LMDE Users

[rbeltz48]

With more than 109,000 Linux Mint forum registered users, can anyone tell me how many are using LMDE on a regular basis? With LMDE3 coming out soon I am thinking of switching from the Ubuntu code base to Debian. All replies appreciated.

[Pjotr]

With LMDE3 coming out soon I am thinking of switching from the Ubuntu code base to Debian. All replies appreciated.

As most of the good stuff and the good vibes are in the main edition of Mint, the question is: why?

[[rua]]

User base? Dunno. Most probably tiny compared to regular Mint - and steadily shrinking if the lessening frequency of posts in this section is an indication.

If what you mean is to exchange Ubuntu repos in the main edition for Debian ones and follow it with a dist-upgrade, I'd expect a disaster. You have to install LMDE from scratch. It's really a whole different distribution.

With LMDE3 coming out soon I am thinking of switching from the Ubuntu code base to Debian. All replies appreciated.

As most of the good stuff and the good vibes are in the main edition of Mint, the question is: why?

Answering for myself. Depends what you mean by "good stuff and good vibes". If you value stability, security, and low overhead, you get all this with LMDE plus most of the convenience of regular Mint.

Here's an article comparing LMDE 2 with Ubuntu-based Mint. It pretty much agrees with my own experience and observations.
https://www.datamation.com/open-source/ ... ition.html

[kevinthefixer]

As with most things Linux, it's a matter of personal taste and requirements. And abilities. The main edition is great for noobs and those who want it to work without fussing about with it. LMDE appeals to tinkerers like myself, and those who want to get the last little bit of speed out of their hardware even if it takes a lot of time to get it. It seems to me that many people are frustrated with waiting for LMDE3 and that's why less posts here.

[rbeltz48]

I am asking because LMDE does not rely on Ubuntu for its code base. From one release to another, one never knows what kind of a release Ubuntu will come up with. Over the past 3-1/2 yrs. since 14.04 many of their releases have been small disasters. I constantly test new Linux releases to ascertain if I want to stay with Mint's main edition or switch to LMDE or another completely different distro.

[Pepi]

I found LMDE to be a bit faster than Ubuntu BUT to deal with software installs is a headache. This is why I went back to 18.3.

[DanielR]

Well, I was quite happy with Mint 13 (Ubuntu Precise 12.04). After moving to Mint 17 (LTS for Mint 13 ran out) I was confronted with an increasing incompatibility of Mint 17 and my dated hardware. For that reason I moved to LMDE2 and am quite content with its stability, speed and support for my hardware. I hope LMDE3 won't be a disappointment.

[rbeltz48]

To: DanielR - FYI - Memory usage at idle. I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T420 with an i5 processor and 4 GB memory which I use as my test box. With LMDE2 MATE and unneeded startup programs unchecked, memory at idle after booting is about 310 MB. With the same setup on LMDE3 with MATE installed and unneeded startup programs unchecked, memory at idle is about 530 MB. Running LMDE3 Cinnamon memory at idle was a whopping 820 MB! I don't know the specs. of your PC but you may want to consider these scenarios in whether or not to move to LMDE3. The best memory usage I have found is to install MATE on top of Xubuntu 18.04. It has the best memory usage of all the Ubuntu 18.04 versions I have tried, even better than Mint 17.3 MATE. I could probably tweak LMDE3 a bit more.

[DanielR]

To: rbeltz48 - I'm not too concerned about memory usage. My current system is an older mobile workstation and I could upgrade to a max. of 8GB if needed. I'm more concerned about reliable hardware support (Core 2 Duo, Nvidia Quadro and Intel WIFI). Nevertheless, with your experience in mind, I get the impression that the tendency towards "Bloat-Ware" is not entirely limited to the Microsoft universe ...

[KBD47]

LMDE 3 beta with effects off (those it appears safe to disable) ram is 610 mb idling. Not bad.

Code: Select all

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmds+.        OS: Mint 3 cindy
 MMm----::-://////////////oymNMd+`     Kernel: x86_64 Linux 4.9.0-7-amd64
 MMd      /++                -sNMd:    Uptime: 11m
 MMNso/`  dMM    `.::-. .-::.` .hMN:   Packages: 1789
 ddddMMh  dMM   :hNMNMNhNMNMNh: `NMm   Shell: bash 4.4.12
     NMm  dMM  .NMN/-+MMM+-/NMN` dMM   Resolution: 1366x768
     NMm  dMM  -MMm  `MMM   dMM. dMM   DE: Cinnamon 3.8.8
     NMm  dMM  -MMm  `MMM   dMM. dMM   WM: Muffin
     NMm  dMM  .mmd  `mmm   yMM. dMM   WM Theme: Linux Mint (Mint-Y)
     NMm  dMM`  ..`   ...   ydm. dMM   GTK Theme: Mint-Y [GTK2/3]
     hMM- +MMd/-------...-:sdds  dMM   Icon Theme: Mint-Y
     -NMm- :hNMNNNmdddddddddy/`  dMM   Font: Noto Sans 12
      -dMNs-``-::::-------.``    dMM   CPU: Intel Celeron 2955U @ 1.4GHz
       `/dMNmy+/:-------------:/yMMM   GPU: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Haswell Mobile 
          ./ydNMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM   RAM: 610MiB / 1878MiB

[DanielR]

Not bad indeed. This looks a lot more promising than the figures from rbeltz48.

