there's a prospect/possibility that I would have to go back to Kubuntu... Anyway, I'm also really interested in community involvement in the project, and of other developers.

Thanks for your input. Still waiting for some more. ;D

Hi,

1. What makes MEPIS special or unique (aside from the pre-installed codecs and plugins)? Now that it's based on Ubuntu, I'm even more curious as to what MEPIS has to offer.

I'd say a well-balanced selection of real useful apps, very well preconfigured, a good hardware-detection, nice installer, some real good Mepis-tools, a very dedicated -and helpful- owner/developer of Mepis, a nice user-community (both here and on the www.mepis.org forum), what more do you want.........:-)

2. Repositories: I noticed that MEPIS both has its own repository and also Ubuntu's repositories. How does that work? What does the MEPIS repository contain? How often is it updated? For example, KDE 3.5.4 was released for Kubuntu. But it seems I can't install that without disabling the MEPIS repository.

AS I wrote to you earlier, that's because the Mepis repo has been pinned with a higher priority than 'anything ubuntu', and since the Mepis repo contains the KDE 3.5.3 stuff you cannot install KDE 3.5.4 stuff from a Kubuntu repo UNLESS you disable the Mepis repo OR changes the pinning priorities in etc/apt/preferences.
It works very well, thank you very much..:-). Better even than regularly updating Kubuntu 6.06.....

3. How is MEPIS developed? Is it primarily a one-man effort? What I heard before was that Mr. Woodford makes his own scripts for MEPIS (whatever they are...)? Are there other developers besides him? How involved is the community? I'm a little bit wary of one-man distros because it's fate greatly depends on the fate of that one man...

Mepis Development is primarily a one-man band, yes. Although there are now 2 people helping Warren. But also look at it from the bright side: you also have direct access on hardware-driver support problems and/or questions (provided they are properly phrased and after having done your homework yourself) by emailing him at dev@mepis.org. Personally I believe that some of the best distros are made/maintained by "one man bands": Mepis, Kanotix and PCLinuxOS.

Try emailing a Kubuntu-developer... I don't think Jonathan Rydel will reply. I never got a reply.

Sorry for such long questions. I'm basically trying to get a picture of MEPIS' identity. Thanks for taking the time!

No problem. Look around at www.mepis.org and www.mepis.com too. Plenty of material to get a feel for the distro and its surrounding community.

Regards, Ko

Originally Posted by ko

Hi,
I'd say a well-balanced selection of real useful apps, very well preconfigured, a good hardware-detection, nice installer, some real good Mepis-tools, a very dedicated -and helpful- owner/developer of Mepis, a nice user-community (both here and on the www.mepis.org forum), what more do you want.........:-)

It seems nothing more. ;D
I've found MEPIS out of the box to be faster than my Kubuntu even after a few tweaking. KDE also seems to be a bit stabler on MEPIS. SimplyMEPIS 6 is very, very tempting, right now. I'm just trying to adjust to the forum community. I was used to a very (probably extremely) active forum community in Ubuntuforums.org, so it might take time to adjust...

AS I wrote to you earlier, that's because the Mepis repo has been pinned with a higher priority than 'anything ubuntu', and since the Mepis repo contains the KDE 3.5.3 stuff you cannot install KDE 3.5.4 stuff from a Kubuntu repo UNLESS you disable the Mepis repo OR changes the pinning priorities in etc/apt/preferences.
It works very well, thank you very much..:-). Better even than regularly updating Kubuntu 6.06.....

I browsed the mepis repositories. Not really that much in there, right? How often is it updated, btw? And does Warren add new packages anytime or is there some sort of a release schedule and development process?

Mepis Development is primarily a one-man band, yes. Although there are now 2 people helping Warren. But also look at it from the bright side: you also have direct access on hardware-driver support problems and/or questions (provided they are properly phrased and after having done your homework yourself) by emailing him at dev@mepis.org. Personally I believe that some of the best distros are made/maintained by "one man bands": Mepis, Kanotix and PCLinuxOS.

If you put it that way, it does seem to be a very good argument. Never knew that PCLOS was a one-man team effort.

But how involved is the community in MEPIS' development? Or are they involved at all?

Try emailing a Kubuntu-developer... I don't think Jonathan Rydel will reply. I never got a reply.

Haven't tried e-mailing him. But he did respond in IRC. I'm not sure but I think that's their preferred mode of Q&A. (Btw, it's Jonathan Riddell)

No problem. Look around at www.mepis.org and www.mepis.com too. Plenty of material to get a feel for the distro and its surrounding community.

Regards, Ko

Btw, there's something that has confused me since I saw MEPIS: what's the difference between mepis.com and mepis.org?

And will the contents of the old forums be transferred here? I'm thinking that there might be some stuff there that can't be found here. But I'm guessing that most SimplyMEPIS 6 topics are here.

Thanks again for your time!

But how involved is the community in MEPIS' development? Or are they involved at all?

From what I've seen, the community is very active in bug squashing and beta testing new versions. I've also noticed that the community often helps in making suggestions on how Mepis can be improved.

Btw, there's something that has confused me since I saw MEPIS: what's the difference between mepis.com and mepis.org?

From what I remember, mepis.com used to be more of the corporate/businessy type website and mepis.org was the development site. Since then they've been merged into one site, however.

And will the contents of the old forums be transferred here? I'm thinking that there might be some stuff there that can't be found here. But I'm guessing that most SimplyMEPIS 6 topics are here.

I remember someone saying a while back that it would be a bit too much work to move everything from the old forums into the new ones. But I do believe the old forums will be kept for archival purposes. Maybe one of the mods can answer this better than me...

[ko]

Originally Posted by Jucato

[...............]
1. Btw, there's something that has confused me since I saw MEPIS: what's the difference between mepis.com and mepis.org?

2. And will the contents of the old forums be transferred here? I'm thinking that there might be some stuff there that can't be found here. But I'm guessing that most SimplyMEPIS 6 topics are here.

Thanks again for your time!

1. Mepis.com handles the business side of Mepis. Mepis.org handles the development/betatesteting/userforums/feedback/announcements, etc. They're run from the same server.

2. The old Mepislovers Forum will not be integrated or moved over into the new Forum. You still can access it, but not post there anymore. There is of course a direct link to it from this forum, just like the Mepis Wiki and the Hardware Database. The Mepis 6.0 betatesting stuff is mostly in the old forum.

Regards, Ko