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SimplyMEPIS 6.5 - A Review

Writing by admin on Friday, 15 of June , 2007 at 4:27 pm

The most recent release from the MEPIS crew is SimplyMEPIS 6.5, which was released on April 4th, 2007. In all of my Linux and various distribution readings, I rarely hear about MEPIS; however, it is clearly popular as the MEPIS distribution has consistently been in the top 8 on the DistroWatch rankings dating back to 2004. As I appear to be working my way down the rankings, I found it was time to review SimplyMEPIS 6.5. Lets do the usual and get the description on MEPIS from DistroWatch.

“MEPIS Linux is a desktop Linux system that is also easy to configure as a dedicated server. It is designed for both personal and business purposes. It includes cutting-edge features such as a live/installation/recovery CD, automatic hardware configuration, NTFS partition resizing, ACPI power management, WiFi support, anti-aliased TrueType fonts, a personal firewall, KDE, and much more.”

Clearly, the developers on MEPIS are trying to create a distribution that can span the entire spectrum of users; from those wishing to use it for regular home use and those looking for a powerful server system.

Follow the link for the rest of the review!

Installation

SimplyMEPIS 6.5 is available in live CD form with with the image weighing in at approximately 700MB. Upon booting the live CD I was presented with many different display options. I accepted the default settings as my goal was to only install the system, but for users that may be using the live CD for an extended period of time this is a great thing to see.

When I started the installer I was presented with a lot of legal information (moreso than most distributions I have experienced). The installer asks the usual information and was overall was very pleasant to use. There is always help/descriptions for each sections on the left-hand side and the installer promotes the use of using GParted to setup the partitions. The biggest surprise was that the whole installation process too just under 7 minutes to complete! While the installer might not be prettiest I have seen (ala PCLinuxOS 2007), it is definitely, in my opinion, the easiest installer to use and therefore great for beginners. Once again, I installed SimplyMEPIS 6.5 on my Inspiron 8500 laptop.

Visuals

SimplyMEPIS 6.5 uses KDE window manager by default and the overall feel is definitely that of any KDE-based system. The default background is calm and pleasing, and the default theme is functional, but nothing too special. After installation, there are 4 icons on the desktop; one with a shortcut to the documents directory, another with a shortcut to the CD/DVD drive, the third to a nice 3-page primer on getting started with SimplyMEPIS and finally a link to the MEPIS website so that users can get help documentation. While these icons are not necessary for many Linux users, they all act as a functional resource to Linux newbies. Below is a screenshot of the default desktop setup with the standard KDE task bar at the bottom.

The Beryl window decorator was installed by default and was fully functional right after installation. Usually I am required to change display drivers in order to get the greatness that is the 3D cube, but MEPIS seems to have done all of this for me leading me to believe they have great hardware detection.

The icons used throughout the system are not too spectacular, but definitely are clear at conveying the file-type as well as other information. The menu system used by default is standard KMenu. I won’t spend any time on this part as anyone familiar with KDE will know that it is an easy-to-use menu system with a lot of flexibility (screenshot below).

Other Impressions

This distribution, along with many others, provides a complete out-of-the-box experience where the user does not have to spend hours downloading the applications they wish to use (think Linux Mint or PCLOS here). SimplyMEPIS does not appear to use the latest editions of each piece of software (for example, Open Office 2.0 instead of 2.2), but every application I tried was stable and I did not feel I was losing any functionality.

Many distributions attempt to offer their own “control centers” to allow adjustment and configuration of the system. SimplyMEPIS does this as well by offering:

MEPIS Network Assistant

MEPIS System Assistant

MEPIS User Assistant

MEPIS X-Windows Assistant

These 4 assistants may not have flashy interfaces, but I found them very powerful and easy to use. The clear wording that is used through the entire system is very descriptive; definitely beneficial to the Linux beginner. Screenshot of the MEPIS Network Assistant.

Once again, I had a lot of problems with accessing hibernation and stand by. By default (on my system, which is a laptop) I was not able to put the computer into either of these states. I also spent approximately 30 minutes looking throughout the various menus and searching the MEPIS help to no avail. Many users, even with laptops, will surely have these options right after installation, but I feel that my aging laptop somehow does not respond well to newer distributions. I am sure that a commenter on this post will say something regarding this issue, but for those looking to try SimplyMEPIS do not let this prevent you from using it.

