Which edition to choose?

[xmad]

Hi guys,

Yesterday Arch deceived me on the worst moment, after a failed upgrade that completely broke my system and didn't have enough time to fix it, couldn't get my work done for today morning and well screwed me really bad... This is by no means Arch fault, it's my fault for not paying attention on the upgrades, I learned the hard-way that I need a stable distribution even if it means leaving apart newest software or sacrificing customization and overall geekiness

I tested for a brief time Linux mint 9 some time ago, also when LMDE came out, and I was really amazed how fast it was, despite being based on the bloated Ubuntu, LMDE was really cool also, faster than mint 9, tested 2 weeks after its release and found that there were around 300mb of updates already

Anyway after reading overviews about other "out of the box" distributions, I think I'll choose mint over other distributions. But I'm not sure which edition to choose.

I need a very stable distribution, I don't mind not using bleeding edge software, but I don't want my system to keep out of date, I won't mind if there is a 1.5.10 out there and I'm using a 1.5.3 stable and robust version. Also I need to run a 64 bit system, I have more than 3gb ram. I don't want to waste time tweaking very detailed stuff, I'm not afraid of the console, I'm not a linux beginner but I don't want to waste my time tweaking my settings really.

This leaves me with mint 9 (won't use mint 10 until it's stable...) and LMDE.
LMDE, being a rolling release distro, means it constantly gets updated and that it's more bleeding edge, I wouldn't mind using a rolling release distro as long as it's very stable, that's what I want, and not fearing that my system will break on the worst moment like it just did yesterday... being a rolling release is what really turns me off from LMDE, then again, it might not be as unstable as other rolling release distros, so what's your experience with LMDE as a rolling release, bleeding edge distribution?

On the other hand, there is mint 9, more robust and stable than LMDE, but it's based on ubuntu which I really dislike. I'm not sure how much is mint based on ubuntu, if it only shares packages and some other software it's fine then.

Thanks guys for helping decide which version to choose =)
Regards,
x

[tdockery97]

The threat of system borkage is part of running any rolling release. As critical components (such as xorg) are updated, something in your hardware may not be supported by the changes. It requires close vigilance and ignoring updates which you know may mess up your system. For the maximum stability, LMDE is still a good option, but you might want to set your sources list to stable rather than testing if you don't want to have to monitor update items.

As far as Mint 10rc, I have found it to be as rock-solid stable as Mint 9. I have not had any breakage whatsoever while using all 1-5 level updates. It just isn't "complete" yet. Some of the newer items haven't completed bug fixes, etc. But there are zero showstopping bugs as far as my experience with the version is concerned. The ONLY thing I have personally noticed in my daily use of Mint 10 is that Mint Update doesn't load automatically at boot, and I have to go to the menu to start it. By the time Mint 10 final is released, anything left to be fixed should have also come through as updates to the release candidate.

[xmad]

The threat of system borkage is part of running any rolling release. As critical components (such as xorg) are updated, something in your hardware may not be supported by the changes. It requires close vigilance and ignoring updates which you know may mess up your system. For the maximum stability, LMDE is still a good option, but you might want to set your sources list to stable rather than testing if you don't want to have to monitor update items.

As far as Mint 10rc, I have found it to be as rock-solid stable as Mint 9. I have not had any breakage whatsoever while using all 1-5 level updates. It just isn't "complete" yet. Some of the newer items haven't completed bug fixes, etc. But there are zero showstopping bugs as far as my experience with the version is concerned. The ONLY thing I have personally noticed in my daily use of Mint 10 is that Mint Update doesn't load automatically at boot, and I have to go to the menu to start it. By the time Mint 10 final is released, anything left to be fixed should have also come through as updates to the release candidate.

Thanks for your help.

I'll wait until there is a 64-bit version of LMDE before I use it as my main distribution on my home computer. Meanwhile I'll use Mint 10rc =)

One last thing, I use XFS on my home partition, are there any concerns that I should be worried about?

[tdockery97]

One last thing, I use XFS on my home partition, are there any concerns that I should be worried about?

I've never used XFS myself, but there are many here who believe it is far and away the best file system to use. It may be true, but I have never had any problems with speed or reliability of Ext4, so I just stick with that.

[riki]

The threat of system borkage is part of running any rolling release. As critical components (such as xorg) are updated, something in your hardware may not be supported by the changes. It requires close vigilance and ignoring updates which you know may mess up your system. For the maximum stability, LMDE is still a good option, but you might want to set your sources list to stable rather than testing if you don't want to have to monitor update items.

As far as Mint 10rc, I have found it to be as rock-solid stable as Mint 9. I have not had any breakage whatsoever while using all 1-5 level updates. It just isn't "complete" yet. Some of the newer items haven't completed bug fixes, etc. But there are zero showstopping bugs as far as my experience with the version is concerned. The ONLY thing I have personally noticed in my daily use of Mint 10 is that Mint Update doesn't load automatically at boot, and I have to go to the menu to start it. By the time Mint 10 final is released, anything left to be fixed should have also come through as updates to the release candidate.

Tdockery97,

I already have 10RC on CD. Are you saying that I will not need to re-download 10 final and just update?

[tdockery97]

That's correct. If you have Mint 10rc installed and do the updates, then you will already have Mint 10 final when it is released...no need to reinstall.

[riki]

That's correct. If you have Mint 10rc installed and do the updates, then you will already have Mint 10 final when it is released...no need to reinstall.

Thanks for clarifying.

[riki]

I've just realized that 10RC is NOT a rolling release! Not for me then...
Quite happy to stay with LMDE.

[tdockery97]

I've just realized that 10RC is NOT a rolling release!

Correct again.

[jesica]

I've just realized that 10RC is NOT a rolling release!

Correct again.

Only Mint 9 and LMDE is

[xmad]

Installed mint 10rc 64-bit yesterday, everything worked out of the box as expected, my xfs partition mounted without problems, imported all my settings correctly, it's perfect. Even installing my ATI card driver was so easy... one click on "using restricted drivers" and everything installed... on arch you have to add a custom repository with old Xorg server version (or get the package from aur), then install the driver, hook the module to mkinitcpio, configure X server,add the daemon to the rc config and if you want opengl support you have to install some lib32 libraries, I don't have an idea what happened on mint, but i gotta say it was quite pleasant to click and do everything for me for a change

I gotta say, the performance difference from arch is quite visible, then again I wasn't on Gnome and didn't have all this apps that pretty much does everything I had to do manually, nevertheless, mint, having an ubuntu base and being a distro oriented for easy of use, it's quite resource hungry, after a boot I see my system going well over 300mb ram usage and at the moment it's using 1.4gb ram. Anyway I was quite surprised that my dad with no computer skills whatsoever was able to find some cars to buy and watch a movie haha.

Can't wait for LMDE 64-bit, to be honest I'm tempted to go back to arch or maybe trying debian sid because I really like to build my system, but at the moment I need to get work done and I don't have too much time for tinkering stuff and mint is the perfect solution

Thanks for your hard work mint team!
x

[tdockery97]

If you want to have some fun and get your LMDE 64 bit at the same time, you could try vincent's tutorials here: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/197

[jesica]

I cant wait for December for the new LMDE