[Gloucs] Where has everyon gone?

[Paul Broadhead]

Christian Trapp <Christian.Trapp at gmx.net> wrote:

> Just give Mepis a try. It is so easy to install.....

Oh my, you not going to like this! It just amazes me how different first impressions can be for different people using the same OS.  Bear in mind if you read this that most people will be very happy with Mepis.  Also, that there will alway be someone who has a bad experience with any Distro/OS, not just Linux either:

I downloaded the live (ISOSimplyMEPIS-3.3.iso), put it in my laptop and was dumped into the boot loader grub with no OS options.  This laptop is normally fine with live versions; SUSE, Ubuntu even Minux are things I've successfully tried recently.  My immediate thought was a faulty CD so I checked the md5 etc but all was well.  No matter, I'll try my desktop machine....

So, it all boots OK and I eventually get a login screen, after guessing the passwords were the same as the username I was presented with a musical login and the KDE desktop.  Good that the sound card was OK but, and this is probably my own personal problem, I just hate KDE.  Had I known it was KDE I would probably not have bothered.  OK, it's Debian based to Gnome is only an apt-get away but first impressions and all that.  KDE is so cluttered, there are icons all over the desktop and panels.  It's a pet hate of mine, a cluttered desktop.  That is one reason why I prefer Gnome, its default look is so peaceful.  All the icons and applets you want are there, just waiting in the wings.  KDE it seams to me, just wants to shove them all in your face immediately.  Sorry, KDE rant over now.

So networking was OK.  The screen resolution was unfortunately set to 1024x768 and it was not obvious how to change this from the KDE control panel which stubbornly refused to offer any choice.  My rather nice NVIDIA graphics card and 17" LCD were rather wasted.  I know I could have sorted this out eventually but again, first impressions.

One of the great things about Ubuntu is its hardware detection and device hot plugging abilities; something standard Debian is not as good at.  However, plugging my USB stick onto my machine running Mepis did nothing.  dmesg showed the device was recognised so it could all be sorted out with a little effort.

A quick look at apt showed that the live version at least would not allow any install, updates or searches.  Again, Ubuntu manages to do this kind of thing when using the live CD; yes magically you can actually install new packages when booted from the live CD though they are of course lost with a reboot.

So, probably more down to KDE than Mepis, I disappointed rebooted into my normal debian (for now) desktop.  But what's this, my network card is not working.  I must have knocked the cable or something.  Lots of fiddling and rebooting and still nothing.  What a coincidence, I could not possibly blame Mepis though, or could I.  Back to the (Ubuntu) laptop and a quick google later I found this <http://www.mepis.org/node/6761> "Mepis Disables My NIC".  Apparently, for my motherboard and integrated NIC, there is a known problem with Mepis leaving the card in a disabled state.  A full power off, cables disconnect (just the power off was not good enough), wait and reboot later and I'm back up and running; so no harm done.  But would you believe that!

An amusing way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Regards,
Paul