MEPIS Linux was first announced in 2003 by Warren Woodford and his company, MEPIS LLC. The idea was to turn the Debian unstable branch into a beginner-friendly distribution, complete with automatic hardware configuration, support for popular media formats, and latest software packages. MEPIS Linux pioneered the concept of an easily installable live CD - a user could simply boot the CD, investigate the content, and then install it to a hard disk with just a few mouse clicks.
In the following years the developers focused on providing reliable hardware support for all kinds of troublesome hardware, including software modems and wireless network cards. In 2006, largely due to the volatility of Debian's unstable branch, the base system of MEPIS Linux was switched from Debian to Ubuntu, which freed the development team from fixing the Debian bugs and to concentrate on usability enhancements. Originally MEPIS Linux consisted of two editions - a desktop-oriented SimplyMEPIS and a developer-oriented ProMEPIS, but the latter edition was later dropped. Currently, the project provides both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of SimplyMEPIS.
On the negative side, the distribution lacks any clear roadmap or release schedule, but it appears that periodically updated versions will be released with older code base and newer technologies, such as the 3D desktop features. As a consequence, SimplyMEPIS is no longer as up-to-date as it once was. Beta testing tends to be extremely long and final releases are frequently delayed by months from the original projection. While SimplyMEPIS CD images are available for free download, MEPIS LLC encourages satisfied users to sign up for paid-for access to a premium server, which constitutes the company's only source of income.
- Pros: Beginner-friendly; excellent hardware auto-detection and support; intuitive, installable live CD
- Cons: Software in its repositories not always up-to-date, lacks development roadmap
- Software package management: Advanced Package Tool (APT) using DEB packages
- Available editions: SimplyMEPIS for 32-bit (i386) and 64-bit (x86_64) processors
0 komentar:
Post a Comment