Why would I want to use LMDE vs Current LM Cinnamon?

[barddzen]

I understand the concept behind LMDE, but why would I want to use that as an every day driver vs the current version of LM Cinnamon? Or MATE? Or XFCE?

[LanceM]

I'm using it now, with no intention of leaving 19.3 Cinnamon. Why? Curiosity. So far, it's proven stable and the user day to day experience seems to be indistinguishable from 19.3. Just good to know in case some day Ubuntu ceases. I noticed Chromium doesn't have the feature to turn on sync. It's Chromium and not Chromium-Browser. A slightly different version. Chrome is the same and works fine.

[Murdock2525]

No real reason other than being a purist like I am. Even Clem, Mint creator, praises the Ubuntu effort and well understands it's huge value. His pet, LMDE is a "what if". I agree and run it too...along with Kubuntu to play with KDE a little with a giant support group before I go "purist" with a KDE distro. I will.......eventually.
No reason to simply get shook up and jump to LMDE.... it is a killer twist tho. I've been an XFCE fanboy for many years. MX perfected it so there I am.Clem know MX whipped XFCE too and appreciates their fantastic tools.... of which they got some ideas from him....and vice/vera. Clem is the master of Cinnamon. Go there, be it the Ubuntu flavor or the Deb/LMDE.
Don' load enlightenment on either. Jeff at Bodhi has that covered for you.
Fedora is the current master of Gnome... likely POPs as well(I haven't tried that yet)
I also want to try Budgie stuff for the heck of it.
Linux has matured to an incredible level.Anything you can dream has been done for you already. It' s so easy now to grab one, already mostly done, and tweak it a little.

[arvy]

At this stage, I wouldn't even consider abandoning Mint 19.3 and switching to LMDE instead. On the other hand, like LanceM, I'm also curiosity driven and it's not at all difficult to multi-boot LMDE along with various other options, even including Microsloth's latest, just for variety. Always good to have at least one "just in case" fallback available.

[A-MAN]

I use it over the standard version mainly due to less updates and upgrades overtime. I have a streaming PC that I only use around twice a month, so I don't want to have to turn it on and then download a big amount of updates. I used to run Manjaro on it (still do on my laptop, but that's a different situation, I use it daily.) and I would just get bombed with updates each time I turned it on. Also, I really, really despise the 3 times a year upgrade that comes with the standard base, I'd much rather have what the Debian edition does and just get essential and feature updates as they come along. I don't need all the extra hand-holding that comes with Ubuntu. I left Fedora for the reason I didn't want to do an upgrade twice a year. Don't get me wrong, I love Fedora and the Ubuntu version of Mint a lot, it's just always running the upgrade plugin is not my cup of tea*


So, if you don't like to get bombarded with updates and upgrades *(I know you don't HAVE to upgrade to the newest release I just like to.)* then that is the main advantage. There are also people who have a deep seeded mistrust of Ubuntu but love Mint and Cinnamon, so the Debian edition is perfect for them, too. I admit i am a little leery of Canonical, but not to the degree I bash them.

[Fuzzy]

...why would I want to use that as an every day driver...

With no animosity, I offer:

If you're asking the question, you probably won't want to use it as your every day driver.

Either it appeals to you, or it doesn't. There's not really a hidden reason/purpose to LMDE. I think Clem (and the entire team) has been very forthright about what LMDE is. I don't think there's any pressure out there that should make anyone feel obligated to use/try LMDE. It's just another option like a million other options out there. Variety....and a safety net for Mint to fall back on.

Out of the endless variety out there, I've enjoyed using LMDE as my daily driver. It has been fun, stable, clean, and a great platform for me as i continue my trek into LINUX.

Your question could be flipped around to ask why any distro should be used as an every day driver. Mostly, it comes down to preference and freedom.

Friendly Regards,
Fuzzy

[Moonstone Man]

No real reason other than being a purist like I am.

I don't recall giving permission for anyone to write claims on my behalf. I use it because it's stable, rock-solid robust, has a very small footprint, has a much lower update frequency, and it's fast.

