making the switch - ubuntu mint or debian mint

[SparkyLabs]

ok I hope this is the right section, forgive me if it is not.

I'm going to switch to mint in a few days. I've got it on an old laptop and am happy with it so want to switch. I now have the dilema of ubuntun mint or debian mint. I understand that debian mint performs "faster" and is constantly updated whereas I get the impression that ubuntu mint needs big updates and i don't want to do that I prefer the rolling updates.

Any suggestions, I have tried ubuntu and was disgusted at it so i guess that left me a bit biased, ubuntu is based on debian anyway so I guess i might as well just cut out the ubuntu and use mint debian edition. As for instabilities and issues you get uh I come from a windows environment !

[xenopeek]

Moved here by moderator

[craig10x]

If you want very good stability go with the ubuntu based mint main edition...

the lmde version does have it's share of occasional breakages and regressions which will require troubleshooting and spending lots of time on the mint forums trying to get straightened out again...also lmde is debian testing which isn't really true rolling anyway and it also has a 6 month freezing period before the next version of debian goes stable...it's more suited for the tinkerers and for very advanced linux users who don't mind having to "play" with their systems a lot...

don't be afraid of updates on mint main edition...they come mostly from ubuntu and some from mint itself and tend to just make the your system run better and even more stable...the same can't always be said with lmde (linux mint debian edition)...

actually, you have it reversed, it is lmde that requires tons more of updates and more frequently then the main edition (ubuntu based) version does...

[SparkyLabs]

ok so if I install the ubuntu based version what do I do when a new version comes out ? am I reformatting and reinstalling ? can I update/migrate to the newer one without too much hassle ?

[craig10x]

well, of course, you do not HAVE to go to the next version each time one comes out but if you do, then the best way is to re-install "fresh" with the new dvd iso of the new edition...

keep in mind that if you get some serious breakage on lmde you could end up re-installing that! where as mint main will not break and re-installing to put the "latest" version of mint is actually more of an option then an actual necessity...there are people on here still running mint 8...9...10...and 11 and they run fine...

not trying to discourage you from lmde but to give my own case as an example, i tried lmde twice and both times ended up going back to mint main...much more relaxing, overall

[SparkyLabs]

well this is for my main machine so yes it does need to be stable. So perhaps I should use regular mint, I just don't want to have to reinstall all of my programs etc after a year or so and redo any settings

[xenopeek]

ok so if I install the ubuntu based version what do I do when a new version comes out ? am I reformatting and reinstalling ? can I update/migrate to the newer one without too much hassle ?

You can update to the newer release, though it doesn't always go flawlessly for everything: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2

[craig10x]

You could update, using the information on the link that Vincent gave you...though of course, best results are usually had with a fresh re-install of the system
Normal mint editions get updates for the same period as ubuntu (as it is ubuntu based) so that means for 18 months...the LTS (long term versions) of mint get the same longer term updates like ubuntu's LTS does....Mint 13 will be based on ubuntu 12.04, which is LTS and those versions come out every 2 years...and they get 5 years of updates..

What you might want to do, is install mint 12 for now and when mint 13 arrives in late May or so, re-install to that...then you could go on a 2 year run (until the next LTS comes out) and go with the next LTS on 2 year cycles...that way you always have a system that gets updates and you'd only have to re-install every 2 years instead of 6 months...

Again, you don't have to re-install newer versions...you could probably put on mint 11 and run it for the next several years if you so chose...just because a system no longer gets updates, doesn't stop you from continuing to use it...

Kind of like the fact that you could still be on windows vista right now...even though 7 had been around for a long time and they are about to go to windows 8 (just as a comparison)

[SparkyLabs]

You could update, using the information on the link that Vincent gave you...though of course, best results are usually had with a fresh re-install of the system
Normal mint editions get updates for the same period as ubuntu (as it is ubuntu based) so that means for 18 months...the LTS (long term versions) of mint get the same longer term updates like ubuntu's LTS does....Mint 13 will be based on ubuntu 12.04, which is LTS and those versions come out every 2 years...and they get 5 years of updates..

What you might want to do, is install mint 12 for now and when mint 13 arrives in late May or so, re-install to that...then you could go on a 2 year run (until the next LTS comes out) and go with the next LTS on 2 year cycles...that way you always have a system that gets updates and you'd only have to re-install every 2 years instead of 6 months...

Again, you don't have to re-install newer versions...you could probably put on mint 11 and run it for the next several years if you so chose...just because a system no longer gets updates, doesn't stop you from continuing to use it...

Kind of like the fact that you could still be on windows vista right now...even though 7 had been around for a long time and they are about to go to windows 8 (just as a comparison)

That sounds like sound advice - Thanks

[900i]

My personal preference is an LTS version, currently Mint 9.

[SparkyLabs]

well I'm sorry to say that mint 12 is pants: poor performance (what do you expect basing it off ubuntu), show desktop button often does not respond, blue ray player "dissaperes" as soon as a CD is put in yet is shown as a BD/DVD/CD player when empty, only 2 hard disks will mount at a time (with 8 sata ports), print to pdf produces a blank page and there seem to be no others available in the software centre (So right now I'm back on my XP laptop as that prints pdf for me), I mean are we having a laugh or something ? seriously I have less issues on windows not that I want to compare.

My mobo is a 5 year old gigabyte with intel chipset so not exactly backstreet hardware no one knows about

I am now trying a secondary instalation with LMDE which incidently runs snappier on a very old PC I have with a athlon XP1600+ and a laptop hard drive and 1 GB of ram than mint 12 does on a 2.4 GHz C2quad, 8GB of ram (not swap drive), cuda videocard and a relatively modern hard drive.

[3fRI]

I'm running LM 12 Cinnamon on my iMac and LM 12 LXDE on the MacBook. I even tried XFCE but preferred LXDE. All have been very stable with no significant issues. I tried to install LMDE but on both the desktop and the laptop, but neither seems to like Debian very much...or vice verse?

If you're looking for Debian-based alternatives, you might also try Crunchbang, which is a lean, clean distro and ran well when I tried it it via live CD.

[SparkyLabs]

I just want a system that works....... linux distros keep making false promises !

[beatink]

Interesting discussion and certainly a clear message about Debian-based distributions being more suited for 'techies'. Has anyone come across a really good comparison between all these different Linux Mint distributions however? I am still befuddled by the multitude of editions, e.g.
- LM 12
- LM 12 LXDE
- LM 12 KDE
- LMDE 201204

[asymmetros]

Debian based distro's are lighter on resources and are considered generally faster and more responsive than ubuntu and ubuntu based distro's.

So, especially for an old machine, debian as a base, is highly recommended.

I do not think that Deb-based distros are more suited for techies. But if you want to understand Linux better, LMDE is a fine place to start.

About KDE, LXDE, you can check this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment

You can check this also:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=197&t=91405
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=197&t=79533

Thus, my recomendation is this: http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=101
First, is LMDE. Second, it is based on Xfce, a rather conservative but fully functional (and light!) desktop. LM12 and "the other" LMDE are offering Mate and Cinnamon desktops: that 's an area of constant and rapid changes.

But you can decide only by trying of course