SimplyMEPIS 8.5
Booting & Login
Bootsplash
The bootsplash screen shows the SimplyMEPIS branding, along with boot options and a preview of the desktop wallpaper.
Login
The login screen also displays the wallpaper, and it allows you to change your session type or opt to logout or shut down your system.
The SimplyMEPIS 8.5 bootsplash screen.
The login screen for SimplyMEPIS 8.5.
The Desktop
The desktop contains icons for Documents, Trash, the MEPIS Manual (see the help section for a screenshot of the manual), and the MEPIS site. I generally dislike icons on the desktop but, in this case, I don’t mind them. The MEPIS Manual is certainly something worth having available to new users, as is the link to the MEPIS site.
Controls
One of the best things about SimplyMEPIS is its assistant menus. These menus let you configure users, x-windows, networking, system settings, etc. Here’s a list of them, along with screenshots of each to show you what they look like.
MEPIS Network Assistant
MEPIS User Assistant
MEPIS X-Windows Assistant
MEPIS System Assistant
These assistants offer real value to SimplyMEPIS users and help set this distro apart from others. You can access these by clicking on the Application Launcher Menu button on the panel, then by choosing Settings.
Wallpaper
The SimplyMEPIS desktop won’t wow you with glitzy wallpaper. In fact, it’s rather drab and dreary looking. But perhaps that’s appropriate for a distro that’s more a workhorse than a showhorse. Still, I’d like to see something a little more upbeat than the current wallpaper.
The SimplyMEPIS 8.5 desktop contains a link to a helpful manual.
Next I’ll look at software and software management tools.
(12 votes, average: 4.58 out of 5)
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It is a little sad that Mepis is not a rolling release…
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Cons: Drab desktop wallpaper. Lacks the cloud integration of Peppermint OS One.
:)
@ Sandro:
That’s kind of the whole point of MEPIS. It’s built on a stable base and has a long release cycle, making it great for people who don’t want to constantly update.
Besides, sidux already has the “debian rolling release” thing covered. MEPIS fills an important “Debian stable but friendly and with updated apps” niche.
I nominate SimplyMEPIS as the top Linux desktop distribution on the market today IF these are your selection criteria:
1. Stability: SimplyMEPIS is based on Debian Lenny, the current stable Debian version. To that solid Debian core SimplyMEPIS adds additional hardware configuration support and a number of excellent system management tools as described in the review.
2. Support: The MEPIS Lovers Community, at least to me, is the top vendor supported community in terms of providing excellent documentation, prompt and even mannered responses to requests for help (and that can be rare, as we frequently hear about “blow ups” in various forums), and the software is solid enough to require very infrequent change.
3. Flexibility: The default SimplyMEPIS distribution is primarily designed for simplicity rather than the ultimate flexibility, yet in spite of that it remains a flexible platform. In support of this assertion, the MEPIS project officially recognizes two significant efforts, the antiX distribution, which allows highly customized systems to be developed at will, and the MEPIS Community Repository, which allows the base MEPIS project to retain only very stable software, yet allows those who want certain additional software to request it and get it.
In the MEPIS Community Repository, we have seen not only the further advancement of antiX, but we’ve also seen very early versions of KDE 4 applied to a stable MEPIS core, we’ve seen LXDE and XFCE remasters, and we’ve seen a lot of discussion about personal projects to set up a MEPIS based system for either stable, testing, or cutting edge use, taking MEPIS and nearly revamping it in every conceivable fashion.
Whether it is art work, the latest software, or just experimentation, the MEPIS Community provides it and helps you get it. Yet, for those whose only aspiration is to have a system that works, SimplyMEPIS offers it better than anything that I’ve seen in over 35 years of computer system experience.
Alan hits it on the mark as far as a rolling release goes. You can get that with sidux and you can also get it with antiX, an official alternative to SimplyMEPIS.
Some of the antiX advocates start with an antiX BASE build and create their own completely different system. They may change the kernel – the smxi tool provided allows you, for example, to enable and grab Xen extended kernels written by Damentz, which are well regarded. You can also grab sidux kernels using the same tool, and of course, you can grab any stock Debian kernels as well. When you do so, it begins to require more expertise to understand what you are changing and the implications of those changes. Suffice it to say that if you want it, with MEPIS you can get it and you can do it, and there are those who can help when you have questions too.
Jim, you forgot to mention the most important help feature available for this distro. It is the Mepis manual icon right on the desktop. It launches in Konquerer but is actually local on the disk. If there is a finer manual out there I have yet to see it. It has excellent general Linux info as well as Mepis specific.
Tlmck, I think I did mention it in the desktop section didn’t I?
Tlmck, I think I did mention it in the desktop section didn’t I?
Read more: http://desktoplinuxreviews.com/2010/05/25/simplymepis-8-5/6/#ixzz0pu6jnS68
You did, but be honest now, was it there all along or did you add it in after Tlmck mentioned it? ;-)
I like MEPIS.