pros/cons?

[cbrace]

Hi all,

I've been using Mint on desktop systems for some six years now, and I'm ready to take the plunge with the LMDE version. As far as I can tell there are no Unbuntu-specific things I'm going to miss.

But just to check. Does the Driver Manager work the same? Can I still install things like Nvidia and (hack, spit) Flash drivers where needed?

Are there any other things that will not be available on a Debian-based platform? FWIW, I have used Debian, but only on the server.

[BG405]

As far as I'm aware, you don't have PPAs in LMDE like you do in the main editions, also apparently setting up is a bit more involved. Sorry don't really know of anything else; I tried LMDE some time back but didn't do much with it.

Hopefully other members will chime in.

[catweazel]

Hopefully other members will chime in.

I'll "chime in". LMDE doesn't have a driver manager.

[BG405]

Thanks CW. It wouldn't hurt for me to look into LMDE a bit more as it'll be interesting to know more about the differences.

[cbrace]

OK, no Driver Manager. Doing a quick search I found this page explaining how to install the nVidia drivers under Debian, so this should work for LMDE, no?

How to install the latest NVIDIA drivers on Debian 9 Stretch Linux

[jeanpaulberes]

Hi,
You can find nvidea driver software in the Software Manager,
As from propriety stuff, Adobe Flash Player is also installed ...
I did change my Debian Stretch 9.5 Cinnamon Edition for this LMDE 3 Cindy version, this because I really dislike Ubuntu and Ubuntu deratives, but I do like Debian and the Mint Tools combined with Debian, so the LMDE 3 is simply great !

[srq2625]

Pros

• LMDE get's much/most of the LM project software (like Cinnamon) updates before the LM does. I don't know for sure the reason, but I would guess that LMDE users are a psuedo-beta tester for the LM project sofware.
• Operating Systems have a feel to them - at least it seems that way to me - and I like the feel I get from Debian derivatives as contrasted to those of Ubuntu (and others). I've been working with and developing software since 1976 and after a while I just started to "feel" a difference between the O/S I was working with. I can even feel a difference between LM and LMDE - weird, but there it is.
• The underlying sofware (the kernel, for example) doesn't change so often and this can lead to (a percenption of) more/better stability.

Cons

• No Device Manager
• No PPA - adding a PPA to your sources and then installing software from a PPA is a great way to break your install. It may not happen with every PPA software, but it will happen, eventually.
• Some/most of the available sofware will not be the most recent versions available. Both this point and the previous can be mitigated/remediated by
  1. Installing packages required to compile softare,
  2. Acquiring the source code for the software for which you want the most recent version available
  3. Compiling the source code and building a package
  4. Installing the package using dpkg -1 <package name>
• LMDE doesn't get all the love and TLC provided the LM distro. This is most recently demonstrated by the amount of time seen between the release of Debian 9 (upon which LMDE is based) and the release of LMDE. LMDE isn't the top priority but owes it's existance to a perceived need to have available a "fall-back" position should Ubuntu do something Clem et. al. are unhappy about and/or Ubuntu should disappear.
• The underlying software (the kernel for example) is older and may not support, either fully or at all, newer hardware. I have a couple of different WiFi cards for my desktop; one is not supported at all and the other only partially whereas they are fully supported by Ubuntu/LM.

I'm sure there are other considerations in both categories, but those are the high-points as I see them.


Installation of nVidia driver - here's what I did:
Installed nvidia-detect and ran it, producing:

Code: Select all

$ nvidia-detect
Detected NVIDIA GPUs:
07:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GF106 [GeForce GTS 450] [10de:0dc4] (rev a1)

Checking card:  NVIDIA Corporation GF106 [GeForce GTS 450] (rev a1)
Your card is supported by all driver versions.
It is recommended to install the
    nvidia-driver
package.

Installed the indicated driver:

Code: Select all

$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-driver

Then rebooted the computer with

Code: Select all

sudo reboot

[Nuts2u]

If you want the latest software using LMDE3 then install the from Software Manager under Flatpak. Flatpak support is built into LMDE3 and works great!! You can add addtional FlatPak sources such as Gnome and KDE. I'm runnling the Latest OpenOffice via FlatPak. Give it a try,The Mint Team has made it very easy in LMDE3.

[cbrace]

Thanks for all the useful input, very helpful. I'm going to back up my laptop home directory now, and install LMDE this evening. Looking forward to trying Flatpak! I'm hoping to keep up with the latest versions of Gimp this way.

[cbrace]

I now have LMDE3 installed on my laptop, an Asus UX30L Zenbook. I used the existing boot partition, and using gparted I created root, home, and swap partitions in advance. The install went very smoothly. Looking good

Two One issue:

• The Zenbook has a HiDPI screen, 2560x1440px. The Ubuntu Mint could handle HiDPI and everything is scaled properly. The LMDE install did not so I had to set the screen manually to 1360x780 so that I could read it. Any idea how/whether HiDPI is supported here?
• I need to install the Nextcloud client. It doesn't seem to be in the base repos. The nextcloud site refers to this Launchpad PPA for "debian/unbuntu". This is what I used previously to install the client under Mint 18 and earlier. However will this PPA cause problems under LMDE?

Thanks

[cbrace]

OK, I solved the resolution issue. Browsing the Settings notebook, I found under General an entry for Desktop Scaling. By default it was set to Auto. Setting it explicitly to Hi-DPI fixed the issue.

Screenshot from 2018-10-04 21-48-05.png

[Nuts2u]

PPA's are a Ubuntu only, they should not be used on Debian installs which includes LMDE3. I know that is not what you want to hear.

[Nuts2u]

After looking a the Nextcloud site, it states that Nextcloud for linux is available as App Image. This is like running an application from Flatpak on your system. Flatpak,AppImage, Snap are all run in a snadbox on your system and will not impact your LMDE3 install. Go ahead and download the AppImage and run it on your new LMDE3 system

[ajgringo619]

It's also available as a snap or flatpak, so at least you have choices.

[cbrace]

OK, all set. I had already downloaded the Nextcloud client .AppImage file, but I didn't know what to do with it. I now see you have to set the execute bit and then run it.

For those like myself who weren't aware of this file format, this page has lots of useful information: What is an “AppImage”? How do I install it?

[cbrace]

Hi all,

So far, my experience with the LMDE edition has only been positive. I'm happy to report as well that a suspend/resume issue I had been having on my Asus laptop for several years with the Unbuntu edition is gone now. I posted about it here: Asus Zenbook UX301: font corruption after resume. I have suspended and resumed the Zenbook once or twice a day since installing LMDE without this problem showing up. Yaay!

[bodhin]

Nice! I have seriously pondered running lmde on my daily use thinkpad which gets the most use and leave my office one as is. just hate to try it and then - have to redo the laptop with what i am using now due to maybe issues. even running a little live is not the same as fulll install and running all day.