MEPIS Community Forum

Hi, I've only been researching which distro to try for a few days now. It's been 15 years since I last tried Linux, forgotten everything command-line, and I'm sure much has changed. I've got an ASUS EeePC 1225b, with an AMD 64 processor.

If I get this right - MEPIS is for intel processors and Simply MEPIS is for AMD's??? I'm very much interested in a Debian based OS, but just looking at Debian's various releases has my eyes glazed. Mepis looks much friendlier...

I was intrigued by Linux Mint's new Debian release, mainly because Mint is geared to newbies and because it mentioned something about an (paraphrasing here) auto updater of releases and packages. The reason I quit Linux way back was because updating packages with Suse's YAST was such a pain and a constant one at that, since every program was a moving target. I may be missing something 'cause I'm rushing my reading, but does MEPIS also have an auto updater???


Thank you in advance,

Old Nube

Mepis works equally well on AMD and Intel processors. In the past the distro was called SimplyMepis but recent releases are called Mepis.
Mepis uses the apt system with Debian base. Synaptic is the default GUI for package installation. There is a notification icon that will inform you if updates are available but it is not automatic. You open the package manager, mark all upgrades, and apply. It would be unwise to auto update as you would lose control over what gets upgraded.

That makes sense. I'm a firm believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." So updating every package every time DOESN'T make sense if you are happy and productive. But I guess I am wondering how easy the updater works. YAST was horribly painful back in the day...

How does Mepis' updater work? Is it pretty much automated after you've chosen yes, I want to update?

THANKS for the fast and relevant answer!

Yes it is very simple. Once you have marked packages and applied, it is automatic. Some packages may require simple input during the process as "Do you want the maintainers configuration file or the one you have modified?" But that does not happen often, and is a yes/no answer.

Try as many as you want. Including MEPIS. That's what live disks are for.

Only you can decide which one best fits your needs. If it happens to be MEPIS, we're here to help.

I would suggest you forget your 15 year old experience with another distro and approach MEPIS with fresh eyes. Don't concern yourself with updating at the moment. It's dead simple and pretty much idiot-proof. What you need to determine now is whether or not it suits your needs and your hardware. The best way to determine that is to take the live disk for a test drive (with the understanding that performance will be much slower than a hard drive install).

Thanks again!

And how is upgrading to a new release like? Is it like updating a package, or are you like totally reformatting everything?

In general you would do a fresh install of a new release with the option of saving your Home directory.

Thanks, guys.

I will definitely give MEPIS a try. I feel like Mint changes too frequently, and your description of updating is reassuring.

If you haven't seen the distro chooser, you might want to take a look
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/
Although I see it hasn't been updated for almost a year.

If you want a stable OS then Mepis is definitely it.