Mepis to switch to Debian repos

So... yay?

Good points Ko, I do like the idea of MEPIS upgraded to Sid.

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That works for me.

I voted for the change to Ubuntu the last time around, since it seemed to be a bit ahead of Debian for support of newer hardware and more at that time.

But, they did not update packages in Dapper in the way I expected them to for a "Long Term Support" release.

So, I would not mind moving back to a Debian pool. I'm already running Sidux 2007 (based on Sid) on one partition now anyway.

There are pros and cons to any of them I guess.

Jim C.

I wonder if we'll be back to the old "I've done an upgrade and now it's broken" again? I think Debian is more stable than it was a year ago - we (Bristol Wireless) use Debian Etch and have been doing installs for a few months - upgrading each install before dispatch(recycled pc's) and so far things have seemed stable. It will certainly please the Debian purists among us (as well as those who are less than impressed with the popularity and attention that Ubuntu gets!)

No, that "broken" stuff is not likely to happen IF one sticks to the regular repositories which will -in all likelihood- be etch and mepis. If one starts 'upgrading to 'lenny' ('testing') or 'sid' ('unstable') things might get out of hand pretty quickly. One has to be really careful there.
I must say that my upgrade from Debian 4.0 Etch to Lenny did not show any signs of decreased stability. It still was rock-solid.
I would expect that kind of solidity in Mepis 7.0 as well.
But, there's no guarantee that 'upgrading' will provide the same positive results over an extended period of time.

So: for stability stick with the default Mepis 7.0 repos.

Mepis 7.0, compatible with Debian Etch, but with a few up to date well chosen popular apps (compiled by Warren as wel as a new Mepis kernel, Mepis tools and Mepis configurations) may prove to be THE "debian+kde" distro.

Regards, Ko

Ko Bros

A MEPIS distro based on debian offers so many possibilities for the user and developer. There is so much flexibility.
For example, one may want to stick with the Mepis +Etch repos for a rock solid distro. Others may wish to venture into testing/lenny, others into unstable/sid. (all at your own risk of course).

anticapitalista

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

This is excellent news!

Yes, there will probably still be posts about, "My installation is broken again!", but as Ko Bros pointed out, if the users stick to the "regular repositories", this should rarely happen. I think it's telling that Warren indicated in the article that, "...Ubuntu is rebuilt almost from scratch every six months using source packages...". So the guy would have to throw away all his work and restart every six months just to stay current with Ubuntu, leaving little time for him to "improve" Mepis for the things that Mepis is good at (hardware detection, and the like).

I look forward to the test versions!

Jon

The ability to comfortably use a computer is directly proportional to desire to listen, learn, and experiment, and is inversely proportional to the fear, anger, and stubbornness that you show.

Jon

Make that "...Ubuntu is rebuilt almost from scratch every six months using source packages from Experimental...".

...which btw was reported as 'incorrect' by an Ubuntu developer: He stated that they take sources from 'unstable' and "occasionally" from 'experimental'
(see desktoplinux comment).
Well, it does not matter really where they take the sources from in each 6-month development cycle: basically his statement confirms that there is no "continuous developent path" used by Ubuntu.

[Edited later:] See also the added "Talkback" comments.

Regards, Ko

Ko Bros

Good to hear Mepis is returning to Debian base, the last Mepis I ran was good old 3.3.1 with no problems. All the 6.x releases gave me stability problems, which is no surprise as Dapper was just the same. I currently run pure Debian Etch with zero problems so the release of Mepis 7 might just bring me back into the fold.

Bring it on.

MC

As far as i could understand Mepis 7 will be using best of applications from both Ubuntu and Debian. If that is so it is wonderful news. This will provide more stability to Mepis where applications and drivers will be working on wider range of hardware.
I am sure in longer run Mepis will start maintaining it's own vault where one can easily get binaries which work seemlessly with Mepis. It is logical move and will attract more newbies towards Mepis and will help Mepis attain more stability in professional terms.
I just hope someone is improving on "eye candy" stuff as well in Mepis 7.0
I would like to make a suggestion ( i am sure someone might have already done it)..why not make wirelessassistant a default wireless configuration tool in Mepis. It is easiest to use among all others.

MC

mc (midnight commander) is now installed by default...

Ko Bros

And so are some other front ends such as wifi-radar and the recent wicd. Warren stated somewhere that he is satisfied with knetworkmanager, however, so I believe that is what we are going to have in 7.0

Pretty easy to install one of the others later.