Code: Select all

System:    Host: rooter Kernel: 4.19.0-8-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.4.8 
           Distro: LMDE 4 Debbie base: Debian 10.2 buster 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: LENOVO product: 10ABS02B00 v: ThinkCentre M93p serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: LENOVO model: SHARKBAY v: SDK0E50510 WIN serial: <filter> BIOS: LENOVO v: FBKTB2AUS 
           date: 06/03/2015 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-4570T bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Haswell rev: 3 
           L2 cache: 4096 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 23148 
           Speed: 3056 MHz min/max: 800/3600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3060 2: 3029 3: 3041 4: 3015 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Haswell Desktop v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:03.0 
           Device-2: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:1b.0 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-8-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Ethernet I217-LM vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: f080 bus ID: 00:19.0 
           IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek type: USB driver: r8152 bus ID: 4-3:5 
           IF: enxa0cec8cd36d9 state: up speed: 2500 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-3: Realtek type: USB driver: r8152 bus ID: 4-5:7 
           IF: enxa0cec8cd3789 state: up speed: 2500 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-4: Realtek type: USB driver: r8152 bus ID: 4-6.3:9 
           IF: enxa0cec8cd3798 state: up speed: 2500 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-5: ASIX AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet type: USB driver: ax88179_178a bus ID: 4-6.4:10 
           IF: enx000ec68e62e4 state: down mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: bridge0 state: up speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-2: tun0 state: unknown speed: 10 Mbps duplex: full mac: N/A 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 18.31 TiB used: 7.30 TiB (39.9%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Intel model: SSDSC2KW128G8 size: 119.24 GiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Western Digital model: WD80EFAX-68KNBN0 size: 7.28 TiB 
           ID-3: /dev/sdc type: USB vendor: Western Digital model: WD Elements 25A3 size: 5.46 TiB 
           ID-4: /dev/sdd type: USB vendor: Western Digital model: WD Elements 25A3 size: 5.46 TiB 
RAID:      Device-1: md0 type: mdraid status: active Components: online: sdd1~c1 sdc1~c0 
           Info: raid: raid-0 blocks: 11720710144 report: N/A chunk size: 512k 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 109.90 GiB used: 6.47 GiB (5.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 7.08 GiB used: 661.0 MiB (9.1%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda1 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 65.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 229 Uptime: 1d 5h 54m Memory: 6.73 GiB used: 794.5 MiB (11.5%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 
           Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.3 inxi: 3.0.32 

The little two core NUC up there that I'm connected to is acting as a router, VPN server, DNS server, DHCP server, and media streamer for a 2.5Gb/s network with 5 currently connected clients, and it's doing a huge rsync to boot.

[AZgl1800]

Sunday ( yesterday )

I installed LMDE4 on an older version of the current laptop I am using now.
ASUS TUF Gaming G73, it is 10 years old at this point, and still using a spinning platter 1tB drive.

My impression when it finally quit updating, was that the Panel is strange, and does not put the icons where the "belong": e.g., like 19.3 Cinnamon.

It felt slow, way slow... but my new ASUS has a 128gB SSD and we know how that helps.

I have used it all of maybe 1 hour, but I wanted it simply because it is new, current, and can be a backup if my current machine is not handy...

I don't like the way the Panel places the working icons.
Open Terminal and it is not shown as a project at all, the same icon on the Panel stays there...
that is totally non-intuitive and made it hard for me to like it.

Firefox, is slow to come up and work, like almost 15 seconds.... on my new laptop, it is up and pulling in the internet in 3 seconds or less.

the old laptop has 8gB RAM, so that is not a problem.... hate to waste an SSD on a 10 year old box, that won't get used but maybe twice or thrice a year. the old laptop does not have 5g WiFi either, so that is a detriment. My new one does and I can switch between 2.4g and 5g and the difference in transfer speeds is readily apparent.

[AZgl1800]

Dear Azgl1500
With all due respect , is that your calibrate procedure to compare Distro’s and draw your conclusions ?
You must be joking ?

I think I made it quite clear, as to how I was making those comparisons.

Had I installed LMDE4 on my current new laptop, it would have run much faster.
you did not read what I said.

[barddzen]

I get the upgrade cycle but on my daily driver, I really don't mind that so much. The origin of my question was I wasn't sure there was some other benefit I was just missing the obvious. I've only been a Linux desktop user for about a year now so I'm still learning and trying to understand the environments and Mint Cinnamon has been my desktop of choice.

Appreciate all the comments and feedback.

[barddzen]

Got it. For my daily driver, I really don't have concerns with the (current) update frequency of LM (Ubuntu), it works, seems stable enough for what I need and is pretty straight forward. My interest here is I am intrigued and do generally like "cutting out the middle man" approach of LMDE, this seems much more forward thinking and a far better future looking version (IMO).

I have LMDE running in a VM and honestly I am really hard pressed to see any difference between the two. Is there a matrix somewhere that lists the actual differences (feature/function/software package) not just libraries and dependencies? For example, one I found was the third party installer (I think that's from Ubuntu not Debian?).

