MEPIS was a set of

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

distributions, distributed as Live CDs or DVDs that could be installed onto a

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magne ...

. MEPIS was started by Warren Woodford and MEPIS LLC. The most popular MEPIS distribution was SimplyMEPIS, which was based primarily on Debian stable, with the last version of SimplyMEPIS being based on Debian 6. It could either be installed onto a hard drive or used as a

Live DVD A live CD (also live DVD, live disc, or live operating system) is a complete bootable computer installation including operating system which runs directly from a CD-ROM or similar storage device into a computer's memory, rather than loading fr ...

, which made it externally bootable for troubleshooting and repairing many operating systems. It included the

KDE KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that allow collaborative work on this kind of software. Well-known products include the ...

desktop environment.

History

MEPIS was designed as an alternative to SUSE Linux,

Red Hat Linux Red Hat Linux was a widely used commercial open-source Linux distribution created by Red Hat until its discontinuation in 2004. Early releases of Red Hat Linux were called Red Hat Commercial Linux. Red Hat published the first non-beta rele ...

, and

Mandriva Linux Mandriva Linux (a fusion of the French distribution Mandrake Linux and the Brazilian distribution Conectiva Linux) is a discontinued Linux distribution developed by Mandriva S.A. Each release lifetime was 18 months for base updates (Linux, system ...

(formerly Mandrake) which Woodford considered too difficult for the average user. MEPIS's first official release was on May 10, 2003. In 2006, MEPIS made a transition from using Debian

packages Package may refer to: Containers or Enclosures * Packaging and labeling, enclosing or protecting products * Mail, items larger than a letter * Chip package or chip carrier * Electronic packaging, in electrical engineering * Automotive package, ...

to using Ubuntu packages. SimplyMEPIS 6.0, released in July 2006, was the first version of MEPIS to incorporate the Ubuntu packages and repositories. SimplyMEPIS 7.0 discontinued the use of Ubuntu binary packages in favor of a combination of MEPIS packaged binaries based on Debian and Ubuntu source code, combined with a Debian stable OS core and extra packages from Debian package pools. Major releases occurred about six months to one year apart until 2013, based mostly on Warren's availability to produce the next version.

Variants

SimplyMEPIS, designed for everyday desktop and laptop computing. The default desktop environment is KDE-based, although Gnome and/or other GUI-environments can be installed. SimplyMEPIS 11.0 is based on Debian 6 and includes Linux 2.6.36.4, KDE 4.5.1 and LibreOffice 3.3.2, with other applications available from Debian and the MEPIS Community. It was released on May 5, 2011. Development halted during beta testing of Mepis 12.

antiX antiX () is a Linux distribution based on Debian Stable. It is comparatively lightweight and suitable for older computers, while also providing cutting edge kernel and applications, as well as updates and additions via the apt-get package sys ...

, a fast and lightweight distribution, was originally based on MEPIS for

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was intr ...

systems in an environment suitable for old computers. It's now based on

Debian Stable Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of ...

MX Linux MX Linux is a Linux distribution based on Debian stable and using core antiX components, with additional software created or packaged by the MX community. The development of MX Linux is a collaborative effort between the antiX and former MEPIS ...

, a midweight distribution developed in collaboration between antiX and former MEPIS communities which is based on Debian Stable.

Name

According to Warren Woodford, the name MEPIS is pronounced like "Memphis", with the extra letters removed. Originally, the word "MEPIS" didn't mean anything in particular; it came about by mistake. When Woodford misunderstood a friend over the telephone, he decided to use the name because it was a simple five-letter word and there were no other companies or products with that name.

References

External links

Reviews

April 2009 Review of SimplyMEPIS 8.0Review of SimplyMEPIS 8.0 Beta 5MEPIS AntiX on 450Mhz K6-2, 256Mb
{{Linux distributions Debian-based distributions KDE Operating system distributions bootable from read-only media X86-64 Linux distributions Linux distributions