Review: SimplyMEPIS 6.5 RC1
March 8th, 2007 by jamesRelease Candidate 1 of SimplyMEPIS 6.5 has just been released and since I was planning on reviewing beta 7, I figured I might as well download RC1 before doing my official review. I am using the 64-bit version on my desktop.
What is SimplyMEPIS?
SimplyMEPIS is a Linux distribution that is meant to be extremely easy to use and install, as well as incorporating the latest technologies in Linux.
Quoting from the distribution’s website:
Why SimplyMEPIS Linux?
- SimplyMEPIS allows you to test and try the software before you install to your harddrive
- SimplyMEPIS includes the very best business and multimedia programs
- SimplyMEPIS features unique hardware detection and configuration superior to any others
- SimplyMEPIS is pre-configured for simplicity and ease of use, you’re productive in a matter of minutes, not hours.
Downloading and booting the live CD
Shortly after downloading and burning beta 7 to give it a try, I discovered that RC1 had been released. I downloaded the 64-bit release ISO, SimplyMEPIS-CD_6.5.rc1_64.iso and burned it to a CD.
Booting it up presented a list of different boot options in the grub boot loader menu so I could choose one that was suitable to the system I was using it on.
Here’s a screen shot of the boot menu, taken from VMware Fusion beta on my MacBook Pro so you can see the list of options (I didn’t test SimplyMEPIS on it just the boot loader):
SimplyMEPIS boot loader with extensive boot options
For my desktop system with its GeForce 7800GT I chose the Nvidia opt-in choice to use the Nvidia binary drivers. After a few moments of looking at the boot splash screen, the KDE login screen appears and all was well. The included binary Nvidia drivers worked well with my card.
I selected the KDE 3D enabled desktop session and logged in as the demo user. A very nice looking (albeit 1024×768) KDE desktop appeared.
SimplyMEPIS desktop and menu
The Beryl 3D desktop features were very slick.
SimplyMEPIS uses KDE as its desktop environment. I must say I missed reviewing a KDE distribution (all the ones since I started this site have been GNOME-based) as KDE looks a lot more flashy and cool looking than GNOME, in my opinion. SimplyMEPIS uses a somewhat Windows-esque theme but it’s very clean looking. With Beryl enabled you get all the latest in 3D desktop effects.
Lots of Applications
Compared to the last few distributions I have reviewed (Foresight 1.0.1, Fedora 7 Test 2, SystemRescueCd, Knopperdisk, and PC-BSD 1.3.1), SimplyMEPIS includes a huge variety of applications on its live CD.
GIMP, digiKam (photo manager), an image viewer, and Xara Xtreme are included amongst other graphics applications.
A few graphics applications running on SimplyMEPIS
For Internet applications, you get Firefox, a BitTorrent client, an FTP client, Gaim, a remote desktop client, a Samba shares browser, VPN client, RSS feed reader, NX client, Thunderbird and Kmail, and a lot more.
A few of the many included Internet applications
In Multimedia, SimplyMEPIS includes Amarok for audio playing and management, k3b for burning CDs and DVDs, and even RealPlayer 10.
A few multimedia applications
For Office applications, OpenOffice.org is included, as well as postscript and PDF viewers.
A variety of system applications and utilities are also included standard on the live CD.
Some system applications and utilities
If you choose, you can install SimplyMEPIS to your hard drive directly from the live CD. The included package manager, Synaptic, provides an easy way to keep your system updated and to install any extra software you want on your MEPIS system.
MEPIS installer
I did open up and run many of the included applications and all the ones I did run seemed to work properly. I didn’t notice any crashes of any of the included software that I tried.
One problem I encountered is that I hit Ctrl+Alt+F1 to switch to a console and attempted to switch back to X (Ctrl+Alt+F7) and all I got was a mouse cursor and my system stopped working. Just to be sure this wasn’t a fluke, I rebooted and tested this again and it worked fine that time. I’m not sure what I did to deserve a frozen system that first time.
