MEPIS has announced the upload of the first official Beta of the upcoming 7.0 release of SimplyMEPIS. Version 6.9.60beta1 for 32 and 64 bit processors is available from the testing directory at the MEPIS subscriber site and the MEPIS public mirrors.

Since the prebeta of 2 weeks ago, there have been several changes which are included in Beta 1, a 2.6.22.3 kernel, kernel drivers for the ralink family of wireless cards, other updated drivers, KDE 3.5.7 updates, better appearance of splashy, and the latest Debian Etch security updates. The LiveCD now offers an option to boot with the aufs rw filesystem but this is not yet well tested.

MEPIS 7.0 is based on a Debian Etch core combined with up-to-date user applications that are recompiled by MEPIS from upstream Debian and Ubuntu common source code. Debian Etch users are welcome to get their updated applications from the MEPIS pools. Warren Woodford says "If you want the stability of Debian Etch and also the latest user applications, 7.0 was made for you. And if you are a Debian Etch user, you don't have to upgrade to MEPIS, in order to use the applications we recompile."

The Beta1 ISO images are available in the 'testing' subdirectory at the MEPIS Subscriber's Site and at the MEPIS public mirrors. For immediate access to new releases, and to support the ongoing development of MEPIS, why not go to the MEPIS store and become a MEPIS subscriber?