Mint 10 or Mint Debian? Please advise

[ElQuia]

Hi guys. After a long time of playing arround with linux, mainly Mint, but have tried other distros I have decided to migrate at least half of my machines to Linux Mint.
I am not afraid of some sweating and fixing stuff. I do a LOT of backups-

But I don't know which edition I should choose:
I know I prefer gnome
All my hard is amd64 compatible

Mint 10 Ubuntu based or Debian

Please ideas, with some solid arguments o just personal preferences & why?
tx
Pablo

[SiKing]

I believe, and please correct me if I am wrong, that Mint-Debian is more cutting edge stuff, with more frequent updates, and hence less stability. Mint-Main (aka: Mint-GNOME) is the opposite: less cutting edge, less frequent updates, and more stable. Mint-Main-LTS (aka: Mint-9) is even less cutting edge, even less frequent updates, and hence even more stable.
After that KDE/GNOME/others is just personal preference.

[rivenathos]

I concur with SiKing. If you are more hands-on, go with LMDE. If you want a smoother experience, go with either the 64-bit or 32-bit version of the main edition.

[mads]

I've used Mint 9 and tried Mint 10, both are great. But LMDE is a class for itself. I've been running it continuously for 3 weeks, enjoying every moment. And I have not encountered any problems.

LMDE in brief, from http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1527:

* Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is a rolling distribution based on Debian Testing.
* At the moment, it comes as a 32-bit live DVD with a Gnome desktop.
* The purpose of LMDE is to look identical to the main edition and to provide the same functionality while using Debian as a base.

Finally good news for you from http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1559:

- Will LMDE get all the new Mint 10 features?

–> Absolutely. LMDE will 64-bit support, an improved installer, bug fixes and all Mint 10 features this December.

[Cheesethief]

Take my post with a grain of salt, as I have not fully tested LMDE.
The correct term for LMDE is bleeding edge I think. It is using Debian's testing release (beta) as a base which means it is highly unstable. (unstable meaning not that the system will crash on you unexpectedly, but that the software it has is constantly being updated and those updates may cause that software to function improperly.) LMDE in other words is in a constant state of flux as of right now.

In contrast, Ubuntu uses Debian's stable release, and as a direct cause, LM 10 uses it too.

LMDE is not as user friendly as LM's regular release. I am also sure that it does not have quite the support either. (Mint 10 has pretty much the backing of Ubuntu 10.10 repos behind it). Though, LMDE is a lighter release than Ubuntu or Linux Mint regular, which means it is faster and most probably does not put as much of a strain on your PC's resources as those two do.

[randomizer]

As a matter of fact, at the present time LM10 is more "cutting edge" than LMDE. LMDE still uses kernel 2.6.32 which is what LM9 uses. This is because both LMDE and LM9 are based on Debian Testing (although LM9 is possibly using Squeeze repos rather than the rolling Testing repos, I'm not sure) which is in feature freeze and soon to become the new Stable as Debian Squeeze. Testing gets no dramatic updates right now, only lots of bug fixes and security updates, and won't until Squeeze goes Stable. Then the floodgates will open and packages from Debian Unstable (sid) will start flowing down to Testing again.

[ElQuia]

OK GUYS!!!
Thanks for all replies. This is what I think I will do then:
One machine for LMDE for me to toy around, Mint 10 Gnome on production machines and some very lightweight distro (crunchbang i486 xfce maybe) for some really old machines.

THANKSSSSSSSSS

[k3lt01]

Here I go again, raining on a few parades.

LMDE is not, currently, bleeding edge. It has 2.6.32 kernel which is the same as Ubuntu 10.04, Ubuntu 10.10 is on 2.6.35 and in 11.04 2.6.37. So I would hardly think 2.6.32 is "bleeding edge.

Gnome is 2.30 which is the same as Ubuntu 10.04, while Ubuntu 10.10 is Gnome 2.32 and 11.04 was going to be 3 but will now be Ubuntu's own Unity.

Basically Debian Testing, which LMDE is based on is currently frozen. If you are expecting "bleeding edge" you may probably feel a tinge of disappointment as you will soon realise it is not what you expected. Yes it gets lots of updates but they are secruty and bug fixes not upgrades to newer cutting edge applications etc.

Even Debian Sid is not "bleeding edge" of you don't believe me take a look at the repo and see what kernel and version of Gnome it has. Debian concentrates on bug fixes not on having the latest, biggest and best.

[ElQuia]

Here I go again, raining on a few parades.

LMDE is not, currently, bleeding edge. It has 2.6.32 kernel which is the same as Ubuntu 10.04, Ubuntu 10.10 is on 2.6.35 and in 11.04 2.6.37. So I would hardly think 2.6.32 is "bleeding edge.

Gnome is 2.30 which is the same as Ubuntu 10.04, while Ubuntu 10.10 is Gnome 2.32 and 11.04 was going to be 3 but will now be Ubuntu's own Unity.

Basically Debian Testing, which LMDE is based on is currently frozen. If you are expecting "bleeding edge" you may probably feel a tinge of disappointment as you will soon realise it is not what you expected. Yes it gets lots of updates but they are secruty and bug fixes not upgrades to newer cutting edge applications etc.

Even Debian Sid is not "bleeding edge" of you don't believe me take a look at the repo and see what kernel and version of Gnome it has. Debian concentrates on bug fixes not on having the latest, biggest and best.

OK, I understand now. I thought that debian had a much higher rate of updates and future upgrades were sort of "automatic", so future maintenance would be easier.

Now a question. WHAT IS THE SENSE of LMDE then?

[k3lt01]

Now a question. WHAT IS THE SENSE of LMDE then?

Rolling release, meaning you install once and update as you go. It will upgrade to newer apps etc just not as quickly as some would hope.

If you want "bleeding edge" try Arch or LFS which gives you the choice once it is up and running.

[tdockery97]

In contrast, Ubuntu uses Debian's stable release, and as a direct cause, LM 10 uses it too.

Actually Ubuntu uses Debian unstable, not stable.

[k3lt01]

In contrast, Ubuntu uses Debian's stable release, and as a direct cause, LM 10 uses it too.

Actually Ubuntu uses Debian unstable, not stable.

tdockery is once again correct. although this does depend on what release is coming through. LTS' start life as Debian Testing while "regular" releases start life as Debian Unstable.