Is (K)Ubuntu anything like Mepis?

[maspro]

In my quest for the perfect out-of-the-box Linux distro there are many good distro's. If you look at the RPM based distro's Mandriva, Fedora and Suse are good choices. If you look at the Debian based distro's then the best choices seem to be (K)Ubuntu, Mepis, Xandros, Linspire and Libranet. Some of them are free and some of them are not!

Based on the page-rank at distrowatch.com Mepis seems to be a good alternative to (K)Ubuntu. Are there any former Mepis users here who have made the switch to (K)Ubuntu? Or maybe former (K)Ubuntu users who have switched to Mepis?

If so.... why?

[23meg]

i sincerely hope this doesn't start another Mepis vs. Ubuntu debate..

i've tried Mepis, but immediately got rid of it. reasons: in my experience, Ubuntu has been better at autodetecting hardware and Mepis has been very bad, Mepis uses KDE, which i can't stand for more than 20 seconds, Mepis can't dist-upgrade to a new release, and the Mepis user community is much less helpful and knowlegdeable than the Ubuntu one. that was it, for me; your mileage may vary. but in the first place, why are you looking for an alternative for Ubuntu? what is it you can't find in it that you're hoping to find in Mepis? if you state this, maybe i and others can be of more help.

and please, please don't judge distros by their distrowatch page ranking. i don't know how this got so fashionable, but it sure isn't the right thing to do.

[maspro]

i sincerely hope this doesn't start another Mepis vs. Ubuntu debate..

but in the first place, why are you looking for an alternative for Ubuntu? what is it you can't find in it that you're hoping to find in Mepis? if you state this, maybe i and others can be of more help.

Well I'm not sure yet, I'm a former Mandrake user and I still use Windows XP Pro. But on my laptop I want Linux, so I'm trying different distro's. I don't fancy Gnome that much, so KDE is a better choice for me. But Kubuntu sometimes behaves weird, with some bugs and stuff. Also I miss having a central administration tool in Ubuntu, like YAST of MCC. Don't get me wrong Ubuntu with KDE is very cool, but I'm reading several things that KDE is not integrated properly when using it with Ubuntu.

I guess I would like to see all of the good stuff combined in one distro, but I haven't found a distro that's got it all and also works fully out-of-the-box.

[bgstratt]

Well, at home I put together two computers for my boys, one, the slow one, has Ubuntu, and the other, the faster one, has MEPIS. The 400MHZ 128MB RAM Ubuntu computer runs just as fast as the 733MHZ 256MB Ram Mepis computer. The bootup for Ubuntu runs much smoother, no extra "junk" to have to select or wait for, now this is out of the box remind you. On the MEPIS computer I have to pick the kernel, then pick the video mode, also firefox just dies every now and then for no reason. My son loves the KDE on MEPIS though, he calls it the bouncing balls. I like being able to just use the scroll wheel on the mouse anywhere on the desktop to change to another desktop, instead of on Ubuntu where I have to go down to the corner and wheel or click to the other desktops. Now I again remind you this is out of the box. The other thing I did not like about MEPIS is that "they", the MEPIS website, say that java works out of the box, liars, no, maybe they are just misinformed, but I still had to install java on both and setup the plugins to get java games to work, same for flash and mplayer, although I prefer xine which works great for cd's burned into Nero Digital format. The only other downfall, other than the multiple workspace or desktop issue, for Ubuntu is that the sound didn't out of the box, and still doesn't, since I haven't had a chance to mess with it too much yet. It's that darn on board audiodrive ESS 1869, I should really break down and spend 5 bucks on a used sound card for him, but he'll live without the sound. Mepis wouldn't even load on that computer. On the Mepis one I have a slight problem with sound out of the box too, but at least it kinda plays although scratchy and not through the speakers plugged into the back. Again, and I cannot stress this enough, this is out of the box, and the sound issue is a non-specific linux issue, not Ubuntu or MEPIS. The other great plus for Ubuntu is the forums, I cruise them daily and always find help with just a simple search, the MEPIS forums are a little less friendly, although I'm sure the people are just as cool.

(\ /)
(O.o)
(> <)
Make sure you lookout for bunny, he is trying to find his way to world domination, and he's pretty close to it.

