Which linux?

[jayclark]

I'm looking for a free download. I didn't see any download section except for a live cd.

[mhl]

The Live CD also includes a hard drive install routine. Download the 2004.01 iso from here and burn it as a bootable CD. Booting from this CD will initially give you the Live CD installation, where you will find on the desktop the Mepis Installation Center and the "Install Mepis on hard drive" utility.

[jayclark]

Download Mepis now. I have a couple of questions. When downloading rpms. What type of rpms should I look for? Its based on Debian so when I look for rpms should I look for debian based ones? Also since it a smaller distro how good are they at patching sercurity holes and so forth?

[mhl]

Debian-based distros use .deb packages, not rpms. These are installed using the apt-get utility, where rpms use urpmi. IMHO apt-get is much slicker than urpmi. In Mepis you will find apt-get called KPackage on the main menu, under 'System'; alternatively, you can run it from command-line using

apt-get install <package name>

All dependencies are automatically taken care of.

It's a good idea with a new installation to run

apt-get install update

which will update your installed database of Debian packages available.

If you want to install a package which is only available as an rpm, I believe it is necessary to use an intermediate utility to "translate" it into a Debian equivalent - see here. But I reckon you should find that apt-get will provide most of the usual packages.

As far as security goes, I'm not aware of any problems - but you might be better asking that question on one of the Mepis forums. Mepis itself may be a small distro but since it is based on Debian, a well-established one, I'm comfortable with it. The default installation sets up guarddog firewall, which was more than I found with Mandrake.

HTH

[jayclark]

Now I'm downloading Mepis, Hope I'm downloading the right iso. Is it the Simpily Mepis iso? I was reading about it and I know the guy who made it. Well sort of. His car broke down in front of our house one day and I fixed it for him. He was a very polite person. Anyway....

All dependencies are automatically taken care of.

Thank goodness. This is the only problem with installing software. Its always a pain in the.... to search for the dependencies. Two problems I see with Linux that would keep the average home user from using it. Installing files is way to difficult compared to windows. And hardly any native gaming support. I game, but all my games I play are native. Plus there are some very good Open Soruce games for linux out there. Just got to search for them though.

[mhl]

Originally posted by jayclark
Hope I'm downloading the right iso. Is it the Simpily Mepis iso?

SimplyMEPIS.2004.01.iso ... around 580 MB.

[jayclark]

Well, I have it up and running. I haven't really did much on it besides clear out some of the clutter on the kde bar. Very fast distro! Not bloated at all. Lets see how much fun I can have with it.

[Doug.Gentry]

Snicker, I had Suse 8.1 I think, It was a pack of 6 cd's. Months after installing it I needed to install something more.

It asked me to insert cd number 1.

I inserted it and GASP.. it was cracked.

I sent called suse support and told them my tale O whoa and he told me he'd get it right out.

I recieved my new cd number 1 for FREE!

SUSE Tech People ROCK!!

[thelordglen]

KNOPPIX STD 3.2 is huge has some nice utils if you no the default password when you do a HDD install he he .