Mate should be a tad lower than that, provided Cinnamon can be removed completely when changing the DE to Mate. I haven't bothered changing DE's yet since Mint provided a Mate version of the OS so far.

[KBD47]

Not bad indeed. This looks a lot more promising than the figures from rbeltz48.

Mate should be a tad lower than that, provided Cinnamon can be removed completely when changing the DE to Mate. I haven't bothered changing DE's yet since Mint provided a Mate version of the OS so far.

If you try MATE let us know how that works out. I like MATE, but Cinnamon has been growing on me.

[rbeltz48]

To KBD47: I was able to install the complete MATE desktop on LMDE3 through the Terminal. See my post here:

viewtopic.php?f=247&t=274832

[LMDE85]

Havent used Mint in years, but a new SSD made me look around a bit and so, to even my own surprise I am now running LMDE3 on my system. A very easy and pleasent Debian experience, I must say. On a system like Debian Flatpak really is useful. In a world without them running Debian stable would not be an option for me. The ease of set up really is something after Arch and Gentoo.

ps. Oh, and the possibility to choose calamares as installer was great too!

[jameskga]

Yo dude, I use LMDE to host and record a podcast, in addition to light image editing and web development. It's very fast compared to Ubuntu, and nothing ever breaks or gets updated into regression, nor do I encounter crappy design forks. This is the same computer every time I turn it on. Consistency is everything when you're doing creative work every day and need reliable tools that don't get in the way, being all "look at me, I'm a tool."

Other platforms like to stuff it into your eyes how great they are, literally advertising their own evolutions at you as they change under your feet. They're like a kid that does his homework, and they run up to you all excited as if you're going to hang every obligatory piece of crap they create on the fridge. Very unhelpful, and disrespectful to people who use computers for work. Like, great, Microsoft dudes. Enjoy your yachts. I'm trying to make something here, not congratulate your interface designers on completing busy work. LMDE has given me the most stable, predictable and reliable workspace I've used since Windows XP.

I used certain applications on Ubuntu base that for whatever reason would die over time, as things got updated and changed. I don't have time to babysit software installations that change on a developer's whim. This hasn't happened in all my time on LMDE.

I hope in the latest version of Cinnamon there are power options to let me keep the computer unlocked for longer than 1 hour of inactivity.

[AZgl1800]

I used certain applications on Ubuntu base that for whatever reason would die over time, as things got updated and changed. I don't have time to babysit software installations that change on a developer's whim. This hasn't happened in all my time on LMDE.

I hope in the latest version of Cinnamon there are power options to let me keep the computer unlocked for longer than 1 hour of inactivity.

This is LMDE3-Cindy, will this setup meet your requirements?

[jameskga]

It could be helpful if the first dropdown menu in your second image gets a Custom... setting or something greater than 1 hour. In LMDE2 my options are between 1 hour, and never. Nothing inbetween!

Or maybe there is a new dropdown menu created after ticking the last option there, about locking the session. There should be a 2 hour setting, and so on, if we don't get to customize it ourselves via UI. I'm sure there's a config file to edit in any case

[AZgl1800]

It could be helpful if the first dropdown menu in your second image gets a Custom... setting or something greater than 1 hour. In LMDE2 my options are between 1 hour, and never. Nothing inbetween!

Or maybe there is a new dropdown menu created after ticking the last option there, about locking the session. There should be a 2 hour setting, and so on, if we don't get to customize it ourselves via UI. I'm sure there's a config file to edit in any case

the 1st tab has no Dropdown Menu, sorry




Looks like it is none, or 1 hour, with little increments in between 0-1 hour. just about useless in that regard.



Maybe the config file could be edited to extend that out??

[jameskga]

Probably. It's not a pressing matter. Just a feature I'd like to see expanded upon. Who else uses LMDE on production systems?

[sdibaja]

Who else uses LMDE on production systems?

I do not. It was made clear by Clem that LMDE is low priority, hoby level... rather experimtal with the latest innovations for Cinnamon.
That is not a candidate for the production or office environment... in my opinion.