I'm looking forward to running through the alpha/beta/RC series. Always gets my juices flowing. The run-up to SM6.5 got me pumped up to the point where -- after nearly two years of dual booting and testing of numerous distros -- I finally screwed up the courage to make a wholesale, full bore transition to SimplyMEPIS, and relegated my Windows partition to a dark, unused corner of my hard drive.

But now, NOW, you tell me a new version with a different core base is in the offing. Sheesh. I've got a rock solid install, tweaked to perfection, doing anything and everything I could ask... and I'm not going to be able to update it.

(Or am I? Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?)

Sure, I've got a separate /home, and know how to get everything set back up in a new install, but doggone it, I spent two years going through all that with a dozen or more distros. I finally found me a good home, and it looks like I might end up being evicted. Heck, I haven't even gotten unpacked -- I'm still finding where they've got stuff hidden in the K-menu.

All my whining aside, this "prebeta" looks pretty good. I installed it on a spare partition the day it was announced, and am using it right now. Other than some funky Debian fonts and the lack of the usual visual appeal enhancements we've become accustomed to, it operates just like my workhorse v6.5. nVidia TwinView was configured automagically with the X-Server tool, all hardware was detected properly (duh, it's MEPIS), and after adding the debian-multimedia.org stable repo and pulling down w32 and a few other goodies, it's played everything I've thrown at it.

Laptop will have to wait -- no wireless. But that's to be expected. It uses an older RealTek-chipped PCMCIA card, and the RTL8180 drivers aren't yet included in the kernel. I sure hope that's on Warren's TODO list; he did have them built into v6.5. There's lots more MEPIS Magic yet to be done.

I'll be playing along with the testing releases, and will pass along any bugs that I might encounter, but if my experience with v6.5 is any indication, I doubt I'll have much to offer. As far as I was concerned, v6.5 was ready for me and my hardware around Beta3.

Now if anyone can tell me how to go about doing an in-place upgrade from v6.5 to v7, I'll be a grinnin' sob.

Ko,
MC = Master of Ceremony as well, if you remember the old school rap days in the late 70s, early 80s of the last century ;-P.

Regarding the "Excellent"-tag of the switch back to Debian, all I can say is: YES YES YES!!! 5 minutes d/l left before burning the prebeta and throwing it on my spare partition for a looooong night of play and test. Makes my mouth finally water for a fresh SaxenOS release.

Warren, your timing is excellent as well! How did you know I have two weeks off starting next Monday? ... hehe ... time to tinker again.

Best!
STIBS

PS: ^5's to all MEPIS dev's ... wise choice!

*^5s stibs* can't wait to try your distro... good that you have some time to work on it.

--
Check out MEPIS Wiki: www.mepis.org/docs
Post on MEPISLovers, that's where MEPIS users help each other.

Regarding the "Excellent"-tag of the switch back to Debian, all I can say is: YES YES YES!!! 5 minutes d/l left before burning the prebeta and throwing it on my spare partition for a looooong night of play and test. Makes my mouth finally water for a fresh SaxenOS release.

Warren, your timing is excellent as well! How did you know I have two weeks off starting next Monday? ... hehe ... time to tinker again.

Best!
STIBS

PS: ^5's to all MEPIS dev's ... wise choice!

I never thought I'd say this on a public Forum, but I missed you........ Well, sometimes.

Regards, Ko

Ko Bros

stibs,
Have fun with the new debian Mepis. Just to let you know that there are now 2 alternative paths for Mepis (besides the original that is).
My antiX, which is going to get lighter (in iso size) based on fluxbox/icewm and yours which will be xfce based and more of a complete desktop.
Fun days and productive days (and nights!?) in Mepis land.

anticapitalista

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

/me grins @ Ko ... how's the ole cap'n of the flaggship?

Anticapitalista, I tested your AntiX and it's quite nice. Have a look at http://equinox-project.org ... Vedran, Sanel and a German developer code like mad at the moment for a fresh release. It's the thing, my old STX Linux was outfitted with. It's a better desktop experience than IceWM.

I read somewhere, you're a teacher? Same here. Atm. I work as admin and IT trainer in adult education (http://www.bdhdd.de). If you're in for a brain sharing session, I'll be on freenode.net, #mepis, tonight 6-9 p.m. (GMT+1).

Best!
STIBS