Conclusion

I have been very impressed by the entire SimplyMEPIS 6.5 operating system. It was probably the best install experience I have ever had, offers great response, and has an enjoyable interface. Personally, I feel that this has been my best KDE experience thus far, even with my previous use of PCLinuxOS 2007. You may not hear too much about MEPIS when it comes to Linux news sites, but there is definitely a good reason why there are so many users.

The fact that SimplyMEPIS comes without the need to install many extras (yes, I do realize that this use of restricted drivers/codecs is against what many Linux users believe) makes this a great live CD. In addition to this, the operating system, including installation, is very “newbie friendly”, making this ideal for anyone looking to get into Linux. Do not let this friendliness deter you away from MEPIS, as the system is also extremely powerful.

Head over to the MEPIS website to get the image file or to read more about this great distribution.

Cole

Category: Linux, Review

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25 Comments

Comment by frank

Made Saturday, 16 of June , 2007 at 6:53 am

IMO I think Mepis and PCLinuxOS 2007 are THE two best distro’s worthy of installing on a permanent basis
Linux Mint,..looks nice but items disappear off the menu, and is way, way too slow
UbuntuStudio equally a good looker but slow,.Suse forget it,..Fedora YUK!!!

Having recently bought a wide screen Acer monitor, with 1680×1050 resolution,. and ATI 9250 video card
The above two distro’s were the only ones to recognize them and configure everything quite easily.
Zenwalk my previous distro,..failed misereably.
I wish they would make their damned package install program more simple….(Perhaps its a French thing,…making the public struggle for no reason)

Comment by CeVO

Made Saturday, 16 of June , 2007 at 7:37 am

Thanks for a good review. You make a couple of points very clear: that MEPIS is one of the best, if not THE best distro for new users. That it is very powerful in spite of its simplicity. And that it absolutely does NOT get the attention it deserves. MEPIS has been around for quite a long time, and important parts of the Linux community are eager to find the hottest new kid in town….

For tired windows users looking to switch, MEPIS remains their best bet. And if you are looking for a powerful desktop OS that keeps you going for years, MEPIS won’t let you down either….

Keep up the good work!!

Comment by Jerry Bond

Made Saturday, 16 of June , 2007 at 8:19 am

Two other great aspects of MEPIS:

Friendly forum: http://www.mepislovers.org
Helpful Wiki: http://www.mepis.org/docs

Comment by Homer Boone

Made Saturday, 16 of June , 2007 at 10:51 am

Excellent review. I have been using MEPIS for about a year and am very satisfied with my experience. After years with Windows(98SE on) I decided to switch to Linux when Vista appeared.

The MEPIS installer is SOOOO easy to use and everything seems to work as desired. I have tried many other Linux distros. but have always returned to MEPIS which is now my distro. of choice.

Thanks again.

Comment by Declan

Made Saturday, 16 of June , 2007 at 11:51 am

I would put Mepis on a short list of “the absolute best” distros. It’s polished, complete, easy to install and complete.

Thanks for the great review. Mepis deserves more attention.

Comment by Herman

Made Saturday, 16 of June , 2007 at 1:52 pm

Mepis is a fantastic OS.I have it on 9 different computers with a wide array of different hardware and it has never failed to detect everything properly.It just works…period.

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Made Saturday, 16 of June , 2007 at 2:49 pm

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Comment by rpowell

Made Saturday, 16 of June , 2007 at 7:15 pm

I guess anything I say will be redundant-after the previous comments. Funny, PcLinuxOS is getting so many enthusiastic reviews these days— a distro that I like very much. However, PCLinuxOS did not detect my wireless card immediately, and when I stream music from sites like shoutcast, I have to download playlists and open inside amarok. With Mepis none of those extra steps were/are necessary.
For the many who simply want to use a computer, this is the best one. The the committed free software crowd, it might be one of the worst. Each to their own.

Comment by speedygeo

Made Saturday, 16 of June , 2007 at 10:24 pm

MEPIS was the distro that brought me into linux world.
I love MEPIS and I want to come back, but now I use kubuntu.
I switched from MEPIS because my printer driver didn’t works well on it, works very well on kubuntu instead.
I suggest to all to use MEPIS if their hardware works well.
Great help forum.
They are hardware oriented, but too much command line oriented.
They have great utilities.
When I tried to change the video ATI driver in kubuntu, the system became unusable. Then I launch MEPIS from the live CD and I fix it with the MEPIS utility for Xwindow.

