What is Digg?111 Comments
- jrm125, on 11/22/2008, -2/+38Ever notice when anything is "the best you haven't tried" there's usually a pretty good reason you haven't tried it.
- parax, on 11/22/2008, -0/+28Too many articles suggest I use some distro or another for the sole reason that I haven't tried it yet. I've used Ubuntu for about 3 years but I've tried one distro or another at various times, Fedora, Mandriva, openSUSE, Debian, Zenwalk, and at least a dozen others I can't remember off the top of my head.
When it comes down to it, the applications I use on each one are identical. When I use a terminal, it's the same commands no matter which one I'm using, The only noticeable difference is whether I'm using a KDE or a Gnome desktop by default, a default theme, and some branding. None of them work any better or worse than the others. I've ended up sticking to Ubuntu because it was my first smooth Linux experience, so it has a sort of familiarity.
I've never installed a distro and thought "Wow, this is much different/better/worse." - computershack, on 11/22/2008, -9/+29Yawn. Yet another "bloke installs and it works. Bloke runs the usual list of applications bundled with virtually all distros and it works. Bloke uses network manager and it starts and stops network."
How much more of this ***** do we need to see? You can install Linux and run Firefox, Pidgin, OpenOffice, GIMP and Rythmbox and guess what, it works! Like every other ***** distribution. Try posting something that's actually innovative and seperates it from the long list of clones who seem to think that having a slightly different colour scheme and different name somehow makes them more worthwhile than any of the others.
Nothing to see here, please move along. - jojopumpkin, on 11/22/2008, -4/+23This was the only distro that worked right out of the "box" on the numerous PC's in my home.
I'm not sure why. My guess is it's us of HAL.
Something else to try for older machines is AntiX, a MepisLite if you will. I have it running on a Sony Vaio from 1999 and it runs great. May I suggest the iceWM window manager instead of the default.
http://antix.mepis.org/index.php/Main_Page - iridesce, on 11/22/2008, -2/+18AntiX ( a lightweight Mepis derivative ) is hands down the best distro on the older and oldest machines I have played with.
I have run Mepis as my main distribution for a few years and have been impressed with the stability and usability. Any machine I work on for friends and family always leave with it on a partition. - inactive, on 11/22/2008, -1/+16I still trying to figure out why this is better then Ubuntu. You didn't convince me.
- inactive, on 11/22/2008, -1/+15:O
You're just trying to cause trouble with comments like that on Digg... - beerwench, on 11/22/2008, -2/+13i dont know why you're being dugg down.. everything you've written is just the plain truth.. there's nothing new or special here... a new color scheme for kde and apt-get! omgf0rz, let us rejoice over yet another debian based distro :]
YADD = yet another debian distro :} - mgrest, on 11/22/2008, -1/+12Linux powers the majority of this thing we call the Internet. I think the Internet is pretty cool, actually...
- inactive, on 11/22/2008, -3/+13In my opinion, it's a solution, not a problem, KDE 4 works horribly on older, low RAM hardware.
- CanaryMBurns, on 11/22/2008, -4/+13Oh really? Another version of Linux. Wow there are so few to choose from already. Its nice they are starting to have a variety.
/s - noen, on 11/22/2008, -1/+9Well then, now is time for you to try Free BSD.
- inactive, on 11/22/2008, -0/+7Mepis has returned to using Debian as it's base.
- victimofkratina, on 11/22/2008, -0/+7was it good for you too?
- inactive, on 11/22/2008, -2/+9Mepis is mainly focused on stability and usability, that is the reason for using the older version of KDE.
- whosmatt, on 11/22/2008, -1/+8Inaccurate. I have tried it. As a matter of fact, it's the distro that made me fall in love with Linux. My home do-it-all server now runs plain ol Debian, but is still called mepis1.
- computershack, on 11/22/2008, -0/+5Yeah because apart from the name and the colour scheme, it's pretty much the same as what you have.
- Skooma714, on 11/22/2008, -3/+8This was my first Linux.
- illDecree, on 11/22/2008, -0/+5im using it right now, and literally, "right out of the box"
not a single prob...
i've used this on at least 25 different machinest.............my big concern with most is wireless support right out of the box
so... try it out man - radu79, on 11/22/2008, -0/+5It did? That's good news. Maybe I'll give it another try in the future.
- inactive, on 11/22/2008, -0/+5KDE is a resource hog so when it comes to older hardware you would be better off using Mepis AntiX, or installing another desktop that uses less resources. You would then be able to switch back and forth depending on your needs. The good thing is you have several options to choose from.
- MadHarvey, on 11/22/2008, -0/+5Isn't that where Balky is from?
- smacksaw, on 11/22/2008, -0/+5Well, if you're not going to use it, that just means more linux for the rest of us!
- MattBD, on 11/22/2008, -0/+5Several reasons. Most distros have pretty much the same apps, and will have Gnome or KDE as the desktop, so they're generally fairly similar - Firefox is almost universal, for example.
In my experience, one of the biggest differences is the package manager. Both Ubuntu and SimpyMEPIS are based on Debian and inherit its awesome APT (Advanced Packaging Tool) package manager, which is arguably one of the best package managers - it can do almost everything other package managers can do, and more besides. By comparison, Gentoo uses Portage, which generally downloads source code for each application and compiles it for your system, resulting in something that is customised for your computer, meaning you get better performance. And Slackware uses a very simple package manager.
APT is a big reason for Ubuntu's popularity as it's very powerful but easy to use. Another is that Ubuntu has a lot of nice easy graphical tools to let you control your system. The third reason is that Ubuntu has some of the best hardware detection around - generally things will work without you having to tweak them.
