I have tried Mepis and it is a nice distro and may well have the nicest folks on their forums.

Mepis version 11 has been around a while and version 12 has taken longer to be finished than some folks are happy with.

From what I understand, Mepis is a one man show, developed by a gentleman named Warren, for his own use.

I tried Mepis 11 64 bit version and would still be using it but my motherboard doesn't do well with any Debian based distros.

A look at Distrowatch finds Mepis way down the list, where it shouldn't be.

I'm not sure why I posted this but if anyone has any thoughts (other than "you're a troll" lol), have at it.

I tried it when it was new and pretty ragged, then jumped back to Debian when it failed me. I thought that it had great promise even then, but have never had time to go back and look.

I need far more server than desktop stuff, but if I had a desktop to give away it would more likely be Mepis than Ubuntu. As much as I like and support Ubuntu and Canonical, I would not wish them on a new desktop user (and that appears their primary target population).

Mepis broke me into using Linux. Never really got a good handle on using the new KDE though in the later releases. Even though Warren and the guys there massaged it. Moved on to AntiX. Another one man show with a good group of people.

Nice thing is I can cruise Mepis or AntiX forums and be welcome there. Mepis 12 will be done when it is done. I think they are wrestling with UEFI Windows 8 computers mostly with the installer.

It has a loyal following. Sometimes small communities with a helpful user base is more preferable to me than lets say a thread posted at Ubuntu forums where a thread can get buried in minutes.

Mepis and AntiX forums have taught me more about using Linux on a personal level more than any other
medium for this clueless Linux using Biker. They have some smart cookies there that know their distro and computers in general. Besides being polite AND fun loving.

Posting from
which is 64bit AntiX alpha 2.

Maybe because it isn't "exciting" enough? Or because it doesn't come with "the latest and greatest?" I don't know, but it's one of the most solid, dependable distros I've used. I'm sometimes a bit surprised more people don't use it, too.

I passed on MEPIS because I'm not a fan of KDE. (I prefer Cinnamon and Xfce.) But when I installed Debian (actually Snowlinux) on an ancient P4 laptop, I made sure to add the MEPIS repositories. So I ended up getting the desktop environment I wanted, plus the packages like Firefox that are available through MEPIS. Best of both worlds!

Like rokytnji, I started with Mepis as my first linux distro, back around 2006, after I couldn't find help at ubuntu forums. Mepis forum support is superb, and gracious, which spoiled me. Eventually I had to leave Mepis because it didn't (yet) support a capability I needed. Every time I upgrade distro I consider going back, but for now I'm using another distro which is quite solid and benefits from its much larger, tho cantankerous, user base.

I like Mepis for when I need a quick and easy installation, like when I'm trying Linux out on a new (or, "new to me") computer.

I used Mepis for a long time as my "primary" distro in my multi-boot set-ups, but finally went to Debian for that, this past year.

Mepis is still my favorite to use for live sessions. Very convenient to have around.

I wasn't particularly aware of Mepis, but I am now so I'll grab it and install it in a VM for a play.
Being based on Debian Stable does worry me a little, since things like NVIDIA drivers will be old, but I like to know of a few good distros I can install and/or recommend.

I'm just in the process of changing distros... but can't decide which way to go. I used Mepis a couple of years ago and have to say it is the nicest KDE distro and the nicest forum of any distro. But like others have mentioned i prefer xfce rather than bloated kde. One could install the xfce desktop but i don't like the kde apps basically.

I am looking at the mepis' sister AntiX but haven't learnt enough about it yet. The main distros seem to have gone through a bad patch this year and tbh i want to change one last time. Debian i find outdated (e.g. Emacs 24 has been out for 6-8 months) and may get into the debian repos in another six months. Other distros it's already there.

What I liked to do with Mepis (and what I now do with Debian) is have at least one other more up-to-date distro running. Then I've always got the more stable Mepis or Debian to fall back on if I really need it. That approach isn't for everyone, but I'll probably never go back to running only a single distro -- in my opinion, too many advantages to dual- or multi-booting.

Trying to wait patiently for the next Mepis release... no news about that yet.

1. There are far too many GOOD distributions to worry about this greatly.
2. I would not focus on those statistics. They have some value, but do not well reflect the real world.
3. Perhaps it is time for a co-distro or spinoff. MepisX perhaps, with XFCE or even thinner and more efficient desktop for more minimalist users? (Mepis-Fu using EvilX desktop, for the truly existential users? Perhaps not.)

Some distributions allow you choice, so you can pick the X-windows/X-Org base and the desktop (gnome, xfce, fluxbox, kde, etc.) during the install. This always complicates things, and it would not bother me if the Mepis maintainers want to avoid the complication. (Would be nice though!)

At the moment quite a few distros seem to be going through a bad patch. *buntu and Fedora particularly. I think many have tried to do too many desktops and haven't been able to cope with the workload... in addition to 6 month releases with the above mentioned.

I've been spending some time this last couple of weeks trying to decide which way to go and i'm going to do a Slack and Arch install and see which i prefer.

I notice wpeckham that you use centos. I've just been looking at that but for a desktop one has got to enable rpmforge which is not that stable apparently on Centos. I liked Centos; reliable as a server but i was unconvinced with enabling different repos to do updates. I wish i had a LUG locally to go to and discuss such things.

Back when I first dove headfirst into the Linux world, SimplyMepis 6.5 was one of the first distros I got into. While quite nice and user-friendly, there were a few things that didn't quite work for me. I also found that it really didn't offer anything more, different, or incredibly unique to justify straying away from some of the bigger names out there, especially since its development cycle at the time was slower.

At the time PCLOS2007 just came out, and I was installing that on more first timers' desktops than Mepis, since I found it friendlier and better OOTB.

Also, they changed their base and repos from Debian, to Ubuntu, and back again, which caused upgrade issues.

Personally, I switched to Arch for my home tower simply to learn more about linux, and stuck with that for awhile, ignoring all other distros. I install Kubuntu LTS on my workstations at work because of the more proven stability.

I find that Linux Mint pretty much does everything Mepis set out to do, and received all the accolades and fame for it, which is probably why Mepis isn't that popular anymore.

While I've tried Mepis in the past and have nothing bad to say about it, those of us who've been around for a while tend to prefer distributions that are not a one man show, simply because there's only so much one guy can do as far as updates and bug fixes go. Support, in other words, can be iffy.

Very true. I think that one-man distros, or distros with small dev teams, are very important to the Linux world, but as time has gone by I've noticed that I tend to avoid them, for many of the same reasons that guyonearth mentioned above.