In other words, MEPIS is old Ubuntu, possibly with an improved KDE.

Fred McKinney: I was aware of MEPIS; the distros I’ve written about are those I’ve actually tried myself. I agree with you about GNOME.

I have tried Ubuntu before, and it’s a neat distro. However, given the fact that Shuttleworth’s a billionaire, I can’t help but wonder if Ubuntu is coming out on top due to slick marketing or something, because I’ve never really cared for GNOME all that much.

Not to mention, in my own personal experience, I once tried running Rosegarden, which is a MIDI sequencer program, on Ubuntu — and I kid you not, when I tried to start Rosegarden, Ubuntu froze up more solid than a block of ice. With MEPIS, however, I’ve had MUCH better luck when running Rosegarden, and it’s NEVER resulted in a freeze-up.

Usually Rosegarden runs on MEPIS without a hitch, although I have had an occasional crash with it, but then again, we’re talking about a program that has been problematic on most distros I’ve ever tried, and MEPIS seems to be the best at handling it.

I must say, I’m a definite MEPIS fan, and I’ve tried several other distros, but I always find myself coming back to MEPIS. In all honesty, if there were something bad I’d have to say about MEPIS, it would be that their Synaptic repositories usually don’t have the most up-to-date versions of all the software, so if you like being on the bleeding edge, I’m sure MEPIS won’t be the distro for you. But if that’s not something that bothers you, then I recommend it VERY highly.

What happens to you is because you’re using (like me) several repositories.

Try this: http://benjiweber.co.uk:8080/webpin/index.jsp?searchTerm=libqt4&distro=openSUSE_102

You will notice that the regular repo “http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.2/repo/oss/suse”, as well as update mirrors such as “http://anorien.warwick.ac.uk/mirrors/suse/update/10.2” are still featuring libqt4 as “4.2.1”.

libqt4 as “4.3.0” is to be found in several other places, including: “http://software.opensuse.org/download/KDE:/Community/openSUSE10.2” “http://software.opensuse.org/download/KDE:/KDE4/openSUSE10.2” “http://software.opensuse.org/download/KDE:/Qt/openSUSE_10.2”

YaST will show the latest version to you, but nobody forces you to upgrade to them — nor are you “supposed” to add extra repos!

Otherwise, excellent article!

(I have to test myself if fonts can be added in Mandriva Spring using the KDE Control Center or not.)

I am a frequent visitor to your blog. enjoy it very much. I just had to share this with you…

I use my computer for two main reasons: development (Java) and DVDs. I am not addicted to PC games like the average PC user so switching to Linux seemed like a breeze. Two months ago I decided to permanently ditch Windows XP and switch to Ubuntu 7.04 (Fiesty).

The Ubuntu guys mailed the CD for free and I was ecstatic about it. Installed it and then the problems started to crop up.

First: installation. Most of the packages that I needed for development purposes (Java 6.0, NetBeans, Eclipse, Apache Derby & Tomcat 6.0, etc.) and others (Lexmark and DVD) had to be installed through command line BASH shell. They weren’t available through Syanptic package manager.

Tried to install the Lexmark printer driver: it’s only available for Red Hat. Searched the Ubuntu forums for help, that was the easy part and was very grateful. Followed all the instructions and Ubuntu cups gui still didn’t recognize my printer.

And then there’s the DVD package: that’s another headache. It’s ILLEGAL!!!!!! I didn’t switch to Ubuntu to end up using another illegal software package. Even after installing the package, playing DVDs in mplayer & gxine felt like seeing a badly dubbed version of the movie.

Resorting to command line tools is like using Stone Age tools to solve the problems of the Industrial Age. I had some experience using the Unix shells because of my developer background. Knowledge of DOS command line also greatly helps. But what about people who have never seen a command line in their life before and are only used to clicking.

Then there’s the performance hit: I couldn’t run firefox, Eclipse, Tomcat & Derby servers and Abi Word at the same time. However, I never had performance problems on XP running the same package of applications.

The frequent password requests are extremely annoying. Sudoing and typing my password is just simply too much…

So last week, I simply switched back to trusty old XP.

I wouldn’t discount the experience though. I do hope to return to Linux once I buy a more powerful computer.

That’s my 2 cents…

Freespire is okay but too clunky. The main benefit is it’s CNR installation client, but it doesn’t always have the latest updated versions of programs.

Mandriva I had all sorts of problems with, and you can get Ubuntu for free, and it’s much easier to use, and faster to run.

That’s my unscholarly 2p.