The final reason is the community - to a large extent, a Linux distro lives or dies by the strength of their community, so the creators of Ubuntu were determined right from the start to build a community that was strong, but friendly to newbies - you won't see anyone answering a query with "RTFM" or "Google it". - trollick, on 11/22/2008, -1/+5Several versions of Windows - OMG, I'm too stupid to chose, M$ sucks!
Hundreds of Linux distros - they are all the best and you must try all of them, better yet, include all of them in your boot menu! - QueensGangsta, on 11/22/2008, -1/+5Wait, did you say out of the box? I might try this out then! Nothing works for my wireless connection damn it.DAMN IT.
- boson3, on 11/22/2008, -1/+5I tried MEPIS- worked out of the box, on my laptop no less. Got sound and wireless right the first time. A bit less baggage laden than Ubuntu, which didn't work with my wireless. My fave is Gentoo though because I can choose what's in it to a fine level. (one of my peeves by the way with Ubuntu- didn't work with my desktop mobo's JMicron controller chip. It would be months before they would release a new kernel version supporting the chip, whereas Gentoo had a solution in days.)
- BJNK, on 11/22/2008, -0/+4Just curious.. but why? Why install the partition?
- arjie, on 11/22/2008, -0/+4A little bit of request for information since we're on the topic. I have an old Pentium III with 128 MB RAM, does it make sense for me to use AntiX on it. I won't be using a graphical user interface, just SSHing into it. But I might forward a few programs over SSH.
I'm asking because I'd like to try something that isn't standard, but not too esoteric. - arjie, on 11/22/2008, -1/+5What chip do you have? Have you tried ndiswrapper? It worked wonders for me some time back on my Netgear WG311.
- Subduction, on 11/22/2008, -1/+5Thanks, that's a help.
- priegog, on 11/22/2008, -0/+3Same here. Bacl in 2004 when ubuntu wasn't around, mepis was what got me into it all.
Then I switched to ubuntu and never looked back. Nothing against mepis, it's great. But you just can't beat ubuntuforums.
There's still a little place in my heart that belongs to Mepis. Maybe I'll dig out my old laptop and load it up there as a homage and reminder. - inactive, on 11/22/2008, -0/+3I've been using Mepis for about three years now, when it comes to stability, reliability and ease of use, it's the standard I compare other to. Ubuntu may have everybody dazzled with the money they pour into it, but with the limited resources Mr. Woodford has at his disposal, he still able to keep it just as good if not better. Sure I may use other distros such as Gentoo to keep up with the latest and greatest bleeding edge software, but when I need something that just works, the first thing I reach for is Mepis.
- 4321234, on 11/22/2008, -0/+3Do you still need to run the windows version of firefox under wine to get any plugins to work?
- elazutkin, on 11/22/2008, -0/+3Not a single screenshot in sight. Not in the artcle. Not on MEPIS' web site. Sigh. Is it really that ugly visually?
- Gavagai80, on 11/22/2008, -0/+3If what you have works, yes. I've always found Mepis to have better hardware support than any other distro, though.
- mickstephenson, on 11/22/2008, -0/+3And yet, the only important upcoming distro with anything truly different to offer, never gets reviewed, Foresight Linux.
- secrity, on 11/22/2008, -1/+4I could understand your criticism if it were a Johny-come-lately. Both MEPIS Linux and Arch Linux have been around for about six years; Arch is a few months older. Does MEPIS force you to install packages that you don't want?
- smacksaw, on 11/22/2008, -0/+3I can't imagine what all of those cogs and gears would do to a man's junk.
- dirtyforker, on 11/23/2008, -0/+2Actually well before ubuntu. And it was the first distro that really made linux usable. Very quick installs from a livecd, well chosen packages, codecs installed etc. It would have BEEN ubuntu but for the fact that the developer didn't really open up to the community the way ubuntu has done and so ubuntu has overtaken it in terms of making the desktop easy. Mepis is still a fantastic distro despite having a tiny development community.
- KAMiKAZOW, on 11/23/2008, -0/+2Stealing Kubuntu users is easy, because Kubuntu ships broken KDE releases. Personally, I had the best KDE experience with openSUSE.
- mynameistux, on 11/23/2008, -0/+2lets see some screens
- Kabloink, on 11/22/2008, -0/+2You do realize no one would be using Ubuntu today if we all stuck to the main distros. Ubuntu didn't even release a distro until 2004. That's 11 years after the start of Redhat. Debian, and Slackware. Which were some of the main distros in 2004.
- inactive, on 11/23/2008, -0/+2For a small distro SimplyMEPIS has quite a good and helpful community. It is a surprisingly stable Distro also.
Screen shot http://www.tuxmachines.org/images/simplymepis70.jp ... - KAMiKAZOW, on 11/23/2008, -0/+2But the latest KDE 3.5.x release is 3.5.10, not 3.5.9...
- newwatch51, on 11/22/2008, -0/+2Better hardware support. It worked with my wireless card before any other distro did.
- patm1987, on 11/22/2008, -0/+2But you can run Linux programs under FreeBSD!
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/linux ...
Last time I tried, though, was with PC-BSD and they had me downloading and installing a Red Hat kernel and a bunch of other nonsense. - newwatch51, on 11/22/2008, -0/+2don't feed the troll
- iridesce, on 11/23/2008, -0/+2So that they are aware of what is possible - Many people don't know a different and potentially better OS exists - they have to see the possibility every time they boot { I used to make the Mepis partition the default, but ended up changing back most of them [ but made the choice time longer ] } ,
Actually, the best way to introduce friends and family has turned out to be an old notebook that I have in the living room running Mepis. People use it and understand that it works just like they need it to ( email, surfing, listening, watching, reading .... ) and have experience to back their opinion. - trollick, on 11/22/2008, -0/+2I would never want to have sex with KDE, but that's just me...
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