Big Bear Reviews SimplyMepis 8.015

[bigbear]

For the unaware, SimplyMepis is built on debian. it is a KDE centered version which adds a few custom tools and apps to increase usability. Far be it from me to discourage usability.

Personally, I am not really a KDE fan. It is too 'bland' and 'bloated' for my tastes. While others will proclaim that it's 'bloated-ness' is due to it being full of features and widgets and other software designed to make it sparkly and highly functional.

To each his own I say, as long as it is usable and SimplyMepis IS usable.

Regardless of whether I like KDE or not, the developers have gone to pains to give users the rock solid-ness of debian with the uniformity and cohesiveness of the broad KDE platform. On top of that, they include custom apps to help the user with many other usability points like doing backups and connecting wifi, etc..

Say what I might about KDE's perceived (on my part) blandness, KDE is more than a Desktop Environment. It is the platform for a wide range of productivity programs. The commitment to the wide realm of KDE based apps is a plus in giving a uniform presence to the liveCD and install. Uniformity in this case is not necessarily a bad thing.

The integrated nature of KDE based apps and tools brings an extra sense of stability to the presentation. This is a distro I can easily see being adopted by a small or home office. It is not so 'splashy' in appearances and included "toys". On the contrary, it is an attractive, dare I say 'elegant' presentation in appearance and presentation. Nice to look at but not distracting either.

I would love to see what an all Gnome centric version of SimplyMepis would look like personally. If given the same attention to detail, I believe it could easily be one of my top 3 'pre-fab' distros.

If you are a KDE 4 fan, I think you will find SimplyMepis a strong contender.

If you're not so hot on KDE, well, it is very KDE heavy.