For those who are stuck to a distro because of system-specific administration tools, viz. Mandriva Control Centre or SUSE's YaST utility, MEPIS has some special goodies in its bag. They are the MEPIS Network Assistant, MEPIS System,Assistant, MEPIS User Assistant ana MEPIS X-Windows Assistant Figure 2 shows how you can access what you require.

The Network Assistant utility (Figure 3) will help you configure your wired and wireless network cards, as well as troubleshoot and diagnose them. The interface is geared towards utter simplicity. For instance, using WPA encryption for wireless networks is as simple as clicking on the WPA encryption radio button under the Wireles tab.

Just like Network Assistant, the MEPIS System Assistant (Figure 4) couldn't have been any easier to use. You will find tools here to repair partitions (you need to select a partition from the drop down list and click on the Apply button), repair system boot parameters, reinstall GRUB on the MBR/root partition and use initrd. There are also tools to install MEPIS on a USB key with/without encryption, recover space from a partition by cho'osing to clear systems logs that accumulate over time, clear the package cache on boot, and features that enable laptop power saving options.



The MEPIS User Assistant (Figure 5) will help you add/delete users. What's interesting here is that you are able to restore Firefox config, KDE app config and group membership files in case of corruption. Even more appealing is the ability to copy files and folders between desktops! These include the entire home directory, KMail tQlder, Firefox (.mozilla) folder and even the kde folder-all this by simply enabling an option. Pretty handy, eh?

Finally, the MEPIS X-Windows Assistant (Figure 6) helps you change your mouse, monitor, and graphics card (NVIDIA/ ATI) settings with relative ease.

Ready to install?
I guess the MEPIS-specific tools could persuade you to install it on your hard drive, if not its Debian Lenny roots. Installation is a painless affair that most of you will be able to manage even if it's your first time.

The verdict
Whether your'e a hardcore Linux user or a newbie, you just can't help falling in love the first time you use SimplyMEPIS 8. Its excellent stability, huge Debian repositories, extreme ease of use and administration, and good looks are all plus points. Indeed, the crown does go to SimplyMEPIS 8, which qualified just ahead of LinuxMint 6. Oh, wait! On the negative side, VCDs failed to play even though Kaffeine and VLC player were installed.