New TCLUG Review Category: Linux Distros Subject: MEPIS Get Yourself a Copy After a year of experimenting, I finally found the best, (for now) distro out there! It's MEPIS 3.4-2, and all I can say is "everything works, so get yourself a copy!" This is a complete replacement for desktop Windows allowing even a newbe like me to finally close the MS windows for good. I even got the wife as a 'user' and she loves it. Here's what we are running: AMD Sempron 2300+ on a Asus A7V8X-X motherboard, 512 Mb RAM, CD R-W, Floppy, 40 GB hard drive, and 6 USB 2.0 ports. My printer is an Epson 777. I'm stuck with dial-up (rural ND) and use an Actiontec 56K external modem to connect to the net. MEMPIS comes with some really great software. We especially like DigiKam (for photos) and the GIMP (for graphics). The Thunderbird mail client and of course Firefox (deer Park), make mail handling and surfing the net a real pleasure. The K3B (CD & DVD burning software)program is a real gem and of course you can't get much better than the Open Office Suite for all those commercial duties. Kaffeine (the media player) works just great. Now I did download two programs that I expecially wanted, but were not included on the install CD. The first was Audacity, a sound editor (I'm trying podcasts on blogcity) and GNUCash, a home/business finance package. Both of these programs work great and installed flawlessly. MEPIS uses the Synaptic Package Manager to install and remove software; it's easy, fast and...you get it...it works! MEPIS is a really easy distro to install. If you can tie your shoe, you can install MEPIS. I got my first copy (3.3) from www.bigcat-iso.com for about two bucks, but when I heard that 3.4-2 was out, I had to have it. So I plunked down $15 and got the CD direct from www.MEPIS.org. Try this one, you'll like it! http://www.mn-linux.org/cgi-bin/reviews/index.cgi