LMDE compared to Debian & Mint?

[Kev]

Yes multi-booting is something I've often done when trying distros; it can be very useful, though some distros are better than others at implementing Grub (or equivalent) in that scenario. These days virtual machines are more convenient, but need considerably faster hardware, so IMO there's still often a case for multi-booting to get the full experience.

In this case I already have Linux Mint20.1 and Debian10 installed on other laptops, so don't need to install again. I've used Mint for many years, and Debian for a few, so am reasonably familiar with them. That said, only within my usual use-case; the Debian machine in particular is intended to remain consistent, so I haven't actually played with the OS very much, beyond configuring in the same way each time.

I seem to go through these cycles of getting interested in the possibilities of different distros and desktops, and enthusiastically testing them out. Before discovering (yet again) that they're all of course basically still Linux underneath!

[Kev]

The test laptop is needed for other things now, as is my time, so I'm going to conclude this little trial of LMDE; it has been an interesting and satisfying experience.

As expected, LMDE isn't going to supplant Mint for me, as my daily use and tinkering OS. In fact even if I were to want a mainstream Debian-based distro in that roll, then here and now MX-Linux is a little more extensive and (for a slightly different user-base) Sparky Linux is also very impressive, so would probably be my personal choice. Their options for more backports etc and/or rolling releases are quite attractive for this scenario, and bring them closer to Mint in terms of suitability IMO.

But that is no criticism of LMDE; for the purpose(s) it is intended, I found it very convincing and also eminently usable in its own right. If/when LMDE5 is released, I'll probably choose it over Bullseye for my 'stable' laptop. So a very useful trial, thanks to everyone who has chipped in!

[Shadow in Fire]

As others have said, it's basically Debian with GNU/Linux Mint repositories included for people who like the beginner-friendly aspects of the distro, plus distro-specific configurations that are more minimalist-minded than the regular Ubuntu build. Sometimes, you get to a point where less is more. That's where Debian comes in, and their focus is on maintaining fixed versions of packages with every intention of patching bugs and security flaws.

The only downside is packages will be older than the Ubuntu ones, but you can always try adding the backports repository to get certain newer software, kernels, and drivers, but that's still quite minimal compared to switching to the development branches.

I have found that stability continues to be a non-issue with Debian Sid, even if you update all the time. I personally run Devuan (Debian without Systemd), which has never let me down.

[Kev]

Yes, that is largely what it seemed to me, too. I was particularly interested to see what the custom configurations were - beyond obvious aspects like theming and extra tools.

They appear to be quite restrained (compared to some other Debian-based distros), but well chosen and very welcome. I'm not a very technical user and always have to tussle with Debian to get it working as wished - such as adding myself to the sudo group, getting an internet/wifi connection to work, and basically making things convenient for general desktop use. There was none of that with LMDE; just setting up a few mild GUI preferences. Though, understandably, I find Mint is still some way ahead.