[majpooper]

Isn't the easy answer here is that what the OP refers to as LM Cinnamon (Standard Addition based on Ubuntu) is;
1.) easier to install
2.) more up to date software packages
3.) easier to install hardware drivers
4.) although very stable LMDE is maybe a little more so

So why choose LMDE over the Standard Addition? Got me . . . . maybe you don't trust Conical? I mean why not Debian Cinnamon if the future of Ubuntu is the concern? LMDE is a nice project and may someday be the way Mint has to go but for the near future - like the next 3 year at least - the Standard Addition IMHO is best suited for most users and definitely for new users.

[barddzen]

That's pretty much where my head's at. As an architect, I get the long term strategy of LMDE but as long as it maintains parity with LM (Ubuntu) I really don't see a reason one way or the other. If at some point the LMDE becomes more of the main feature stream and (current) LM Ubuntu-based starts to fall off, then that's a different decision.

[Moonstone Man]

and is probably the reason why Linux Mint has already surpassed Ubuntu in popularity
(Source: it’s FOSS)
from my experience as faithful daily user my preference at the short term is going to Linux Mint based on Debian ; solid as a rock , stable and reliable but as easy to install and maintain as the actual editions of Linux Mint … waite and see ?
in the meantime our 5 laptops ( workhorses ) are running with great satisfaction Linux Mint ( 1 , 2 and 3 editions ) and the sixth is now running LMDE 4 with equally great satisfaction

How exactly does that quote support your wild claim that "... Linux Mint has already surpassed Ubuntu in popularity"?

[Moonstone Man]

and is probably the reason why Linux Mint has already surpassed Ubuntu in popularity
(Source: it’s FOSS)
from my experience as faithful daily user my preference at the short term is going to Linux Mint based on Debian ; solid as a rock , stable and reliable but as easy to install and maintain as the actual editions of Linux Mint … waite and see ?
in the meantime our 5 laptops ( workhorses ) are running with great satisfaction Linux Mint ( 1 , 2 and 3 editions ) and the sixth is now running LMDE 4 with equally great satisfaction

How exactly does that quote support your wild claim that "... Linux Mint has already surpassed Ubuntu in popularity"?

nice try , but I’m not in need for arguing about Ubuntu
if I wanted to I should do it on the right place , on an Ubuntu Forum

I take your response to mean that the quote bears absolutely no relationship whatsoever to your wild claim, and that the wild claim cannot be defended with any evidence at all.

[sp331yi]

@barddzen

. . . The origin of my question was I wasn't sure there was some other benefit I was just missing the obvious. I've only been a Linux desktop user for about a year now so I'm still learning and trying to understand the environments and Mint Cinnamon has been my desktop of choice.

IMHO there exists a whole world of GNU/Linux out there and LM/LMDE is just one landscape in this broad and varied world. IOW, OP's perspective is limited by his experience, as was most everyone's in the beginning of our Linux journeys. LMDE could be viewed as one baby step toward learning Debian, per se. And true Debian as a step towards learning the tribes of Linux, as a whole (see Distrowatch's Family Tree https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=family-tree for an example).

I suppose it depends on one's motivation and whether or not he wants to "leave the farm," so to speak. Personally, learning Slackware because it is the closest to UNIX as GNU/Linux gets was a motivation; the question may be, 'What is yours?' I've since moved back to Debian (antiX in particular) because I am more comfortable with the package manger and it works about as good as I could expect on the hardware I use. I came her out of curiosity and respect for Linux Mint.

Best wishes to all in this thread.

[LanceM]

for your sake , a second opinion

Looks to be a valid reference to me - I'm not surprised it's in the top tier. It's so user friendly.

[MrEen]

Ahhh, some guy on the internet said so. Surely it must be true then!

From the same section:

The current LTS version, Tessa, is based on Ubuntu 18.08

So Tessa was based on something that doesn't exist? Wow, that's some trick!

[LanceM]

Ahhh, some guy on the internet said so. Surely it must be true then!

Good catch! He needs you as a proof reader Also he does't site his reference on Mint being number 1. I don't think it's possible to know. We do know, it's top tier though.

[smurphos]

So yet another random blog with unsubstantiated claims. There is no way that Mint has got more users than Ubuntu. There's no doubt that Mint is very popular but in terms of users I'd guesstimate it's got about 10-20% of the user base of Ubuntu. Ubuntu has claimed to have circa 20 million daily users a few years ago, but given that's probably based on update hits on the repos that could well include the Mint userbase along with the other plethora of Ubuntu repo using distros.

Some random figures..

AskUbuntu - circa 800K members
Mint forums - circa 124K members

Ubuntu sub reddit - 140k members
Mint sub reddit - 43K members

Ubuntu Facebook page - circa 1.2million followers
Mint Facebook page - circa 136K followers