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Thread: Is (K)Ubuntu anything like Mepis?

  1. #11
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    Re: Is (K)Ubuntu anything like Mepis?

    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

  2. #12
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    Re: Is (K)Ubuntu anything like Mepis?

    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 will give you multimedia things like codecs, flash, dvd playback, realplayer etc etc faster than you can say "kubuntu" five times fast.

    The Gnome Control Center you should find in the universe. As you already found out YaST2 for Debian 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 )

  3. #13
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    Re: Is (K)Ubuntu anything like Mepis?

    In fact, there you go - Compiling Yast2 in Debian
    If you like this sort of thing you might be interested in the Ubuntu Backports Project

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

  4. #14
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    Re: Is (K)Ubuntu anything like Mepis?

    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.
    Last edited by maspro; May 7th, 2005 at 06:27 PM.

  5. #15
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    Re: Is (K)Ubuntu anything like Mepis?

    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

  6. #16
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    Re: Is (K)Ubuntu anything like Mepis?

    Quote Originally Posted by 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
    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.

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

    thx for the welcome
    Last edited by maspro; May 7th, 2005 at 06:18 PM.

  7. #17
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    Re: Is (K)Ubuntu anything like Mepis?

    Quote Originally Posted by poofyhairguy
    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.

  8. #18
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    Re: Is (K)Ubuntu anything like Mepis?

    Quote Originally Posted by maspro
    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.

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

    thx for the welcome
    Your welcome

    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

  9. #19
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    Re: Is (K)Ubuntu anything like Mepis?

    Quote Originally Posted by nuopus
    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

  10. #20
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    Re: Is (K)Ubuntu anything like Mepis?

    Congratulations on a fine choice maspro. Have fun!

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