LMDE vs. Debian

[rbeltz48]

Can anyone comment on any major differences between these two distros, other than LMDE being more user friendly? I am contemplating switching from LM MATE to LMDE MATE. Thanks.

[richyrich]

If you've been using Mint's apps and tools, you already have that answer !

[Fred Barclay]

G'day rbeltz48! If you decide to switch, it'll be great to have another chap onboard LMDE!

A few differences between LMDE 2 and Debian Stable:
1. LMDE 2 does not use systemd as the init system by default. While systemd is present, and you can choose to boot using it by going to "Advanced Options" in the GRUB menu, Betsy uses the older sysvinit by default.

2. Newer DEs. On Debian Stable, MATE is at v 1.8 and Cinnamon is at v 2.2 (though it looks like Cinnamon 3.0 is in the Debian Stable backports). On LMDE 2, we always get the latest DE (currently MATE 1.14 and Cinnamon 3.0) within a few days of their initial release.

3. The MATE menu on LMDE is the "mint-menu", while Debian Stable uses the Gnome-2-look for their MATE menu. You can easily change this in either distro, though.

4. LMDE 2 uses the deb-multimedia repo to add support for playing multimedia files. While this may not always be a good idea, it does mean your out-of-the-box experience on LMDE may be smoother than that of Debian.

And then, of course, there are the Mint goodies you may have found, such as mintStick or the Update Manager; as well as the Mint themes that are not easily available to Debian. Sorry, no Mint-Y theme, though you can use Arc-theme which is the basis for Mint-y theme (and looks very similar).

Hope this helps!
Fred

[rbeltz48]

Thanks for your reply Fred. I have used LM since 2011 after Ubuntu went to UNITY. I have suggested to Clem a number of times to free LM from the Ubuntu core programs and go independent. But it appears that LM will stay with Ubuntu for the foreseeable future.

It is hard to say exactly where Canonical is going with Ubuntu. But, it may eventually move away from the desktop and onto touch screen devices. That is my concern, in addition to Ubuntu's fast release schedule which often produces many bugs, such as the ones I found in LM 18 MATE. That's why I am pretty much locked into LM 17.3 for the present.

Would you have any idea as to how many users LMDE has compared to LM for all other editions?

[Fred Barclay]

I really don't know; I would guess less than a tenth of Mint users use LMDE. It's a shame too.

[Crewp]

The suggestion to move Mint off the Ubuntu base, and onto Debian has been around for awhile. ( While I agree ) Clem has made it known that it won't happen unless Ubuntu takes a radical turn, or maybe the user base for LMDE grows really big. ( Which is not likely ) Fred is probably correct, we are a small percentage of Mint users.

[Arch_Enemy]

I really don't know; I would guess less than a tenth of Mint users use LMDE. It's a shame too.

I have both installed, and I like the idea of being strictly Deb based (I always thought Mint was until a few months ago) but having the Ubuntu repositories available means a wider range of well-tested software for everyday users who use it as a Windows replacement. For my work environment I use the Ubuntu based version, but for my own stuff (photography, etc) I use the Deb based version. Either way, Mint works better than either. Ubiquity drives me nuts (and it's a short ride) and Debian had some compatibility issues with software from it's own repositories (It may have been the Testing repo, but usually I stay away from these). The Mint versions just seem to be better "rung out" than the versions they are based on. Very few things don't work as advertised in Mint.

I have never made a donation to a Linux developer, but I think Clem deserves a tip from my next paycheck...

[Distro-Don]

I think that there are a lot of LMDE-2 users but they don't have any problems with it so they don't have to write about it on this forum. I am one of them. It works perfectly for me and I have been using it ever since LMDE-1 came out.