Comment by Eddie G. Wilson

Made Monday, 18 of June , 2007 at 8:15 am

I’ve got one thing to say about Mepis. I really don’t see how anyone could get any better. I have tried several distros over the past several years and Mepis was one of the first. Its just gotten better and better over the years. I know that everybody has their own best distro of all time but everybody should give this one a try. If you need help the Mepislovers forum is one of the best. I believe its just the right size too. I would like to wish many happy days for Mepis.
Eddie

Comment by Jerry Marshall

Made Monday, 18 of June , 2007 at 11:02 pm

I agree totally! I have used Mepis off and on like other distros but Mepis has always been the one that just works. I have an old Toshiba laptop and a generic 802.11b wireless card and Mepis and Mepis alone had it configured and ready for use when i installed it. All I needed to put in was the wireless network info. My 7 years daughter can use it and so can my wife. It is a THE BEST distro to learn on and move off Windows with. Great review!

By the way, KDE is a desktop environment (The K Desktop Environment). KWin is the window manager.

Comment by sckqqq

Made Tuesday, 19 of June , 2007 at 3:40 am

Seems u got a problem with power management feature in both plslinuxos and mint. As far as i know you can enable these features in KDE control centre(laptop mode)
. Its easy enough.

Comment by golden45

Made Wednesday, 20 of June , 2007 at 10:47 am

I have been using Mepis for over 2 years it is a great distro with great support people.I feel that mepis 1st and sidux 2nd are both great.

Comment by popsad

Made Thursday, 5 of July , 2007 at 4:06 am

Having been brassed of using windows for many years, i have been trying out different Linux distros over the last 5 years.

I tried sabayon.freespire and many more my favorite being mandriva
I always had numerous problems especially the fact that i need to duel boot with xp for video editing as i have never found anything that equels pinnacle in linux or as powerful, beside that i came accross mepis buy pure chance and unlike the other distros that only lasted a few days i am still using mepis weeks later and am finding the experience very rewarding.

I have made mistakes reinstalled it but still find it to be the best Linux Disto yet, as i am able to write to the ntfs side without any problems as on the others that i tried numerous problems started to happen which i will not go into just now all i can say is install MEPIS

Comment by Fred McKinney

Made Monday, 9 of July , 2007 at 12:16 pm

Add my name to the list of satisfied MEPIS users. I have no idea why MEPIS fails to receive the attention it deserves. I’ve tried several distros since switching from Windows to Linux a few years ago, and MEPIS is the distro that I keep coming back to because it WORKS!

What’s more, being a musician, there’s a program I use on occasion called Rosegarden, which is a MIDI sequencer and music notation program. All other distros I’ve ever tried it on, including Mandrake (back before it became Mandriva) and Ubuntu froze up more solid than a block of ice when I started Rosegarden — yes, this program caused Ubuntu to freeze up! But not MEPIS — it’s the only distro I’ve tried Rosegarden on so far that has actually managed to run it!

In fact, after switching from Mandrake to MEPIS over a year ago, I never cease to be amazed at what an excellent distro it is. However, since it doesn’t get the attention it really deserves, you could say that MEPIS is the Linux world’s best-kept secret.

Comment by Jack Merskin

Made Wednesday, 11 of July , 2007 at 4:50 pm

I am in the process of converting from Windows. Mepis is the first distro that just seems to work. I tried several Linux distros and the only other one I would consider is PCLos. So far Mepis has done everything I have asked of an O/S.

Now I had to struggle with my printer, Epson SP R260, but no distro has a driver for it. I use TurboPrint, works just great. I also had a problem with an Epson V100 scanner, but Avasys took care of that.

Mepsi just seems to work.

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Comment by manmath sahu

Made Thursday, 6 of September , 2007 at 5:44 am

Your review is good but PCLinuxOS is the better OS compared to SimplyMepis when it comes to power and stability. I went through http://pclinuxos2007.blogspot.com and applied the tricks on my PCLOS. The result was rewarding.

Comment by sudhansu sekhar

Made Thursday, 13 of September , 2007 at 11:31 pm

thanks manmath! i tried pclinuxos 2007. it’s simply the best. beats mepis head on in terms of usability, stability, performance… and what not.

Comment by MaxTheITpro

Made Thursday, 24 of April , 2008 at 9:31 pm

Hmmnnn…I’ll have to take PCLinuxOS for a spin some time in the not too distance future. I got my pal to download SimplyMEPIS on her fast DSL connection in Canada before coming to visit me here in East Africa. I only tried it once…not bad at all. I’m still a big fan of Xandros’ Open Circulation Edition. Too bad they don’t offer the extras that Mepis and the others provide.

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