RE: [SLUG] New Mepis sources

From: Ken Elliott (kelliott4@tampabay.rr.com)
Date: Fri Sep 10 2004 - 16:34:05 EDT


>>Because of the way it's packaged it can spawn customized versions easily.

Interesting. Could you explain further? I'm unclear on this, as to how it
differs from, say, SuSE.

Ken Elliott

=====================
-----Original Message-----
From: slug@nks.net [mailto:slug@nks.net] On Behalf Of Robin "Roblimo" Miller
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 7:48 AM
To: slug@nks.net
Subject: Re: [SLUG] New Mepis sources

Paul M Foster wrote:

>It appears the new Mepis is out now. However, it seems that one can
>only get it as a set of ISOs. This would be massively easier if one
>could update the way one does with Debian, on a package by package
>basis. Does anyone know if this is possible and from what source?
>

This is the first "real" release of SimplyMEPIS rather than a beta, release
candidate or whatever.

 From now on you'll be able to do updates rather than load a whole new
system. There's a Debian standard package name for the update that Warren
will use, but I forget what it is. He, Matt, and other developers (MEPIS is
no longer a one-man show) will get that going shortly. Right now I believe
they're concentrating on a new release of the "full" MEPIS (probably going
to be called ProMEPIS) that has all the compilers, servers, and other tools
that were intentionally left out of SimplyMEPIS in order to fit it on one CD
and to keep it, well, simple.

At the same time they're working to get the MEPIS ecommerce site up and
running so it's easier for people to register MEPIS and/or buy update
subscriptions. MEPIS has no outside investors; the only income is voluntary
registrations, CD sales, and -- soon -- subscriptions (target price
$30/year) + reselling commercial software including Win4Lin, Crossover, and
StarOffice, plus books, videos, and other training materials. Obviously,
turning MEPIS's growing popularity (#4 at DistroWatch this month) into
income is important.

Note that MEPIS is an experiment on several levels:

1) Because of the way it's packaged it can spawn customized versions easily.
SUSE can't quickly/cheaply make a version for your company's exact needs,
perhaps including some commercial software you need/select and/or tailored
to specific hardware or other requirements, but MEPIS can.

2) Working with, rather than at cross-purposes to, Debian, KDE, and the
other volunteer projects on which it's based. Warren rejected the package
rebranding and renaming that take Linspire and Xandros out of the Debian/KDE
mainstream. And with MEPIS, if you want to use the Debian server pool
instead of the (coming) MEPIS private servers, that's fine.
One click and you're there, but don't expect support for packages that
aren't in the "MEPIS-tested" group on the MEPIS servers.

3) Keeping a fully-functional version of MEPIS 100% free (both meanings)
while earning a decent living for a small group of developers and other
workers. MEPIS has the advantage of no investors with big $$ dreams.
Sure, Warren wants to live nicely -- but he's in Morgantown WVA where a nice
house is $150K, not in Silly Valley. His primary helper lives nearby and a
couple of others are in E. Europe. It doesn't take much to support this
small crowd. The MEPIS manual will be the book I just finished writing --
for Prentice Hall, with PH's money. Warren will make *more money* per unit
retailing that book/CD/video package than SUSE makes on its low-end
"personal" version, plus he can sell CD and/or CD + video packages for as
little as $10 and still do okay.

The trick here is that MEPIS doesn't have to become big-time to accomplish
its founder's goals, and doesn't need a sell-through rate higher than a
typical Windows shareware program to turn a profit. The downside (to some)
of this self-financed modest financial plan is that things get done one at a
time, incrementally, instead of in big PR-blasted jumps a la Michael
Robertson and Linspire. It's a whole different business philosophy, one that
probably won't ever make anyone rich but gives the company more stability
than most software companies.

Oh yeah - Warren wrote a whole bunch of award-winning, enterprise-level
financial modeling software before he got tired of the San Francisco life
and went "home" to mess with Linux. Once the basic MEPIS biz is squared
away, Warren is going to be porting and updating some of his enterprise
software, plus working with others to sell the financial software suite with
a MEPIS base beneath it. That's next year. It will generate significant
income while giving MEPIS a unique enterprise-level penetration opportunity.

So one step at a time... getting SimplyMEPIS out to meet Prentice Hall's
deadline was an exhausting task for Warren, just as writing the book and
making the first round of videos (for the DVD that's going to be included in
the book) wore *me* out. But we had to do this on the tight deadline because
the MEPIS-based "Point and Click Linux" package is a Barnes and Noble
Christmas pick -- the first Linux book they've *ever* agreed to promote
beyond the computer section, and we don't want to waste that buzz.

- Robin
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