Final Thoughts
I plan on installing MEPIS to my hard disk once the final version of 6.5 is out. Once I do that I’ll write another review with the full install process documented. For now I must say that I’m very impressed with SimplyMEPIS 6.5 RC1. It is definitely a very well put together distribution and the fact that it gave me the option right from the boot loader to use the Nvidia drivers was a very nice touch.
I found the Beryl 3D desktop to be very cool. It rivals anything Microsoft and Apple have done with their operating systems so far. SimplyMEPIS makes it extremely easy to use Beryl since it is all setup for you. All you have to do is pick the 3D enabled KDE session and you’re good to go. I would’ve loved to include some screen shots of Beryl in action, but after a number of attempts I was unable to get one of it in action.
SimplyMEPIS 6.5 is definitely the coolest distribution I have reviewed so far. The eye candy is very sweet indeed, but more over it is put together well and simply works. I also like the fact it uses KDE instead of GNOME, but mainly for personal preference.
All in all SimplyMEPIS was a joy to try out.
If you’ve tried it, let me know what your thoughts were on this distribution.
March 8th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
If you liked SimplyMEPIS, you’ll love PCLinuxOS
March 8th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
James, you can enable the screen capture plugin in beryl settings to capture video of beryl on your desktop. go to the beryl forum in the plugin section to find instructions on how to convert the raw video to avi format.
March 8th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
I Started trying various distributions of Linux five years ago. I have tried Mepis, ProMepis and now, the dominant SimplyMepis. The two distros that always last long on my computers are Mepis (SimplyMepis) and PCLinuxOS.
When it comes to hardware detection, I have never come across any other distro that does it better than Mepis. Most of the time, my hardwares - Sound, video, network (wired and wireless)and display are configured and functioning correctly.
Mepis LiveCD is always my rescue disk on those occasions when I run into boot problems (e.g. after re-installing Windows for any reason. It so easily helps you to “re-install boot loader”.
I’m so happy that my two favorite distros (SimplyMepis and PCLinuxOS)have become so highly rated on DistroWatch ranking.
Much kudos to Textar and Warren.
March 8th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Isn’t it interesting that this distro is way better from usability point of view than Ubuntu, Susie or Fedora without any obvious corporate backing. The other peculiarity is that Mepis - the most user friendly distro has the least user friendly website. This indicates how potential Linux is on the desktop and how, at the moment, it is totally confused (in transition, in other words). I’ve been trying out every beta (1…7) of SimplyMepis 6.5. Waisted a lot of time on it and other distros. I will put linux to rest for about a year or so. Then I will try again. I bet Mepis is going to be the first one I will. Please note I am talking purely desktop.
March 8th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
LOL…in an email to the co-author of World Domination 201, I mentioned the two distros mentioned above. While I did appreciate his input, I found one of his statements a bit amusing.
“While I applaude your efforts on the Linux front, I would advise you against your choice of distros. Neither PCLinuxOS or Mepis are major players.”
Mepis has always held it’s own on DW but the amazing rise in popularity belongs to PCLinuxOS. Not a year ago, it was buried somewhere in the middle of top 100. Today it switches ranks with number 5 and number 6, depending on which day you look at it. The truly amazing part comes when you change the ranking stage from “the past six months” to the past 30 days.
Not a major player indeed. I look for Mepis and PCLinuxOS to be the top two distros when the dust settles…although that may be awhile. I run both on my machine. I do hope PCLinuxOS finds a way to rival the software choices available in the debian Sid or Ubuntu repos.
h
March 8th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Yes, both Mepis and PCLinuxOS are fine and capable distros, but for me there was a small difference.
