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Yet Another Debian-based Distro: Mepis
emgarf writes "Today, on the first anniversary of the MEPIS Project, MEPIS LLC announced the release of MEPIS Linux 2003.10 for Pentium processors. MEPIS Linux is a desktop Linux that is designed for both personal and business users. MEPIS Linux offers a live/installation/recovery CD, advanced automatic hardware configuration, XP/NTFS support, ACPI power management, WiFi support, personal firewall, KDE 3.1.4, OpenOffice 1.1, Mozilla 1.5, and much more."
I don't see why anyone would have anything against another Linux distro. That is what the Linux community is based on isn't it? Choice?
The only problem with that is that Gentoo takes ages to install, even on modern equipment.
Try Crux instead.
It's always good to see another distribution from a research/development standpoint. Rolling your own distro builds more who are familiar with the landscape.
/. worthy? I think it'd be better suited on distrowatch. Posting each new distribution won't help Linux, but rather it gives the impression of being a little desperate.
But why is this here? What defining feature of Mepis make it
I'm not trolling or trying to start a flamewar (I'm a Debian user myself), but Linux needs to push the envelope for creative code hacking.
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The trend seems to be towards two standard meta-distros:
- Debian for installations
- Knoppix for live-cds
Ceci n'est pas une signature
nerds care? slashdot is news for nerds you know. and while you might not want to(or be able to) use that linux based piano you can very well download this and use it.
if you don't care about these things please go and make msn your homepage. or make linux things not show up your slashdot(from prefs).
i care as well, i guess i'm a nerd. the reason why i read slashdot is because things like this do get mentioned and i can remember what they are when somebody speaks of them or asks if such a thing exists. now i know that there's yet another debian based distro out there that i should check out and maybe recommend when somebody asks what they should install on their system when they want to check out this 'linux' thing.
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world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
apt is a dependancy resolution tool for dpkg. dpkg has all the abilities of RPM and more.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
true. but it takes days to install and my mother would never be able to set her own USE flags. i think mepis is looking to provide maximum customization while still being "end user friendly"
2 1337 4 u!
With all the Gnome propoganda coming from Redhat, Sun and Novell, its good to see a decent KDE distro. I personally don't think gnome will be ready for prime time until they fix their file dialog (which they keep promising, but they don't), design their configuration dialog properly so options aren't hidden in gconf-editor and make it less crash prone.
KDE 3.2 will be out soon, so it will be interesting to see how many people will switch from Gnome, because the Rudi beta is already excellent, and is developing at a phenominal rate.
Now I know that there are plenty of tools out there that use rpms and give you similar functionality to programs like apt-get or dselect, but I think people just like the fact that in Debian they install these things by default and are built specifically with them in mind.
Anyways though, for a new distro that's just come out, it seems like it wouldn't really matter whether it's Debian Based or Red Hat based. You can get the same functionality with either package format, it just depends on what tools you include with your distro.
Gentoo gives you total control, like no other linux distro.
true. but it takes days to install and my mother would never be able to set her own USE flags. i think mepis is looking to provide maximum customization while still being "end user friendly"
I wasnt speaking for people like your mother, I was speaking for the linux hacker who likes to tweak and hack. The person who tries more than one distro, or even has a ppc/sparc box. The ones who like to bang the metal, code demos, have a little bit of the artist hacker in them.
Gentoo isnt the distro for your mother. Gentoo is like the turbo charger you bolt on, or the even the custom paint job for your car. Its the way you want, exactly. And that customization takes knowledge and experience with building a src based linux setup. Yes it takes time to compile, just as building a plane in your garage takes time.
I wouldnt ever recommend Gentoo (except live cd's). Knoppix/SuSE or Mandrake are much better choices. SuSE has better end-user tools, Knoppix provides the best visual (out of the box) experience. Mandrake is popular and easy to find support. Just as there are different cars, there are different linux distros. Pick the one for the right job.
What can apt-get do?
./configure) requires editing a template control file, providing a list of configuration files, and editing the template rules file (which is just a makefile), unlike redhat, where you have to create a .spec file listing all of your patches and all of the steps for compilation, with variables and other syntax specific to rpm.
apt-get install foo: locate foo, download foo and its dependencies, install foo and its dependencies, uninstalls conflicting packages (yes, it tells you what its going to do before it does anything)
apt-get dist-upgrade: upgrade your debian distribution.
apt-cache search foo: regular expression search for "foo" in package name and description.
In truth, apt and rpm do not compete. Apt is a mechanism for retrieving updates in an orderly fashion, and rpm is a package manager. This is why you can get versions of apt for redhat/mandrake/etc. that use RPMs. Apt really competes with redhat's up2date software (assuming you subscribed to it).
dpkg is debian's competitor to RPM. There are a lot of things that dpkg handles better than RPM, but there are a lot of things that RPM handles better than dpkg. For instance, I'm not sure dpkg handles relocatable packages like rpm can. However, building a package for debian (as long as your program "plays nice" and uses
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Actually, people use debian because, among other things, dependencies are rigorously checked.
The packages themselves are maintained well.
Apt-get helps,
so does the format,
but it is the package maintainers that make debian rock.
Hey guys,
:( and will put up one myself if I have to. When will these distros learn from Slackware (The Great!)? :)
We really need to get it together and distribute these ISOs on BitTorrent. I checked and no one had one available. I am downloading it now over a 56k link
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dpkg -S
You are comparing apples and oranges. For an rpm system to utilize the functionality of apt you simply install one of those apt tools made for your rpm based distro. dpkg is the tool more comparable to rpm. As far as arguing for the superiority of one or the other lets just say that I used RedHat and Mandrake before tackling Debian and would never go back to an RPM based distribution. I wouldn't argue that RPMs are bad in some way, only that the packages themselves and the toolchain to manage them can't do anything that can't be done just as easily in the Debian manner. What makes me prefer it is that dpkg has a more granular, modular approach to the problems of package management that reflects Debian's distributed development. The author of alien has a good package management comparison table here.With the addition of apt you get a comprehensive approach to OSS. If it's out there, it's got a unique place in Debian's package namespace. The only technical point I can think of offhand that I would like to change about Debian is the use of foo-x.y.z.orig.tar.gz for the upstream sources. The distro could distribute that aspect of the source archive by changing the foo-x.y.z-r.diff.gz to reference the original source tarball out there on it's own mirror system for many packages.
Debian isn't great just because of apt. Tools like apt are nothing without comprehensive high quality package repositories that are tested to ensure that all dependencies can be met, every package works with every other package, etc...
Debian has this. Sure you can use apt with RPM based distros like Redhat, but the available repositories are not nearly as comprehensive or as well tested as Debian stable repositories.
Of course, I am writing this from a Fedora install using apt with FreshRPMs repositories, but I plan on converting to Debian once Sarge is released next year.