Are there any retailers (online or off) known to offer MEPIS-equipped computers? It's easy to run, and it just became only the third distro to successfully run my wireless network; so selling MEPIS on retail computers sounds like a winner to me. I posted this in the middle of a thread in non-NIX general, but no one noticed.

I certainly haven't heard of any retailers doing that. I know that some "charitable" organizations (for lack of a better term) trade older machines with some kind of Linux-based OS's on them in exchange for in-kind labor.

Maybe if you yourself were to buy older, slower machines, those that people would use for simpler purposes like simple internet, simple word-processing, and so forth- and either give them away for in-kind labor (like, say, 24 hours of domestic work or something) or resell them for a reasonable profit, then you would have someone distributing MEPIS on machines.

Say, for instance, that there was a high school student who couldn't otherwise afford to get a machine. 24 hours at minimum wage=$180. Of course, if you want to pay more than minumum wage, you get less hours of in-kind work.

I have an ulterior motive for answering this, too, though the above is true- since you've had so much experience with MEPIS, could you look at my thread and help me out?

Check here.
http://tafusion.com/systembuilder.php

The "noob questions" thread? I would, but it doesn't ask anything I know the answer to. I also thought the fonts in Firefox were ugly, but I haven't done anything about them. By the way, those were newbie questions, not noob questions. As I understand it, a "noob" is a newbie who posts patently stupid or time-wasting messages. You insulted yourself unnecessarily.

Thanks, but this does not sound promising. One of these sites appears to be only a local computer maker in Maine; another is full of broken links; the third does not give enough information about the products and offers them at suspiciously cheap prices.

Ok, thanks. I'm so new to this that I didn't even know that. So can you help me open the WINE file? Or any file?

I guess I'm just a newbie then. It's great to have Office XP enslaved to MEPIS.

And this font still s***s. Or am I allowed to use the real words here?

As far the thought about machines coming loaded with MEPIS- you could put together a system from a barebones kit, with a competely empty hard drive, and load MEPIS on it. And/or you could recycle old macheines for a reasonable profit and buy the barebones kit with that...

http://www.mepis.org/node/10532
http://www.brittsystems.com/brittsystems/index.htm
You are right there isn't a long list of major resellers... yet.
Anyone with a spare $500,000 to invest, I have an idea...

Don't look at me--alls I got is about US$10000, and I need it to pay off student loans.

I just bought a used, wiped-to-DOD-standards box for $15 -- 128RAM, 6Gig HD, CD-ROM, floppy, 500mHz; and self-installing MEPIS CD for $14.95 (including shipping). Can't beat that.

Yes, there are a couple retailers now selling boxes (new) with MEPIS installed. I've seen ads on DistroWatch, as well as a notice about the $300 one with TAFusion (sp?) in the 'news' section of Mepis.org.

If you look at the page again you'll find that there are 3 OEMS that are selling systems. You can also find one that sells used laptops for only $199 and up. Those laptops are a great deal and come reconditioned and loaded with Frontier (the commerical MEPIS distro). You'll find that they have new batteries when needed. Try A & G computers for the used. I have an IBM T-23 from them and also a 64-bit PC from Britt Systems. I know that Gig-a-Bytes sells excellent Intel systems, although I perfer AMD for my desktop.

Hope this helps and we are adding them slowly but surely!