I have a “2wire 2701-HG” DSL modem/portal/gateway, sent to me free when I subscribed to SBC/Yahoo Internet service. Of all Linuxes that I tried (SUSE, Freespire, Mepis, PC Linux OS), only Mepis detected this modem and correctly connected to it, without asking me even a single question. All others failed miserably - SUSE even reported “No DSL devices found”, others could not connect, or confugure properly the NIC, or whatever else could happen to prevent me from browsing and emailing…
Maybe there is some other obscure aspect, where Mepis will fail, and PC Linux OS would run with flying colors… In any case Mepis earned from me a steady place on my hdb, and a $50 donation.
BNK
March 9th, 2007 at 5:33 am
[…] Review […]
March 9th, 2007 at 6:16 am
[…] Review […]
March 9th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Hi everyone. Thanks for the comments. Good news! I’ll be writing a PCLinuxOS review soon.
MEPIS is one of my favorite distributions that I’ve tried. I agree their website could definitely use some help, but the distro itself is stellar. It seems to do everything I want for desktop purposes and looks great as well.
On the server, which is where I have tons of experience using Linux, I’d most likely still stick with Debian or Ubuntu LTS which is what most of the servers I run use.
Bart Burroughs:
Thanks for the great tip! I’ll definitely use that next time.
March 9th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Hi,
Mepis is great but at least for me it is still ugly and needs a major overhaul in the looks department. I runs very well and is very stable for the most part but I don’t find it particularly kind on the eyes!
just my two cents…..
March 9th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
I realize its confusing what with all these startup distros flooding the scene, but to me there really are only 3 that will be the real players for 2007 and beyond. Sabayon, PCLos and SM. SuSe is ~ok~ for the desktop and better for business use. Sabayon takes top dog for beryl compatability as it is the only partner of beryl at present and thus is a the most tightly integrated distro for that, plus the fact that its Gentoo based which is an absolute plus. It auto detects litterally anything on the market today except for maybe stuff that just hit the streets like…today!
PCLos has never been able to work “out of the box” on my HP mega system, and even just last weekend could not even detect my NVIDIA 7900GT card and auto configure it, as Sabayon did without a hitch. I am really looking forward to trying out SM RC1 in the very near future and I do believe it just might be able to rival Sabayon, but well see.
March 9th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
I particularly enjoyed Vi’s post about corporate-backed distros. Any Windows convert will have better luck with PCLinuxOS, Mepis, Sabayon, or Mint (read NOT UBUNTU). Ubuntu’s rise in popularity has always baffled me because it is not as friendly as the above mentioned distros. If Texstar or Warren were the President of Novell, Linux would be scaring the pants off Windows.
I agree with your review. Mepis is a great distro and will be around a long time. I also agree that it needs a little polish in the graphics area. This is where, IMO, PCLinuxOS has an advantage, and it will be around a long time, too. But I (we) digress. The review is about Mepis and it deserves a very positive one. I used it back in its 2003 version days and it was top notch then, too. I believe distros such as these deserve $20 to $40 donation from their users BECAUSE they are not Novell or Mark Shuttleworth backed. Money well spent!
March 10th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Mepis and PCLinuxOS are both fine distro’s, but I prefer PCLOS because it is free software released under the GPL (except for some of the multimedia support). Mepis on the other hand is not (read the licensing agreement you have to agree to, next time you install it).
March 11th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Whilst I have used both mepis and pclinuxox, and found them ok, they are not the ant’s pants
distro’s as promoted in their forums. PCLinuxOS tells you only it’s closed repo will work, don’t cry to us if you venture outside it. Mepis is what? It’s not debian, it seems to be getting away from ubuntu. What is their direction?
The forums of PCLinuxOS and Mepislovers are an unfriendly place. If the mods don’t like you then you get edited or deleted. If your comment or question is not a loving one or to the mods liking, then you are not wanted there.
The rising star of distro’s with a friendly and open forum is Sidux.
