How much harder to use and "rough edged" is LMDE

[graeme]

The release announcement of LMDE 201303 says:

• LMDE requires a deeper knowledge and experience with Linux, dpkg and APT.
• Debian is a less user-friendly/desktop-ready base than Ubuntu. Expect some rough edges.

What does this mean in practice? Does it mean its alsways breaking? Does it mean it needs the aility use the command line a bit, or that it needs a real understanding of DPKG? Does it mean the desktop is weird or has the odd quirk? I will be buying a new laptop os I can avoid hardware know to be problematic (and will likely buy from a linux friendly vendor).

Every distro (and every OS) has some problems. I had lots of problems with Mint XFCE (could not switch user), Ubuntu (compiz crashes), Xubuntu (icons fail to show in task list), etc. Is LMDE hugely worse. Is it sufficiently more likely to break that it would be a risk to install it on a machine I use for work? What is the user experience like overall?

I really like the idea od a rolling release distro, and LMDE seems one of the best (I am considering Fedora as well because of the smaller updates) but the warnings have somewhat scared me off

[scimmiettarossa]

hi graeme

in my little experience (i'm not a geek nor a newbie) it is not so different for other self-claiming "easy" distribution... some skill in the comman line interface helps, nevertheless

the only thing is annoying each time i upgrade is the management of my multi-monitor settings (mainly related to my old graphic borads, indeed, and not to the distro itself)
enjoy!

[excollier]

Well, I am almost cli illiterate, but I find LMDE pretty good, and if it remains as generally easy to use as it has so far, then I guess the warnings are a worst case scenario.
Seems to work just like any other distro to me.

[Monsta]

I really like the idea od a rolling release distro

Have you used any of them, or do you just like the idea?

[graeme]

Thw answers are as I hoped, so my next OS install is probably going to be LMDE.

I really like the idea od a rolling release distro

Have you used any of them, or do you just like the idea?

I used PCLinuxOS, but it was a while back. I would prefer a Debian (familiarity) or Fedora (because of RPM delta) based distro.

[catweazel]

The release announcement of LMDE 201303 says:

• LMDE requires a deeper knowledge and experience with Linux, dpkg and APT.
• Debian is a less user-friendly/desktop-ready base than Ubuntu. Expect some rough edges.

What does this mean in practice?

It means LMDE isn't polished, and to get it polished you'll have some work to do, which will involve installing and tweaking various packages.

There's nothing stopping you creating a virtual machine and trying it.

[Monsta]

I used PCLinuxOS, but it was a while back.

Hmm, never used that distro...

Well, anyway, LMDE is not a fully rolling distro, as it's based on the frozen snapshots of Debian Testing repositories. The updates come in (quite large) Update Packs. For further reading I recommend this thread: LMDE FAQ

The "roughness" mostly comes from the current state of Debian Testing at the moment of taking the snapshot. Then, after another Update Pack is tested and released, no further updates are issued until the next Update Pack (except for Mint's own repository). This can lead to some annoyances.

[graeme]

Thanks Monsta, those links are very informative.

Mostly the annoyances are things I can live with, so I think I will be installing LMDE on at least one computer, although possibly not on our two work laptops.

[Acid_1]

Sometimes it means finding a firmware yourself, or tweaking a setting. I haven't had any hiccups of the major type since LMDE. Very impressed, feels like Debian with the Mint flare.

Good job Clem + team!

[kurotsugi]

Sometimes it means finding a firmware yourself, or tweaking a setting. I haven't had any hiccups of the major type since LMDE. Very impressed, feels like Debian with the Mint flare.

you're vey lucky. my LMDE die on his first kernel upgrade (lol)

[Acid_1]

Sometimes it means finding a firmware yourself, or tweaking a setting. I haven't had any hiccups of the major type since LMDE. Very impressed, feels like Debian with the Mint flare.

you're vey lucky. my LMDE die on his first kernel upgrade (lol)

That's unfortunate. I don't know about the LMDE repos, but when I went to upgrade kernels from the Debian 7 repo it called a lot of dependencies that weren't necessary and borked my system for a bit. I removed all added software from that 'update' and compiled my own kernel. Worked like a charm.

[kurotsugi]

my weak cpu won't survive compiling the whole kernel. now I'm using liquorix