Pro's and cons of LMDE2 ?

[ghost123uk]

Hi LMDE folks, I'm not new to LM, I often install LM17.x "Mate" to computers in my area. I have moved MANY folk away from "you know what" to Linux Mint with great success

Today, just to check it out, I installed LMDE2 on one of my spare machines, (a Dell P4 / 2GB / Nvidia etc tower) and it all went just fine.
It seems plenty quick enough on that old Dell tower, quicker I reckon than my usual 17.x Mate, but I didn't do any proper testing (yet).

I read up on the LMDE faq's somewhat, I understand that pps's are out, no problem, the software centre seems to have all my "customers" are likely to need

I am wondering if I might find advantages in using LMDE instead of my usual LM17.x "mate" edition.

My post here is really to ask, as per the subject line = "What, put simply, are the Pro's and Cons of LMDE"?

[Crewp]

I think you will not find much difference on the surface. Except for PPA use, The biggest difference for me is the stability of using Debian Stable. It is rock solid, very well tested base. Much more mature than Ubuntu, It does seem to run faster than some of the 17.x installs I have on other machines. Clem has stated he tries to make the Debian version and Ubuntu version to perform the same. And he has succeeded. Really it comes down to your preference. I've just always liked Debian over Ubuntu, for the stability over the sometimes buggy Ubuntu. Of course these are my opinions, and everyone has there own, but this is the greatness of Linux.

[killer de bug]

If we are speaking about your personal usage, I'm totally in line with Crewp (as always, in fact ).

The pro of LMDE, in my opinion, are:
- No reinstallation needed between version.
- We are receiving updates ahead of the main edition (like Cinnamon).
- Stable.
- Fast.
- Based on Debian and their huge package base.
- No man in the middle layer, I find it a little bit cleaner.

The cons:
- Ubuntu has a huge/incredible driver support. Some hardware may have a better out of the box support in the main edition.
- it's stable. I mean it's really stable. Ok, I admit, it's boring stable...


This said, if as I understand, you are wondering if you should install this version to your customers, I would say no. Clearly no!
With the LM17.x and in a few months the 18.x base, you have a frozen base. People are not obliged to install a new version of Cinnamon/Nemo/MDM if they don't want to. They are not taking any risks with regression.
If your customers are techies, they will know how to upgrade. If they are not, they will not be prompted with an upgrade, and that's better.

In LMDE, you receive the updates, and you should apply them if you do not want to lag behind the normal base.

[ghost123uk]

Good input there folks

I have had a "play" with it today, and I am very pleased with it. Tried it on 3 very different machines with no real issues at all. It does "feel good"

However, now I know a bit more about it, I can see me personally using it, possibly as my main O.S., but as pointed out, as my "customers" are far from techy ( ), I will stick to LM 17.x mate for them.

[ThanosFish]

Just a few things I noticed after I installed LMDE2 for the first time. (I may update my list in the future)

Pros:
- Updated software
- Stable
Cons:
- Takes forever to boot compared to linux-mint-ubuntu edition (confused?)
- No Driver Manager support. That means you can't install Graphics drivers with a simple mouse click

Furthermore I didn't notice any speed difference between the two distros whatsoever

[killer de bug]

Debian has never been working on startup speed. Debian system are booted once every 6 months or so. Therefore this has never been an interest on their side.

For the Driver Manager, yep, this is the rough edges of LMDE.

[Crewp]

Debian has never been working on startup speed. Debian system are booted once every 6 months or so. Therefore this has never been an interest on their side.

For the Driver Manager, yep, this is the rough edges of LMDE.

Yes, this is true, Debian is a little slow on start-up, but I think it is worth the wait.