[rickwood]

If it's a great out-of-box experience you're looking for, I'd suggest Xandros. It is really well configured from the get go. Older versions (2.x) were pretty slow, but version 3 is better in this regard. The only complaint I have with Xandros is that it is still pretty easy to break by using software outside of "Xandros Networks". But if you're not the type to tinker and try all the latest stuff, Xandros is a great choice (best I've used "out-of-the-box").

[weekend warrior]

Hello Maspro, you're not likely to find a one-in-all distro. It's the art of compromise. That said, you will find people here who are ex rpm distro users and won't go back because of dependencies. Of those deb distros, Linspire and Libranet you'll pay for and the Xandros OCE isn't the same out of box as the commercial one. That leaves ubuntu and Mepis.

My experience with Mepis wasn't great. I second 23meg's comments on hardware detection. Mepis didn't like my monitor or video card and gave me problems which searching and asking on Mepis forums didn't completely answer. That's one of the biggest advantages here. The community is large and it's likely someone has had the same problem. If not, there are plenty of good people around, not separated into newbie / advanced forums, who are willing to help. The other advantage of a large community is the creativity, from artwork to 3rd party projects to customization tips and tricks, there's a lot of creativity here.

Ubuntu does have the Gnome Control Center (http://packages.ubuntu.com/hoary/gnome/gnome-control-center) you might like. Coming from KDE, give Gnome time to appreciate it. If you need something in Gnome like KDE and not sure how or where it is, try asking here and remember Gnome can look a lot better than the default. Also don't discard other window managers like xfce (http://www.xfce.org/), especially for a laptop. Kubuntu is still raw, only the first release after all. The next should be better. Until then you can get familiar with ubuntu and the Debian concept.

There is something to consider about Mepis. Mepis is a one man operation. Wherever Warren goes so goes Mepis. If he decides to move on or something happens in his personal situation, Mepis could dry up. It wouldn't be the first time it's happened. Or he could one day change his business plan like Red Hat or Novell/SUSE. If this worries you, then Mepis might not be for you. Ubuntu has solid backing, plenty of people behind it and a clear roadmap. It's here for the long haul. Ubuntu will also always be free, all of it. There won't be a Simply and a Pro Ubuntu.

At the end of the day, linux is linux, what separates them more are the communities around them IMHO. The only way you'll know for sure though is to try them for a while with an open mind and hang around the forums for a bit and choose which one works best for you. Either way they're both good, it's hard to go wrong with either.

Hope that helps, if not, well you just keep asking away :)

[poofyhairguy]

Places Kubuntu beats MEPIS-

Can be upgraded by apt-get

Has a different repo thatn Debian, so avoids conflict when installing things

Gets security updates



Places where MEPIS beats Kubuntu-

Automatically has many codecs installed (including MP3 I think)

Has better non free configuration apps. If you need to configure networks in Kubuntu, you have to install Gnome system tools.

Installs itseld from Live CD (that is awesome. I wish Ubuntu only had 1 cd for everything)

Of course this is my opinion, I might be wrong (I'm human) and I also might be a little biased. But I think those are the facts...

EDIT: Here is a give, take one. In MEPIS GTKPod is installed out of the box, but with Kubuntu a newer version in in the Universe. You can't upgrade the MEPIS version easily from Sid, because it wasn't installed with a deb but it works out of the box.

Of course, if you include jDong's GTKPod, MEPIS can't win....

[jcs296]

I use Ubuntu (with KDE installed, at home) and Mepis (at work); as soon as i have the chance, I'm installing Ubuntu on the work computer. Keep in mind that I don't use the multimedia features on mepis since it's on a work computer.

Annoying things about Mepis (that aren't true with Ubuntu):
-Mepis installs some services that slow it down and pose security risks: Apache, Samba server, Snort (not a security risk but it isn't necessary), and a bunch of other services I turned off.
-Mepis has a firewall (Guarddog), but the interface is confusing and leaves many services open by default
-Mepis' control center really just adds a couple items into KDE's control center, namely for Samba and firewall. These sections have a ton of options and aren't intuitive at all. You'll have to spend quite a bit of time just making sure that the settings you chose do what you think they do.
-Doesn't have as large a community
-Synaptic has crashed several times; this hasn't happend to me on Ubuntu
-Takes a long time to startup
-installs a million programs you'll never use

Where Mepis is better:
-Flash plugin installed by default, Nice theme (but this is easy to change), KDE may be slightly better integrated.
-You can boot it up, try it out, and if it works, install it to disk, (no using the live cd, rebooting with the install cd)
-Networking with Windows machines was easy to set up. (though Smb4k crashes a lot)

Mepis is great, but Ubuntu (after 30 minutes going through ubuntuguide.org) beats it. They're very close though, and you'd be fine with either. I'll admit most of my complaints with Mepis can be fixed, but they take more time to undo than the set up needed with Ubuntu.

