Why I have given up on LMDE

[Niks]

After starting at it's launch I have decided to give up using LMDE... not because of what it is but the lack of support regarding update issues
If you search my name in here your find a number of postings regarding update 6 issues.
I was running it in both 32 and 64 bit versions 5 different PC.
For example my sound blaster live card ( possible the most popular card of it's time and I have two so not hardware ) does not work correctly in LMDE 32 or 64 with update 6 but in Mint 14 it works completely correctly from the live CD !!!!!!!
This is not a "rough edge" but a failure.
Other basic issues that should have been fixed ages ago include:-
Why do I have to still have to add the same lines to a conf file just to share a file on the network after how many updates ?
Why do I have to install an extra program to just auto mount my second drive ?
Why does it sometimes boot sometimes ask for password at start and sometimes not?

And the lack of reactions to request for help or non useful comments remind me of my time in a Debian forum where they tried to convince that because I couldn't install Debian on my eeepc that it was in fact netubootin that was broken even though every single distro I tried worked fine........( btw none of the official ways worked either have never even tried Debian since ) .

I know this sounds like a rant but I'm just providing feedback and I loved what Lmde was all about. However the whole point of rolling distro doesn't work for me. My experience is that the updates are in fact down grades that break things that used to work fine.I think it was one of the Mint team that had the moto "if it ain't broken don't fix it" ?

One last detail --I love Cinnamon but I'm I the only one that think it's insane to not have a one click way to add extensions or applets ????

And as a last point if you can spare the 45 mins I recommend every one that wants Linux to flourish watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh-cnaJoGCw

I really want things to get better but we seem to be so far away still

[Rory]

I share your frustration but this is actually a complex issue. I am thankful Clem does a rolling release and that he bases it in Debian, not Ubuntu. But, LMDE is not a very active community and Clem does seem to do a lot of the heavy lifting. LMDE is not much of a rolling release. It seems to have settled on a twice yearly update, in February and July/August. Is this because Wheezy is frozen and is about to graduate from testing to stable? Is it because Clem is one guy and LMDE, Mint Ubuntu-based and Cinnamon are all resource intensive? Is it because Linux Mint is just more popular than LMDE? Not sure of the answer. But, my gut tells me that if the LMDE forums were hopping and Mint Debian was being installed more than Mint Ubuntu, then perhaps there would be a lot more rolling. I would actually prefer a rolling release on Debian unstable with at least monthly updates and preferably weekly. But, that would require a far larger and more active community around Clem with strong QA.

Because there is so little description about an LMDE future state and update packages arrive as frequently as many distos issue new releases, I have started looking elsewhere for a rolling release that actually rolls. This is not a criticism of Clem. I am very pleased with the stability of LMDE and the elegance and usability of Cinnamon. I just am interested in a far more active rolling release and a commitment to a frequency of updates that is stated and then observed. Right now I am looking at Sabayon and Arch. But, I am also hoping that once Wheezy graduates, Clem will do far more frequent updates of a fresh Debian testing environment. I really wish LMDE would have caught fire and took off. It is a good product.

[heavy metal]

Me too liked LMDE, but after a week with cinnamon and another week with mate, trying to install my printer (Epson nx130) ended in a headache, I gave up and went back to LM Maya Mate, it's not rolling but at least my printer is working fine, the only thing I miss from LMDE is the K3B normalize audio function that works in LMDE but not in ubuntu based distro!

[heavy metal]

Will give LMDE 2013 Mate 64 another chance, will be using it for a little more time, to see if it gets better with time!

[revelationman]

Intially I had the Debian version on this old system , then I went to Mint 14 , what I do like about Debian is idea of not upgrading or reinstalling the system due to a new release. I save all my files on my 320 gig usb drive, and I am looking at a 3 year old laptop next I am thinking and leaning towrds the debian edition, but I prefer to keep a very vanilla basic linux box, just the programs I need, that is all that is it nothing fancy nothing special, less is best for me.

the debian ediition is very good, for that fact no need to reinstall , that is the drawback on Mint 14 one year support, then backup and reinstall, I am not worry on this old system,. I am turning into a file server eventually ,

but to answer your question i have not given up on LDME , most likely I will be installing again once I get my laptop,

[maxibuntu]

Removed

[casulfix]

It seems that If u use mate or cinnamon you are having trouble with LMDE. I don't use any of those two. I run XFCE and Gnome and I'm tracking debian testing and apart from some minor glitches, which I was able to fix, everything still runs fine...

If you are running not running mate or cinnamon and tracking testing, what's the point of using lmde instead of debian ?
A clean install of debian testing with multimedia repo enabled would give you same features & better performance...

[maxibuntu]

Removed

[laofzu]

I got tired of every update pack causing some hardware not to function anymore. I am also not a huge fan of of the mint x or mint z themes, prefer the default cinnamon and mate themes. I found a good soultion with Debian Wheezy with LightDM and Mate 1.6 installed. Hardware all works, and themes are plentiful. It is more work to install, but you get everything the way you want. Wheezy should be the stable solution for some time for my clients and myself. By the time Jessie becomes the stable version, most of us will be using new hardware anyway.