A Review of
SimplyMEPIS 3.3 (Cont.)
Video
During the Mepis install, you can elect to use the default video
configuration, or
if you have a NVIDIA video card, install the NVIDIA accelerated driver.
No need to mess with a manual install of these accelerated drivers
which is a real headache for new users of Linux who have one of these
cards.
Mepis had no trouble automatically setting up my NVIDIA card and KDS
Rad 5 LCD monitor.
Wireless
No problem with my atheros based Dlink wireless card. All I needed was
to set my ESSID and WEP values using Kwifi Manager, activate my
interface with the OS Control Center, reboot, and I was off and
running. The iwtools package is installed by default in SimplyMEPIS, so
any further need to tweak the settings can be monitored using the
iwconfig, iwlist and ifconfig tools.
Networking
Utilities
Smb4k is preinsalled in Mepis and easily picked up my other Windows XP
box, as well as my wife's system. No fuss or muss here. Apache is also
installed, but I have not tried to set up my own server yet.
I do not use a modem, but a look at /lib/modules revealed that there
are installed drivers for some linmodems, such as ltmodems and slamr
(Smartlink) modems. There is also a module for the Smartlink usb
modems, so this should prove useful to a number of modem users. Also,
kppp is onboard to set up your modem connection.
Laptops
The KDE Control Center (start-->Mepis OS Center) utility seems
to
have added support for Thinkpad and Soyo Vaio laptops. This should
prove useful to these owners who want to enable their R30/R31 function
buttons, or get their Vaio working correctly. I have a Thinkpad R-30
and will need to try this out.
What's
not Included
As mentioned earlier, I found
no web development tools in
SimplyMEPIS, except the one included in the OpenOffice suite. Since
synaptic is preinstalled, as well as repositories compatible for Mepis,
so installing Bluefish and Quanta Plus was a breeze. Two fine
utilities. But, I prefer using Linspire's utility Nvu
which is my absolute favorite web authoring tool. No problem here.
Users of digital cameras would appreciate a tool to easily help them
make photo albums and customized web pages of their photos. flphoto
is one option that you may want to consider, but I use Lphoto 2,
another
customized Linspire based utility that easily organizes photos and
creates web based photo albums. Hopefully there will be releases soon
of this utility for other distros.
Update:
I did find the source for Lphoto
3 and was able to install it
after solving some dependencies by installing PyQt, python-qt and
python-kde, as well as kdecore packages.
Support
Go to the Mepis home page and you will find all the supporting
documentation and user forums that will need to get you started and
answer any questions that you may have. There are also Mepis quick
guide and tips html documents hidden in /root/Documents that should
answer a lot of questions that you may have.
Conclusion
That's about it. Most regular users should find everything that they
need in SimplyMepis. Of course, hardcore users like me always want
more. Utilities like synaptic, the versatility of the latest KDE
interface, as well as the inclusion of development tools by default
should meet most user needs. I highly recommend SimplyMEPIS 3.3 for new
users of Linux, as well as more demanding users who have a need to fine
tune their systems. Have fun!
References
1. Mepis
home page
2. Lphoto
3. Lphoto
Source package
This page will be updated, as I explore SimplyMEPIS with my hardware
and software needs.
This web
page was created using SimplyMEPIS and
