Perhaps it's time for a different distro

Although the parent is a rant, it has some merit. Is Mepis diverging? I've mentioned before that I don't understand the reason for Apache, Spamd, and other services ... especially in the live CD.

Mepis 2004.4 worked on my laptop. Mepis 3.x didn't.

Mepis offers no upgrade path from one release to the next.

I have personally not soured on Debian-based distros. Kanotix works pretty well. Fedora (an rpm-based distro) works pretty well, too - hard to say which has more available packages. Source-based distros are great in principle, but I've found that lots of coaxing is needed to make things install - unless they've been specially tailored to the distro, same as for binary.

I seen this forum spammed by piss/moan posts and it the main reason why I don't spend much time in here. Why don't you start a thread with constructive critisism as to what the the problems are instead of 10 threads with the same ole crap in them? I had several problems with Lite 3.3.1.2-Test03 and Simply 3.3.2-test02 on my T40, I posted in here as well as sent an email explaining what the problems were, how the two other distros differed, and now with 3.3.2-test03 they have been corrected. No Linux distro will get better without helpful inputs from those who are beta testing the release.

Cougaran, last advice: before moving to other distro, try 3.3.1-1 to be sure it's not working for you too, at least you will not miss an easy fix

For me it was the _only_ distro working correctly with my Nvidia GeForce, as well for my friends... (and I already tried RH, FC2/3/4, MDK, etc.)

And maybe it's not really a good idea to keep an opinion about MEPIS just after trying a Test release?

Rgds,
-dim

Hi cougaran
Sorry you are having problems, I am a newbie, and I also to tried 3.3test2, and found several problams, that is whole point of a test, I then e-mailed Mepis, and went back 3.3.1-1.
Like you I'm to old to mess about (56)but I like Mepis, it is the only distro that I have found that lets me do things like listen to clasicfm, out of the box.
Hope you change your mind about leving us, but if you do go, I wish all the best.
Regards Jim

All problems solved!

All I had to do was get rid of mepis and install a Slack based system. Worked perfectly right from the gitgo. (STABILITY AND CUTTING EDGE AT SAME TIME!)

NVIDIA OK
Alsa OK
NO unneeded services installed and started by default! (bloatware, security risks and hd hog!)
PERFECT working KDE 3.4 AND Enlightenment (Outstanding!)
Very few apps to do the same job. (Streamlined and FAST system!)
Great looking fonts!
And last but not leaast, no more F'd up deb repositories.

Note to Kerry:
No, I'm far from being a guru, but I do know a distro that doesn't like my AMD64 when I see one and I do have enough sense to change when needed. A question for you (but I seriously doubt I'll be around Mepis forums to read your response)

If YOU are such a guru, why are you stuck in Mepis?

cougaran, i'm sorry u couldn't get along with mepis but slack is also a great distro and i'm glad your happy with it. The main thing is it works for you. For me i love mepis! I have tried all the others out there and still try them from time to time,but always return to mepis. i have played with enlightenment and found it very interesting. kde 3.4.2 is coming to mepis but i'm in no hurry as every thing works already.you will find the slapt-get for slack quite interesting.

Well, I always say to people to use whatever work for them and whatever they like and fits their personality and philosophy.

However I also say that is not polite to paddle other distro on different forums. There are around 300 distros, if only 1 (one) fan from each would come here to post: Mepis is useless, try "Xix" or "Yix" than we'll have a mess. Similary if we go to Slack site and say Slack suck because this or that, try Mepis we are going to start distro wars and useless discussions.

Please use whatever you like, we are not interested in what works for YOU, just as Slack users are not interested that Mepis works better for ME.

Common sense... really...
--
Post questions on www.mepislovers.org too -- very helpful community

AdrianTM, I did tell him we would help no matter what distro he is using. But he does seem to want to burn all his bridges. He will realize later of his misstake as slapt-get in slack does not cover dependencies very well. I bet he will be on there forrum alot.

I can only say that he will be slapt-get

--
Post questions on www.mepislovers.org too -- very helpful community

I tried Yix Live once, to much eyecandy for me.

Then I ran Xix, which was ok but was entirely powered by mouse-clicks which makes my arthritis flare up.

One day, I read about this Linux Distro made by some West Virginia hick that had a silly name. The OS that is, not the hick. His name was more or less average. You see, I happen to know that there are only 17 people in the entire state that know that Linux is not a cartoon character.

So, with this in mind...

If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource, they will respond with meaningless drivel.

ROFL
By the way I was shocked when I found out that Asterix is a Linux distro. So I guess you can call me a hick too.

