Are you glad you switched from mint release to LMDE ? ....

[brjoon1021]

Hi,

I need to install a distro. For me that means Ubuntu or Mint or now Mint LMDE. So I am just wondering what your experiences with LMDE have been: positives, negatives, indifferent, what have you - especially compared to the Mint 10 release. Any help would be appreciated. I know I can just "try it for myself, "YMMV..."" but I really don't have time to make any uninformed bad time investments right now.

B.

[tenfoot]

I have LMDE on two separate hard drives on the one desktop. The only downsides I've had have been some configuration issues on some updates. For example, on one update, automatic login was disabled - easily fixed, of course, by going to Control Centre/login window and resetting.

Currently, I have the 64bit version of LMDE as my default OS and the only issue I have is that despite doing a sudo update-grub after the installation, LMDE64 refuses to show the 32bit LMDE on boot As it is not a "major" for me, I haven't yet tried to find a solution.

On the whole, I am very pleased I installed LMDE when it was first released and even more pleased that the 64bit edition was released. In my opinion, Clem and the other developers are "on a winner" with this release

Oops! for got to give you my computer specs.

Processor: AMD Athlon 64bit Processor 3500+
Memory: 2061MB
Audio Adapter: NFORCE - NVidia CK804

[tdockery97]

I run both LMDE and Mint 10. If you really don't have the time to do a lot of tweaks and fix/adjust things periodically, I would strongly recommend Mint 10. If you do decide to go with LMDE and don't want to put in time doing system maintenance, just set the repositories to squeeze (the upcoming stable Debian version) and you won't have a lot of updates that could break your system.

[willie42]

Over all I am glad I switched to LMDE. I only have one minor printing issue. Over all great performance from the LDME platform

[AK Dave]

I like Mint for a stable uniform appearance of linux across multiple computers for multiple users. I got tired of maintaining machines with an Ubuntu-style release/upgrade schedule and wanted a rolling release. Thus, LMDE. Switched when it was "9" and now it is "10", but the upgrade is seamless because a rolling release is designed to be seamless. The initial installs were not problem free, but I knew that any hardware which CAN be supported in Ubuntu or Mint with "restricted drivers" can be supported in Debian with a little work. Its just that the "work" may be a little different. No problem, just get it done. Only real hiccup was wireless on a Dell Mini-9 netbook, but it didn't take me more than a half hour to find the right fix for that and would have taken me less time if I'd have checked these forums first.

As always, YMMV.

[monkeyboy]

If pressed for time and wanting a minimal chance of breakage I too would go for Mint LTS. Good Luck

[Rifester]

It really depends on what YOU want... I love LMDE and Debian. I am very glad that I switched all of my computers. If you MUST have the ability to install PPA's to have all of the latest and greatest then you will probably want to stay away from Debian. If you want stability, and you are o.k with not having the VERY latest and greatest, then in my opinion spending the time installing Debian is well worth it. I won't go back...

[reference2myself]

I love LMDE. You have to manually install your proprietary drivers, no big deal though. Also it's not like your stuck to debian/testing. I've grabbed several packages upstream from sid and experimental. I've also added like 5 Ubuntu ppa repositories, I just don't leave them all enabled for updates all the time. I find Debian to be more stable and faster than Ubuntu. Ubuntu started messing with too many things and doing everything their way. I stayed at Mint 8 till LMDE came out to avoid Ubuntu's stupid indicator-applet, that there is reason enough to switch imo.

[skompier]

It's a very individual thing. I ran Ubuntu since 7.04 and loved it. I used several Mint versions and REALLY loved those. For an "out of the box" working distro..Mint can't be beat. If you like to tinker with an OS (I do), then LMDE is an awesome choice.

I just switched from Ubuntu to LMDE64, a few days ago and I'm really loving it. There are a few minor annoyances...which I was able to correct, but overall, I'm very happy.

So...will switching to LMDE be trouble free? Nope. But it's a fun journey.

[twa]

tenfoot,
re your issue with LMDE

Currently, I have the 64bit version of LMDE as my default OS and the only issue I have is that despite doing a sudo update-grub after the installation, LMDE64 refuses to show the 32bit LMDE on boot As it is not a "major" for me, I haven't yet tried to find a solution.

a solution is to install from Synaptic this package: startupmanager
regards

[tenfoot]

tenfoot,
re your issue with LMDE

Currently, I have the 64bit version of LMDE as my default OS and the only issue I have is that despite doing a sudo update-grub after the installation, LMDE64 refuses to show the 32bit LMDE on boot As it is not a "major" for me, I haven't yet tried to find a solution.

a solution is to install from Synaptic this package: startupmanager
regards

Thanks you for the tip. Now, why didn't I think of that?

One wee problem, though. Only the amd64 (plus amd64 recovery) is shown in the menu entry. Why isn't the 32bit LMDE present, so I have a choice. By the way, sudo update-grub still makes no difference