Mint on Debian base

[adric]

I simply love Linux Mint for it's eye-candy & Out of the box experience (OOBE). I'm currently using Linux Mint 3.1 (Celena), which fits my needs very well. I was looking at upcoming releases, and found Mint being tried with Debian. Which I think is a fantastic idea.

I am really impressed with Debian, and I think it would be great for a Linux Mint release to be based on Debian (stable release, not testing). Imagine stability of Debian with eye-candy & OOBE of Mint!! How about having two releases of Linux Mint 5?

1. Based on Ubuntu (for innovative & cutting-edge features)
2. Based on Debian Etch (4.0r2) LTS (for stability & long term release)

That way, people like me.. who prefer stability & maturity than cutting-edge features will celebrate! I think Mint will also have a more widespread appeal this way.

[foggytown]

Hi adric,
Two things come to mind. First, the next release of Mint, Linux Mint 5, will be a long term support version. Both Ubuntu and Mint seem focused on stability and usability for that release (as opposed to new features). Second, there is a new community edition of Mint based on Debian. It will probably take some time to reach release status, but info can be found at:
http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=141

--john

[adric]

Hey foggytown!

I know about the Debian based release, and that is why I'm excited for Linux Mint. Ubuntu is coming up with an LTS with 8.04, and Mint 5 is going to be based on it. However, Ubuntu itself is based on Debian's unstable (SID) branch. So when I mention Mint based on Debian, I mean Mint based on a distribution (stable) release of Debian; not based on Ubuntu (LTS or not), which in turn is based on Debian unstable. I've also mentioned Debian 4.0r2 to clarify.

May be my initial post was not clear about this, or I am posting this in the wrong place, but my post meant a Linux Mint LTS release based on a stable Debian release (4.0r2). This is apart from the regular Mint based on Ubuntu. I think it'll be a challenge to provide the same OOBE & elegance with the Debian distribution release, but it will increase Linux Mint's appeal...

Cheers!

[belovedmonster]

Releasing any sort of variation on Mint is going to increase its appeal to somebody. The question is would that increase in appeal outweigh the time and effort spent on it? And the answer is No, at least when it comes to the main developers working on a second version of gnome.

One day in the distant future Mint might switch to a different base, but its never going to release two versions. It's just too confusing and complicated for an OS that wants to be taken seriously in the mainstream.

The guys behind Mint seem positive about supporting community attempts to make variations of Mint, and its through this support that there is now an active community around a debian base, but there is never gunna be a time when Mint officially releases two different variations of the gnome desktop at the same time.

In fact I'm already begining to think that there needs to be more of a separation between the official Mint release and all the many variations we now have in the works. It's starting to get a bit confusing for the average user. If Clem was to ask me for my suggestions I'd tell him that the site should make the official release the only prominent download, but along side that a clearly visible link/banner to a place to get all the variations.

[adric]

I agree that the main version of Mint needs to be highlighted & the other community versions may have a link / page of their own.

I somehow prefer distributions based on Slackware, Debian, RedHat etc. But I'm using Mint 3.1 because it's so good with what I want to do, and it's damn elegant to boot!

All-in-all a good job by the Mint team & not to forget the community! I've been using Mint 3.1, but closely following each release, and all of them are very attractive & appealing. I've been trying hard to resist installing Mint 4 (because it just works!), now comes Mint 5!

Thanks for your response "belovedmonster". I am not sure of how easy or tough it is to bring up 2 versions of Linux Mint, and I shouldn't have to bother as a user. May be you have a better idea of all this. The reason I started posting this under the new feature request is that when the community is working so hard at bringing up the "community versions", I just wished it was possible to have a community release of Mint on Debian stable.. if it isn't... "life goes on...."

Cheers everybody!