--
Post questions on www.mepislovers.org too -- very helpful community

Actually Adrian, I've directed a number of people to other Linux distros if it sounds like the Mepis situation isn't working for them. I would rather assist someone find another Linux and enjoy it than to go away from this forum with the thought, "All this Linux stuff is S***!"

I have used, to varying degrees, Mand(rake/riva), SuSE, TurboLinux, Xandros, Kanotix, K/Ubuntu, Vector, Mepis, and BSDs. There have been a PILE of others, that I have forgotten, that I've played with to see how they load and how they appear. I'm no expert by any means. SuSE was my favorite distro until Mepis came along.

I actually fell to Mepis from my first very unhappy experience with Vector. The distro was good, but I purchased an official copy and it took forever for it to be delivered and there was no documentation. I am not saying this to bash Vector; I am relating one of my experiences as a paying customer. This is all in the past. I know that they have corrected shipping and vastly improved the distribution. Courgaran's "testimonial" is indication of that and I would gladly try the new copy when I have a chance.

My opinion is, in the same way we help people here to work with Mepis, it's sometimes better to "help someone cross the street" to another distro. Now, if a person starts asking too many questions on the Mepis forum about Ubuntu, well then it's probably time to ask them to check the Ubuntu sites

Jon

I just tried the new vector last week on my test machine its nothing really new the installer still sucks(but like they say u only need do it once,right) yeah, the apps are extremly scarce and that dang slapt-get just kept pissing me off. But it is worth trying once.right?

Ah, sure whatever works for them (Windows, Dos, Solaris, Mac, NeXT, BeOS or...)

However _I_ at least am not interested to hear X Operating System is great, Mepis is crap... or any other combination. I fail to see why somebody thinks that's:
1. interesting for anybody else that he's leaving Mepis.
2. interesting for anybody else that he found a distro that works well on _HIS_ hardware.

Sorry, but that sounds like cheap advertising. If I want ads I turn on the TV.

Come on guys, use whatever works for you and whatever you like... we just don't need this attitude on ANY Linux site (of course this is my opinion, and somehow I feel like I fight against windmills, there's always going to be someone to point out that X distro is crap and that Y one is much better -- I personally got tired of that kind of attitude)

--
Post questions on www.mepislovers.org too -- very helpful community

I agree x is better is than y.

My pennies;

Mepis may not always work on all PC's, for everyone. But I like the things that do work. My own sitch is no working internal modem. But some day I am sure it will.

I keep old versions two or three. I do not upgrade except by getting new CD's. It is funny I do not upgrade my Win partition as often as I hear about people upgradeing, or trying to upgrade a test Mepis releases.

I want a live CD that does most of what I want. Mepis does that. Debian may be free, but working to improve it is not. The fact that some Debian distro's work better on some items also shows that there are tweaks on some not made avaliable to all. Maybe we do not play well with others.

Hope in the future x,y, and z will share ideas, tweaks and such. If Debian is not for you buy a more polished Distro that will charge for updates, or leave you hanging after you have been useing their free one. Free, and polished Linux is fast disappearing. Mepis for all it's problems is my Distro of choice. It has one live, or installable CD that I can use most of it at any rate.

Pennies gone

FRANK

FRANK

Submitted by londojowo on Sun, 08/28/2005 - 07:41. *new

I seen this forum spammed by piss/moan posts and it the main reason why I don't spend much time in here. Why don't you start a thread with constructive critisism as to what the the problems are instead of 10 threads with the same ole crap in them? I had several problems with Lite 3.3.1.2-Test03 and Simply 3.3.2-test02 on my T40, I posted in here as well as sent an email explaining what the problems were, how the two other distros differed, and now with 3.3.2-test03 they have been corrected. No Linux distro will get better without helpful inputs from those who are beta testing the release.
*************

Well, a couple of years ago that was true, but for rather more than a year now, the testing has gone from the release phase. Sensible suggestions are as often as not ignored, and fixes are often not done between one release and another. There is no changelog, something we have asked for over a couple of years. It is just plain sloppy.

Once in a while something is done to fix a problem, but so many things that should be simple to fix are just left.

It's not like it is one small problem in an occasional release. I am currently using 3.3-t03 because nothing since then works. Yesterday I installed 3.3.2-t03, hoping that it would show some promise. Instead, I find there are so many problems I can;t believe it is considered close to a release candidate.

Despite all this, Mepis, at the odd times when I can find a release that actually works on my (rather generic) hardware, works better all round than most other distros.

I just get sick of spending a day every time, removing it and going back several releases so I can work.

