SimplyMEPIS

SimplyMEPIS is the live CD version of a fairly new Linux distribution called MEPIS. Warren Woodford, the maintainer, is showing the world that more than just coal comes out of West Virginia. Like Knoppix, MEPIS is based on Debian. If one distribution could top Knoppix for having the most packages and the best selection of them, it would be SimplyMEPIS. The latest version even comes with Skype, the popular voice over IP application.

SimplyMEPIS is designed to be installed easily to the hard disk if you want. Though it wasn't tried for this review, word has it that it's easy to do. In fact, Robin Miller's recent book Point and Click Linux is about using MEPIS and comes with a SimplyMEPIS CD.

Version 2004-10 was used for this evaluation.

Good Points	Weak Points
Easy network setup Sound works right way, though some adjustments with the mixer Comes with Skype VoIP application printing easy to set up comes with plugins to watch Quicktime and Windows Media in a browser.	Slightly older version of KDE No Firefox

For the number and variety of applications, how well they work and the ease of getting everything going, I'll give SimplyMEPIS the top score among the distributions I've tried.

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