Mepis 12
Has anyone tried MEPIS 12, which is currently in alpha testing? How is it different from MEPIS 11?
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I'd stay away fron an alpha anything unless you're a glutton for punishment with masochistic tendencies.
Mepis 11 is perfectly good, but there are missing codecs and repositories to install. Mepis features great hardware compatibility. Mint, another similar distro, already has these built in with one click to install. There's an old saying in IT, "Don't get cut up by bleeding edge software." |
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As for Mint...I dislike what I've heard of Ubuntu's policy (treating users like children as a result of being very newbie-friendly, or so I'm told), and Distrowatch says Mint is Ubuntu-based, so I suppose its behavior is similar to Ubuntu's. Am I wrong?--I haven't actually tried Mint. I'm at an awkward intermediate stage of Linux experience: I don't want a newbie distro but am not prepared to handle advanced distros. Complicating my problem is that I like the Debian family and don't really want to leave it (mostly because I'm very comfortable with the apt package management system), but I sort of need to. The choices in the Debian family that I know of are fairly polarized: there's Debian proper, with its annoying installer (not difficult, just time-consuming), and almost everything else I know of is a newbie distro (MEPIS, Ubuntu, or an Ubuntu-based distro). I used to be perfectly happy with MEPIS, but that changed when MEPIS decided to use KDE 4. The only exception I know of is antiX; I use antiX, but only because I can't find another Debian-based distro that installs extremely fast and doesn't use KDE 4. I have little use for all the specialized software in antiX; I remove virtually all of it immediately after installation, and replace all its light window managers with KDE Trinity. I've been looking at other distros at Distrowatch lately, but haven't found one I like. (Going to examine CrunchBang.) This was my motive for posting this: a faint hope that MEPIS will stop forcing me to use KDE 4 (or find another distro). |
Mint etc
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Not all versions of mint are based on ubuntu. There is a debian based version. I would suggest not using any repositories labeled rawhide testing and so on. With debian, you can add, disable or remove repositories. I'd suggest adding synaptic or yumex. They'll make life much easier. Here's the link for the debian edition. http://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php Here's the link for mint 13, which is referred to as maya. It's plenty fast enough, especially with the lighter weight desktops. http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php I wouldn't totally rule out the main version of mint. It's far more organized then ubuntu will ever be. |
Hmm...isn't Ubuntu-based, doesn't use KDE. I'll take a look. I still hold a faint hope for the salvation of MEPIS, though.
By the way, Wolf, why do you use so many distros? Depending on whether "SuSe PC-BSD Mint" means three separate distros or a hybrid combination of them, you're using at least five distros and possibly seven. |
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There isn't going to be a perfect distro that comes out in which you love everything about it. Some setting, configuration, option, package manager, and or tweak will have to be modified because we are all unique and like different things. Your best bet would be to try an entire new flavor. Install a VM (virtual machine) and test out as many as your heart desires. Maybe even a couple live cd's and or usb's. I personally like diving in to new distros as much as possible, it helps me learn. Hope this helps |
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Hell...the Debian Mint ISO is DVD-sized. Does it happen to have a remastering tool? |
separate distros
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The first one I used when getting my certs was Mandrake with KDE. Everyone has that desktop which they just can't stand. In my case it is Gnome and Unity is even worse. Mint, however fixed Gnome, making it civilized. If you like debian, lmde is the way to go. Synaptic is the apt-get front end. I'd strongly suggest using it. I'd start with mate and/or cinnamon as the desktop. One cavaet is to only use the stable repositories and disable the experimental ones. I would do this before going online for the first time. As for myself, I'm using regular mint with Lxde, xfce, and KDE installed. My laptop is a lenovo 3000 N100 with 2 gigs of RAM and a 2.0 MHz core-duo + a Seagate hybrid drive. Its still faster then XP. Depending on who or what you are addressing, you can't get all hung up on any one distro. Users and their hardware differ. On my external USB hard drive, I have a nicely configured set-up with PC-BSD installed. This boots via the laptop. Its an orphan deserving a good home. |
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I run different distros just to learn new ways to install packages and how to get different things going. You will see me at the vector linux forums once in a while also. Another cool thing about multibooting. I can take a working /etc/fstab and etc/X11/xorg.conf and copy it over if need be to another install if I don't like the default install entries. Anyhows, I am also test running/installed this on my 9" M&A companion netbook and it is not half bad either for a Debian spinoff. http://main.solusos.com/showthread.p...-of-West-Texas repos were slow for me once though http://main.solusos.com/showthread.p...sos-com-server It has been the Only hiccup so far for me personally. I don't know though if you are a die hard kde type of guy though. KDE and me just can't seem to click. My fault mostly though. Window Managers and xfce and gnome 2 are ok for me. I tried out Trintity and Mate in my AntiX 11 Base install M/C shop media center desktop. Trinity and Mate though are slowly catching up though to the way kde 3.5 and gnome 2 work but are still a little rough around the edges. I uninstalled Trintity and kept Mate. But I use Fluxbox as default on slim log in on that Emachine dumpster find Tower because I have it dialed in the way I like it. Dumpster Computer What it looks like now |
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KDE or not
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Of course, all hope isn't lost. You can put lxde on MEPIS too. http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php?title=LXDE |
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I should mention this as well. I consider myself a complete pragmatist about computers and software (unlike the Debian Project people); what I mean is that I care only about how they will accomplish some work for me, so not only do I have no objection to non-free software, but I'm even skeptical about people or organizations that refuse to accept any non-free software. I consider them pig-headed and unnecessarily inflexible. So...I'm willing to use Debian proper, but its unique characteristics and its philosophy are lost on me. |
My attempt to try Mint did not work out well. Not only did i not get it installed on the hard drive; I couldn't boot into the GUI on the liveCD. First it gave an error message about trying to run two X sessions at once or something; then after asking whether I wanted to change the console number (?!), it went to the GUI login, which did not bother telling me what the password was. (A few guesses, which I shouldn't have to make, indicated it was neither "root" nor a blank password.) Very smart.
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Why not install Mepis 11 and then install Gnome through Synaptic? It comes with version 2.30 and is very stable. I use that setup myself on one of my desktops, and was able to go 140+ days without rebooting.
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Debian is a great option, I know it takes longer to install, but you only have to install it once, not that big of a deal. Otherwise, I've also used SalineOS for quite some time. Easy installation, comes with Xfce, otherwise it's pretty much like using Debian. And it looks like Crunchbang is another good Debian-based option. And I think Ubuntu is good, too, but I don't like using Linux Mint anymore. Good luck. |
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I am trying to get comfortable with Xfce. I've used KDE Trinity ever since MEPIS switched to KDE 4, but the more I use Trinity, the more I notice its subtle flaws; so I want to eventually abandon it. (It doesn't help that KDE Trinity, apparently having been designed by the creator of Kubuntu, behaves like a *buntu distro in certain ways.) |
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