ndiswrapper is for wireless cards.

As far as the whole "which distro and why" discussion, it all boils down to "use what works for you".

My distro of choice is Slackware, not because it's inherently "better" but because it's better for me. I could spout off all of the reasons why I prefer Slack but they would realy only mean anything to me. They may or may not apply to you.

While I find Mepis (and Debian in general) to be a bit sluggish, Mepis is an excellently thought out and packaged distro. Warren and Co. are are shooting for an easy to install, easy to use distro for people migrating from windoze to Linux and they've done a superb job of it.

My perception of the "sluggishness" is due primarily to the fact that I use custom compiled software and configurations, not because of any problem with Mepis or Debian itself.

I like Mepis for what it is. I didn't care for Ubuntu when I tried it. As with all things "distro" it's just my personal impressions and opinions. I think my signature sums it up.

Mason,

I agree with you wholeheartedly. But by reading what others have to say about the different distros helps one make the big decision of which to try first. I, for one, enjoy reading what others think about the distros and why they chose the one they did.

Mepis and Ubuntu both work fine for me. What convinced me to install an Ubuntu partition over Mepis was the philosophy behind the distro. One wasn't inherently better than the other but Ubuntu has pledged to be always free, has newer packages, and actively contributes to debian because many of the developers are current debian contributors.

Go to the Mepis website and the Ubuntu website and read what the developers are trying to accomplish with their variation of linux. Make your own decision on which distro to use based on your own beliefs, experiences and objectives.

Good advice.

The reason there are so many distros is that differnt people want different things in the one they use.

My problem with Ubuntu is that I cannot seem to access any partition other than the one it is installed on.

This one thing is why I chose Mepis. If someone can get me over this hurdle with Ubuntu I'll be more than glad to give it another try.

Hi
I use Mepis because:
I like it.
It's easy to install.
It's easy to update.
It's easy to upgrade.
All my hardware works.
It's KDE.
It allows me to dual boot with XP.
And last but not lest, it's pretty.

I have tried to install Kubuntu, but as I am dyslectic (I am writing this in Open Office) I just can't work out the installer, it just makes no sense at all to me, and as I need to keep my Windows partition, I will not install it on the whole of my hard drive.
Maybe if they sort out the installer, I will try it on the computer I keep for playing with, until then it's Mepis for me.

Regards Jim

Boy is this wrong!
Ubunut will access any partition on the HD if you mount it........

Fine. But how do I do that? Or where can I find out how?

I am the newest of new to ANY version of Linux and there is very little, if any, comparison to the DOS and Windows that I cut my teeth on 16 years ago.

Enjoy!

Thanks much.

I'll look it over just for what I can learn, but since I sent that post I've decided that Mepis is where it's at for me.

I can use it "right out of the box" with litlle fuss or fanfare. I just have to fudge the menu.lst file so it will dual boot with Win2K, and I'm hoping that is fixed in 3.3.1.

Enjoy!

I still don't know the difference between mepis and ubuntu.

I use mepis, because I get an error on the second half of the install, on ubuntu onmy amd64.

I mean, both installs are incredibly easy to do, both are incredibly easy to run and keep updated. Both of them are very fast.

Kubuntu = kde 3.4/ ? gnome 2.10 version of debian unstable
Ubuntu = gnome 2.10/? kde 3.4 version of debian unstable
Mepis = kde 3.3/? gnome 2.8 version of debian unstable

Ubuntu may be a little faster and less bloated than mepis, but mepis has its strongpoints too.

personally, unless you're an advanced user, stick with ubuntu/kubuntu, because the packages are already latest versions, AND it uses x.org 6.8, I run the latest version of KDE and xorg 6.8, but it's a little difficult to get it running.

mepis uses XFree86, which is definitely not good, I had some xfree86 driver troubles in mepis and other distros that used it, that I didn't have in ubuntu/ other xorg distros, so in my mepis, I said screw it and installed X.org, then my driver problems were fixed.

if you want kde, get kubuntu, if it actually installs for you, better than it did on my amd64 machine....

I'm not flaming mepis, because I use it, and I love it, but after I put the work into getting kde 3.4 and xorg installed, with xfree86 it gave headaches, and with that mepis version of kde it was slowed down.

if you really don't care about xfree's headaches, and older slower kde version, then get mepis.

if ubuntu gives you a hard time, screw it, and follow this guide on installing xorg, and kde in mepis, http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=327666

idk, right now this mepis desktop is the best I've ever ran, compared to gentoo stage1, slackware, raw debian woody, sarge/unstable, vida.

so once again,1. get mepis and keep xfree86 and kde 3.3, or 2. get ubuntu/kubuntu, or *3.* get mepis and follow the update guide i posted above.

I prefer option 3. But then again, it's up to you. It shouldnt be hard for you, the guide is well written and explained, by me , again, mepis is the most stable, easy, and still fast distro I've ran, but ubuntu has it's strong points as well.

The XFree86 vs. Xorg problem should be solved for Debian/Mepis users in the very near future. See here: http://necrotic.deadbeast.net/svn/xf...ml#debianplans

yeah I know, but that's the future, until then, we can do it ourselves, by following guide i made, or by compiling it.

Actually, this is part of what annoyed me about Ubuntu and sent me straight back to Mepis. Sure, Ubuntu has great documentation (fantastic, actually--just about anything you want to do, there's documentation for), but you usually have to consult some wiki or the Ubuntu Guide to have it happen. With Mepis, the other partitions automatically show up on the desktop as either mounted or unmounted--Windows and Linux distributions. This happens in the live Mepis boot, too. All one has to do is click on the partition and it's automatically mounted and its contents opened.

Likewise with a lot of other tweaks. To get numlock to turn on by default, you have the option in a checkbox in the control center in Mepis. With Ubuntu you have to look it up in the documentation. In the documentation, you see that you have to download something called numlockx to do that. If you get tired of sudoing, you have to go out of your way to create a root log-in in Ubuntu. In Mepis, you can log in as root if you want to, but if you just want to navigate as root, there's a little icon you can click in user mode (provided you know the root password) that will let you navigate as root temporarily without ending your session.

It's a lot of little things like this. Yes, Mepis is a bit more bloated (KWeather's the first thing I get rid of on a clean install, and I'm really annoyed that KMix pops up with every new user added or every time the live CD boots), but it has almost all the essential stuff at your fingertips.

This one is easy to solve in ANY distribution that has sudo configured (you can prohibit that, but usually it isn't). Just do this: Don't forget to exit out of it when you are done with an exit.

So if it's more things than only one command, try this out. No need for some bloated GUI software

Actually, it is not a Mepis function that turns on the numlock. It is part of KDE Control Center. Kubuntu, or any distro running KDE will have it too. As far as I know, there is no way to turn numlock on automatically in Gnome without using a 3rd party utility. This is not an Ubuntu limitation but rather Gnome peculiarity.