Is LMDE suitable for my tastes?

[JordanV0712]

This is coming from an Ubuntu user.

I am very happy with Ubuntu thus far. It has been great, and I have had little problems with it. Though, with saying it, I did not mention that I do have problems, such as Google Chrome locking up on me and forcing me to restart my computer. This happens occasionally. Also, I really like the idea of a rolling release distro. I want to be on the cutting-edge rather than relying on Canonical to hand me updates to my OS. I realized this when Linus announced that Linux kernel 3.1-rc2 on Google+ this last weekend. I realized that Ubuntu wasn't even on Linux kernel 3.0 yet and probably won't be til October when the next Ubuntu version is released.

That being said, I really do like the look and feel of Unity, and the amount of support that Ubuntu gets. That would be my main hurdle for me. Being a Unity fan myself, I see Gnome-Shell the next best alternative. I heard that Gnome 3 is coming to LMDE soon through the Debian testing repos, and that's why I am looking heavily into LMDE.

Basically, what I want is a OS that has a great community behind it, a lot of developer support, easy to use, has a lot of ready and available applications to install, has to have a built-in messaging system (similar to Ubuntu's "Me Menu"), has to be stable, and cutting-edge technology. I asked this on a tech Q&A board, and most, if not all of them, recommended me to LMDE, which I myself knew about and was thinking about moving to for a while.

I have used Linux Mint in the past, Linux Mint 10, and I was very pleased with the ease of use and stability that it offered me. I made the jump back to Ubuntu for Natty Narwhal since I was extremely interested in Unity, and Linux Mint had no intention of moving to Gnome-Shell or even Gnome 3.

Basically, I want to know if LMDE has the functionality and ease of use of Ubuntu and the normal Linux Mint. I have played around with LMDE before, this was way before Unity, and I thought the overall experience wasn't as easy as normal Linux Mint. Did the Mint team fix this? And will I be able to gain access to some Ubuntu packages if I ever so pleased?

Thanks for reading and the input!

~Jordan

[aljoriz]

I can only answer from my personal experience.

LMDE has no easy way to install nvidia/ati drivers (the default drivers works like a charm so I'm sticking to it), the installation needs a little bit of knowledge on partitioning.

Other than that you can get most of the apps in ubuntu to work in Debian. Overall I am satisfied. I have been with Mint and am very pleased with it. Just give it a try, and if you have worries just post in the forums and people will try their best to help you in anyway they can.

[lmintnewb]

Couple opinions.

Latest, doesn't mean greatest. Cutting edge for a working system could be problematic me thinks. As for the other ... Think linux is about preference. So really no way to know what's suited to you. Guessing best way for someone to know would be set up a testing partition and take it for a spin.

2 cents.

[gavinhc]

And will I be able to gain access to some Ubuntu packages if I ever so pleased?

Other than that you can get most of the apps in ubuntu to work in Debian.

Most of the apps in Ubuntu are also available in the Debian repositories, so you shouldn't be missing out on too many things. However, if you do find a program you want is missing from Debian, it is not as simple as installing it from an Ubuntu PPA. Although Ubuntu is based on Debian, it makes significant changes to the system, meaning that software compiled for Ubuntu (such as from a PPA) will not always be compatible with a Debian-based system.

[Roken]

I've been running LMDE, largely trouble free, since November last year, and it does everything that I want it to and more. Having said that, being a rolling release it does require a little more maintenance than Ubuntu based distros and breakages do happen from time to time (nothing insurmountable, however)

If you are confortable with Linux, and in particular don't mind getting down and dirty with the terminal from time time then you should find the move to LMDE nothing short of a joy. I wouldn't recommend it to a new Linux user, but a little bit of experience goes a long way in this game.

With regard to gfx drivers, if you decide to go ahead with LMDE check out the smxi/sgfxi scripts which simplify the installation considerably. They look scary, but are actually pretty easy - http://smxi.org/