As for the comment about not getting better without helpful hints.... first you have to have someone listening to the helpful hints and acting on them. I can assure you that long experience shows most are ignored, or at least the ones that would make Mepis more user friendly are ignored.

RossD.

to see posts from people who just expect a distro to have everything work out of the box no matter what hardware you throw at it. That is a nearly impossible demand for ANY OS to live up to. Have you ever tried to install XP on a machine without 'Microsoft Certified Hardware"? If a person wants an OS that works with every hardware combination possible, they will be spending the rest of their life testing OS's

I would personally encourage people to run multiple distro's for comparison and learning. I tend to like staying on the debian/knoppix side of things with Mepis and Damn Small myself.

to see posts from people who just expect a distro to have everything work out of the box no matter what hardware you throw at it. That is a nearly impossible demand for ANY OS to live up to.
*************

I agree, and for all its faults, MEPIS is still the only Linux distro that comes close to that in my experience.

The thing that frustrates me most with MEPIS, is how, on the same machine, one version works perfectly, then the next few don't, then another one will, then a couple won;t.

This is with NO change of any hardware.

In some cases, such as right now in my case, it isn't a release that works, it is a test version. I had to go back to 3.3-t03 to get a version of Mepis that works reasonably.

Every version, both testing and release, since then fails. The machine is pretty generic, the developers have all its details (m/board, sound,video etc.) from the days when we had a testing procedure in place, but still some versions fail.

Once you have a version of MEPIS that works, you sort of expect to be able to upgrade to the next version, even if it is a testing, and have the stuff that worked, still working. Then you test the new stuff.

Bearing in mind that I am talking about a full fresh reinstall when I say upgrade.

The weird thing is when you have a testing version that works, and the final is released, and IT is the one that has all the glitches.

That happened in 3.3 final, 3.3.1 final. 3.3.1 maintenance and so far, 3.3.2 is running along the same lines.

However, as I said before, Mepis is still the only distro that comes close to being universal.

It needs some rubbish left out of it, and some useful stuff put back in, but I have given up trying to get the developers to listen.

An example of that is Quanta. With just about everyone on the net, and so many people doing their little home page thing. With schools teaching students to create and maintain a web site. With people wanting to learn basic web design skills, why the heck did they remove Quanta, and leave Mepis with no easy to use web site tool. Quite apart from the fact that it is heavy duty enough to maintain quite sophisticated sites.

Another example of a simple thing that would make life easier is to make the CD eject after installation. Just about everyone else does it, I am sick of javing CDs jammed in the drive after an install, quite apart from the scratches, it can damage the drive.

The response to this request was "well, you can reboot to grub after you install, remove the cd, then reboot again". Not "oh, we just have to add one eject command in this script".

Bear in mind that request has been made numerous times over a year or so.

There are other similar things that would make Mepis more friendly, but I have given up on them.

In the mean time, I still love MEpis....

RossD.

Well, all I can say is I've had a minor problem with sound, but it's fixed and it was actually a simple fix, however took me a while to find out as I read thru the forums. The answer was all there.

I have several systems running Mepis flawlessly and installs in a pinch.
Takes only around 10min. to install on 733mhz or higher.

I also use on my 1.5 gig machine and my 2.0gig altholon.

Getting ready for a third machine.

I happened to try other distros as well and have had major install problems and could not even get past the initial install screens.

I loved Lycoris which was my favorite, however not bought out by Mandriva, I like Linspire as well.

PCLinuxOS is very nice as well as many others including Mepis.

The live CD is awsome. I've also used Slax,Slackware harder to install, and SanteFe nice.

Also Knoppix and some others which had some install problems but still nice.

Anyhow too bad you can't get your computer working, perhaps it's not time for a new distro perhaps it's time for a new computer, mine works perfect and I would not even think of loading another os unless of course just for kicks/fun.

I use my Mepis computer everyday and for just about anything you can think of, scanning, camera,webcam,printing, bye the way got a new 5740 printer and man is it fast and quality too. Cheaper then some other models that won't even print that fast at a 23 pages per min.

And CD burning etc. SWEET.

So glad I got off the WindBlows.

Well Happy Distro Searching.

Note: I've done my distro searching for a while after Lycoris went out, and here is where I ended up.
Easy to install,easy to use,easy to plug things in.

Just have to do your home work to make sure you get some linux compatible products to use and NO PROBLEMS AT ALL.

Here Here to Mepis The Best Linux Distro around right now, also very popular in the distro watch.

I'll continue to load up some used systems and circulate some freebie copies of Mepis.

Also forgot Smart Mouse Is Really Cool