MEPIS turns three, releases SimplyMEPIS 3.4-1 RC1

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Nov. 23, 2005

It's the third birthday of the MEPIS Project, and lead developer Warren Woodford has announced that SimplyMEPIS 3.4-1 Release Candidate 1 is now available in the testing subdirectory at the MEPIS subscriber's site and public mirrors. SimplyMEPIS 3.4-1 is expected to be final in one to two weeks, Woodford said. But what happened to versions 3.3.2 and 3.3.3?

"Every time we were ready to upload a build, yet another updated app made it into the Etch pool," Woodford said. "First we finished the kernels for the DCCA and we ready to go, then Xorg tested as OK for the first time, then OOo 2.0 became available, then KDE 3.4.2 entered Etch, then OOo 2.0 updated in Sid; and we discovered that some real shortcomings were fixed and we needed to use that version, then we found that mplayer and the mplayerplug-in had both updated to greatly improve multimedia support."

"For a while there, it seemed like it would never end," he said. "So this release will last for a while, we decided to pull in Firefox 1.5 from experimental. When FF 1.5 goes final, SM 3.4-1 will also go final."

Obviously, Linux development is proceding at a very fast pace, and the Debian team has responded to the "threat" from Ubuntu by doing a great job of rolling out the new stuff right away, Woodford said.

"But this means new challenges for MEPIS, because we are committed to being as Debian-compatible as possible. In the past, we could use the testing pool and know it would remain relatively stable for several months at a time. Those days are gone, and while it means a lot more work for us to maintain a distro from such a moving target, it also means that we can pin on Etch for stability and still include most of the latest and greatest software releases."

Some of the applications included in SimplyMEPIS 3.4-1 are Xorg 6.8.2, KDE 3.4.2, OpenOffice 2.0, Firefox 1.5, Thunderbird 1.0.7, and Skype 1.2.0.18.

The latest MEPIS kernel is the DCC version of 2.6.12-10, which has enhanced built-in hardware support. Woodford said that MEPIS no longer supports Win4Lin 98, which required a patched kernel that was incompatible with Kernel Team guidelines. Win4lin users should consider upgrading to Win4lin Pro which does not not require a kernel patch, he added.

Download your own copy of SimplyMEPIS at one of the public mirror sites here. Screenshots, courtesy of OSDir.com, are here.

For up to 15 days -- or until Dec. 7 -- send feedback to dev@mepis.org.

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Use of this site is governed by our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Except where otherwise specified, the contents of this site are copyright © 1999-2008 Ziff Davis Enterprise Holdings Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff Davis Enterprise is prohibited. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.