March 13th, 2007 at 5:27 am
I can’t even get mepis 6.5 rc1 to load on my laptop. It is not good looking and the fonts are usually horrible. I have recently tried pclinux again. I am more impressed. Forget Sabayon, very nice graphics, the forum mods, flame anyone who asks question they don’t like. portage is slow since that is the package manager. sorry going off on another direction
March 13th, 2007 at 9:46 am
“The forums of PCLinuxOS and Mepislovers are an unfriendly place. If the mods don’t like you then you get edited or deleted. If your comment or question is not a loving one or to the mods liking, then you are not wanted there.” — blinky
I don’t know about your experiences in the PCLOS forums but, I do know about your experiences over at the MEPIS forums. I will be quite direct in calling you a liar.
The only users edited or banned–if ever–are SPAM link posters.
March 13th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Just tried Mepis 6.5 RC1, and other than wireless problems (which I can resolve if I install rather than boot from the live CD), it is terrific. Anyone who complains about the look of Mepis has not tried this version with the 3D Graphics enabled. It is beautiful and runs smoothly. I give Knoppix high points too as it is the only live CD distro that enabled my wireless (Intel BG2200) but it still has the (”ugly”) non-3D KDE desktop.
March 15th, 2007 at 4:13 am
I got banned from pclinuxos for criticizing the install procedure for 0.92 and referring me to a manual. what a crock!
(the program is great though!)
March 15th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Mepis will now not load, on my dell. When it does, depends on version. Look at distrowatch. PCLos is taking over. Warren is taking too long to release 6.5
March 15th, 2007 at 10:49 am
“I realize its confusing what with all these startup distros flooding the scene, but to me there really are only 3 that will be the real players for 2007 and beyond. Sabayon, PCLos and SM. SuSe is ~ok~ for the desktop and better for business use”
If the writer of this piece refers to MEPIS as a startup distro, he is quite mistaken. MEPIS was the FIRST to:
- create a live CD with easy installer in one
- include plugins and codecs so people did not have to hunt for them
- create an installable distro with top notch hardware detection
It baffles me why you should think PCLOS should remain and MEPIS should disappear. With the current state of Mandrive, it would be very wise if Tex started thinking about changing his repo base…..
March 15th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Mike: “Look at distrowatch. PCLos is taking over. Warren is taking too long to release 6.5″
You know Mike, PCLOS maybe taking over, because SM6.5 stable version is not released yet. As you said it takes too long to release the stable version. You’re right here, but I think it is worth to wait. For some extra few weeks waiting you get a REALLY stable OS. For stability it is worth to wait.
About Mepis I must say, that I use it for a long time now, and I am very satisfied with it. It is stable, usable, and the desktop looks great if you take some time to configure it to your needs. The default look maybe is not the most beautiful, but nobody said to keep that. Just go to kde-look.org and search for eye-candies you like. Mepis’ hardware detection is wonderful indeed. I have a not well-known laptop, but Mepis could find and use everything it has. Cool. SuSE couldn’t do that. Mepis can become a real competitor to Win, if Warren would have more support, donations and feedbacks. Great job.
March 15th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Oh, I forget to mention something in my previous post. There is only one annoying, and bad thing about Mepis, and this is the package ages. For example, RC1 still had the very old, outdated KDE version 3.5.3. In newer KDE versions, there are tons of bug fixes, so it would be a good point for Mepis, if in the stable version Warren would include the latest KDE. I had some problems with KDE part applications, like KMail (it freezes the whole sys if I write too many misspelled words). It is not a Mepis problem it is a reported KMail bug, and I think it is fixed in later versions. There were some other minor bugs too inside KDE. So it would be great if Warren made possible to use other repos than Ubuntu Dapper, because dapper repos have very old packages.
March 16th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
pusrob : I just saw your post on the read through. You might want to read this post on mepis.org before complaining about the older packages : http://www.mepis.org/node/12163
Q. Why isn’t KDE 3.5.5 included?
A. Starting with KDE 3.5.4 the KDE Project began changing the software technology they use for media notification. For example, they now require a newer version of libhal. That library is not compatible with the MEPIS/Dapper packages. For our purposes, KDE 3.5.4 and KDE 3.5.5 are unstable. If we updated to either of them, some functionality would be broken.
March 18th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
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