[maspro]

Thx for all the comments and different views. It sure sounds after reading all of your experiences that Ubuntu is the better choice. Although I most say that if I use google and search about this subject that there are also many people who say that Mepis absolutely rocks and beats Ubuntu easily and that Ubuntu is just another hype in the Linux community. I not sure what to think about that?!

So that leaves me with one option and that is installing Mepis and see for myself. Until now I have tried Mandrake, Suse, Linspire, Xandros, Kubuntu and Ubuntu and in a far past also Redhat, Corel and Slackware.

Of the Debian based distro's I really liked Linspire and Kubuntu. I found Xandros v3.0 to be a bit slow. Very curious about Mepis!

From the RPM based distro's my favorite would be Mandrake, mostly because of URPMI, the MCC, the draketools and the mostly free updates. Suse on the other hand is much more commercial, you have to pay for many of the updates and they don't have a free install cd available. I never tried Fedora, although I hear very good stuff about it.

Thx for the comment about the Gnome Control Center, I didn't knew that, is it in the Universe or Multiverse? Because I think a good central administration tool is a must-have. But it seems that only Mandrake, Suse en Libranet have those central administration tools.

I think that if Mandrake were Debian based, then that would be my favorite distro! :grin:

But until now Ubuntu with KDE is a cool experience for me. And indeed in the end it's all Linux! :)

[mohaham]

Ubuntu beats 'em all..
helpful community..
debian-devs..
easy upgrades..
stable..
regular releases..
works out of the box..
currently #1
what more do ya want..

[rykel]

Hi,

It's been months since I last used MEPIS 3.3, and I have been a solid Ubuntu user ever since.

These are a few points I can remember between my experiences with MEPIS and Ubuntu:

1. GNOME looks more professional, altho' it lacks many of the Right-Click options and functions of KDE, but still, I can get most work done with the former, so I got stuck to Ubuntu.

2. Ubuntu detected my hardware more quickly and accurately than MEPIS. Altho' Ubuntu does not come with the official nVidia driver, it could at least set up a viewable screen using the "nv" driver. MEPIS did not do that in all the versions I used from 2004.x.

3. MEPIS is definitely more productive upfront, since Flash, Java, mplayer plugins etc. were already packaged into the system out of the box.

HOWEVER, many other things would NOT work no matter what I downloaded, or would take tons of searching and hunting before it worked. eg. SCIM and/or UTF-8 interface never did work in MEPIS, but with Ubuntu, it was a simple install-from-Synaptic and now I have tens of languages I can input into my OpenOffice.org.

4. MEPIS icons were scattered all over the place upon installation, and when I showed my non-Linux friends the desktop with the MEPIS liveCD, they said, "Yucks!"

With Ubuntu, they said, "Wow, this desktop looks cool... like a Mac!"

5. Ubuntu is FAST, and with the i686 kernel installed, things work much more speedily than MEPIS. The bootup, shutdown etc. in Ubuntu all works faster than in MEPIS.

Talking about startup services, I only hope that soon, BOTH Ubuntu and MEPIS can have the same installation tools, bootup splash screen and setup tools like the ones you find for Fedora Core (Ananconda), SUSE (YaST) and Mandriva (Mandrake Control Center).

Aren't these tools supposed to be open-source? If so, isn't it simply a matter of taking them and integrating them into Ubuntu Breezy?

6. This one may be off-topic: AUTOPACKAGE works with Ubuntu!! Now, honestly I have yet to install autopackages in MEPIS, but who really cares about whether is it RPM or DEB based distros when you can simply find an autopackage nowadays?

Autopackage is the most significant software for me in Linux, because I never had great success using the commandline to install programs, and for so long, I had to download different RPMs and DEBs of the SAME program, simply because I was installing the same program on different distros.

