MEPIS has distributed ISO files for RC3 of SimplyMEPIS 8.0. The files for 32 and 64 bit processors are SimplyMEPIS-CD_7.9.96-rc3_32.iso and SimplyMEPIS-CD_7.9.96-rc3_64.iso.

For RC3, the kernel has been updated to upstream version, 2.6.27.15. Qemu 0.9.1+svn, libvirt 0.6., virt-manager 0.6.1, and virtinst 0.400.1 are available from the MEPIS pool to better match the virtualization configuration of the MEPIS kernel. At user requests, firefox 3.0.6-1, openoffice 3.0.0-5, and libgphoto2 2.4.3-1 updates were added to the SimplyMEPIS build. Community members have improved the MEPIS Network Assistant, the MEPIS Manual and they have added an autorun Intro to MEPIS to the CD.

When will SimplyMEPIS be released? MEPIS developer, Warren Woodford, says, "MEPIS 8.0 is in good shape but since MEPIS is meant to have a Debian Stable core, I'd prefer to wait and declare it final when Debian Lenny is released."

ISO images of MEPIS pre-releases are published to the 'testing' subdirectory at the MEPIS Subscriber's Site and at MEPIS public mirrors. To support the ongoing development of MEPIS, community users are encouraged to go to the MEPIS store at http://www.mepis.org and become MEPIS subscribers.