Now, I hated it, coz I was using dialup.

OK, that's it for now! If time permits, I will come back to this thread and add the other experiences I have that I don't have the time to go into now.

Thanks!


Regards,

Rykel
Singapore

[weekend warrior]

Ah yes, the "hype" factor. Well as with anything new, exciting and quickly growing there will be those who flock just to flock. That's the way of things. Some will drop off and others will stay to become contributing members of the community. Personally, I'm here because I like it (that simple really), everything "just worked" for me, the community is friendly, helpful and creative, and I think ubuntu has a bright future. Hype, marketing and Distrowatch have nothing to do with it for me.

Remember, with Mepis you have the "indie underground hit" factor, maybe even a little bit of the "cult" factor. You'll find some people there simply because it isn't as popular! it's different, less known and that gives it a "cool" factor for some. Whatever floats your boat. It takes every kind of people....

Also remember that the add-on cd in ubuntu guide (http://ubuntuguide.org/) will give you multimedia things like codecs, flash, dvd playback, realplayer etc etc faster than you can say "kubuntu" five times fast. :mrgreen:

The Gnome Control Center you should find in the universe. As you already found out YaST2 for Debian (http://yast4debian.alioth.debian.org/) is on the horizon and the KDE control center is available to you in Kubuntu. You know, if Kubuntu is already a good experience for you it seems a rational choice to stay with it to the next release which should be a considerable improvement.

But again, you should give Mepis a spin to see for yourself, you've nothing to lose. (well except the splendid ubuntu community that is ;) )

[weekend warrior]

In fact, there you go - Compiling Yast2 in Debian (http://yast4debian.alioth.debian.org/howto-compile-en.html)
If you like this sort of thing you might be interested in the Ubuntu Backports Project (http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=47)

Be warned though, they don't call it BreakMyUbuntu for nothing! #-o

[maspro]

Well I installed Mepis 3.3 and what can I say, well first let me start with the stuff that didn't work out of the box:

- my usb optical mouse didn't work.
- my usb-stick didn't work.
- my sound didn't work.
- my wireless didn't work (but this was to be expected).
- Mepis kept searching for a usb printer at boot-up that wasn't there.
- The KDE font's and icons were a bit strange.

This is the stuff that I noticed that didn't work, maybe there is more stuff like flash and java and such, but if basic things as a mouse and playing wav files don't work, well that really sucks.

Some nice things about Mepis:

- I had divx playback (no sound), although I can't remember if Ubuntu had this out of the box.
- the Mepis OS Control Center was kind of cool, although not much options.
- out of the box the application suite was very complete, but maybe also a lot of useless stuff.
- some of the KDE tweaks were nice.
- simple installation (but Ubuntu was no harder to install)

But overall Kubuntu made a better impression, so it's back to Kubuntu for me. Maybe Mepis can be really cool, but it sure needs some manual tweaks and adjustments to get it there.

[deception]

I just have to say, thank you and congratulations on doing the best thing you could have done : tried the distro!!!!!. It get's slightly annoying for me, I don't know about others, when there are several thread on one page with "Ubuntu vs suchandsuch distro" etc.. You have done the perfect thing, all by yourself, and tried the distro to actually see what it is like for you. It's always fine to have opinions, but isn't it your opinion that counts more to you?


On another note, welcome to the community :)

[maspro]

I just have to say, thank you and congratulations on doing the best thing you could have done : tried the distro!!!!!. It get's slightly annoying for me, I don't know about others, when there are several thread on one page with "Ubuntu vs suchandsuch distro" etc.. You have done the perfect thing, all by yourself, and tried the distro to actually see what it is like for you. It's always fine to have opinions, but isn't it your opinion that counts more to you?


On another note, welcome to the community :)

Yes, your absolutely right and I can understand that such threads can be really annoying, but I think that people make these kind of threads because sooner or later it gets kind of annoying to try all those different distro's. And I think that people are more likely to install a new distro when they hear good things about it and those good things are sometimes likely to come from threads like these. :grin:

And yes in the end it comes down to my own opinion!

thx for the welcome :grin:

[nuopus]

Places Kubuntu beats MEPIS-
Places where MEPIS beats Kubuntu-

Automatically has many codecs installed (including MP3 I think)

Has better non free configuration apps. If you need to configure networks in Kubuntu, you have to install Gnome system tools.


That is why I think I switched from Ubuntu although I am kind of missing it.

Debian based distros have an extremely anal policy about non-free packages. In Arch Linux I can just install to my hearts content GPL'd software like MP3 playback, DVD players, Video players with windows codecs ... the whole nine yards, and the package manager is more versetile than apt-get with the ability to recursively remove packages.

Main reason for switching though is the crippled install in reguards that it is not a very good multimedia distro since because of policy ... not that you cant get them to work, but in other distros it "just" works.

[deception]

Yes, your absolutely right and I can understand that such threads can be really annoying, but I think that people make these kind of threads because sooner or later it gets kind of annoying to try all those different distro's. And I think that people are more likely to install a new distro when they hear good things about it and those good things are sometimes likely to come from threads like these. :grin:

And yes in the end it comes down to my own opinion!

thx for the welcome :grin:

Your welcome :razz:

I can see the point in such threads, but I'd say maybe a sticky with everyone's testimonials would serve the purpose just as well :)

[deception]

That is why I think I switched from Ubuntu although I am kind of missing it.

Debian based distros have an extremely anal policy about non-free packages. In Arch Linux I can just install to my hearts content GPL'd software like MP3 playback, DVD players, Video players with windows codecs ... the whole nine yards, and the package manager is more versetile than apt-get with the ability to recursively remove packages.

Main reason for switching though is the crippled install in reguards that it is not a very good multimedia distro since because of policy ... not that you cant get them to work, but in other distros it "just" works.

I can see your attraction to Arch, I am typing this now from my Arch install on a desktop :)

[weekend warrior]

Congratulations on a fine choice maspro. Have fun!

[weekend warrior]

nuopus, if that's the main sticking point you really should check out the add-on cd. Once you have it, 2 commands and 5 minutes later you'll have your multimedia.

[poofyhairguy]

Main reason for switching though is the crippled install in reguards that it is not a very good multimedia distro since because of policy ... not that you cant get them to work, but in other distros it "just" works.

The addon CD fixes that. But hey, you use whatever you want.

[panickedthumb]

"Debian based distros have an extremely anal policy about non-free packages. In Arch Linux I can just install to my hearts content GPL'd software like MP3 playback, DVD players, Video players with windows codecs ... the whole nine yards, and the package manager is more versetile than apt-get with the ability to recursively remove packages."

If it has mp3 playback, dvd playback, and windows codecs, then while some of it may be open source (though not the windows codecs, they are far from it), it's still illegal. It would be just like shipping Linux with Star Wars Episode 3 camhacked. It's illegal.

[maspro]

Well, I'm now downloading that add-on cd, very curious about it. A complete al-in-one package with just two cd's. :grin:

[firas]

Hey maspro. I had the same question as you just a few days ago. I've tried quite a few distros starting with Redhat, Fedora, Suse, Gentoo, Debian, and finally Kubuntu (last week). I'm more of a KDE user so I was curious how Simply Mepis 3.3 would fair on my IBM Thinkpad T41. The main plus for Mepis (supposedly) was that things should work out of the box but they didn't. My synaptic touch pad stopped working when I plugged in a USB mouse, sound didn't work (and I spent a day getting it to work), a lot of services were installed and running that were outright dangerous (samba was set to share all my home directories to anyone!) and apache was installed and running for no apparent reason, and KDE 3.4 still hadn't arrived for Mepis (cause it uses the same repos as Debian) and neither had x.org. The people on their forums seemed to be very friendly and helpful but the forums themselves were a little strange to navigate. So I spent less than two days with Mepis and I'm back to (k)ubuntu on my Thinkpad. This time round though I installed Ubuntu and then apt-get installed kubuntu-desktop which strangely enough seems to be more stable than my straight kubuntu install on the same laptop previously and on my Kubuntu desktop PC. I was able to get everything I needed by following the ubuntuguide.org walkthrough and now I'm a happy Kubuntu user and hopefully will be here to stay this time. Heck I'm even contemplating using Gnome instead on my laptop but I'm just too used to KDE. We'll see how that goes.

Well good luck to you and thanks to all the helpful people on this forum/community!

[firas]

Oh and as for your issue with need to change network settings from a GUI ...
Just go to the following :

K Menu -> Control Center -> Internet & Network -> Network Settings