Left Ubuntu for LMDE and couldn't be happier

[TheEighthDwarf]

Just wanted to check in and say hi to the great Mint community!

I've been toying with Linux for over a decade, keeping a spare partition with some distro or another for the sheer fun of it. I think I started with RedHat 4.0 (NOT RHEL, mind you, but the original late-90s RedHat), played with Mandrake, ran screaming from Slackware, and about three years ago settled on Ubuntu. 8.04, to be exact.

In these last three years I dual booted Ubuntu and Vista, and without setting out to do so, I ended up spending more and more time in Ubuntu. Once I got MS Office running (more or less) in Wine, I only booted into Vista once in a blue moon. And once I realized the joy of VirtualBox (for Office and two or three specialty programs I need), I stopped using my Vista partition completely.

But about 6 months ago, I started becoming disenchanted with Ubuntu. The 6-month upgrade cycle was simply disasterous. Even the bugs got buts with it! And then the whole Unity debacle...

It became clear to me that Shuttleworth intends to make Ubuntu the desktop of the masses. Unfortunately, that doesn't include me, but people like my grandmother. It's obvious he's going about this by making Ubuntu the OSX of the Linux world, severly limiting choice and flexibility for the sake of ease of use, and seriously repressing democractic interaction for the efficiency of imposing his vision with money.

Good for him and the people on his payroll -- I honestly wish them success, and will be overjoyed when granny can manage to check her e-mail and read the paper on line using Ubuntu, one mouse button and two fingers. No more AV to update for her, no more malware to remove, etc. It's truly win-win.

But at the same time, there's a damned good reason me and people like me don't use OSX and its ilk. So I had to part ways with Ubuntu.

I tried Mint's Ubuntu-derivative and liked it, but then I realized I could use pure Mint-flavored Debian and get the exact same user experience, plus rolling updates, so I switched to LMDE.

And I haven't looked back!

Thanks to the entire Mint team and community for making this happen!

[tdockery97]

Welcome to the Mint forums TheEighthDwarf. I'm sure you will also want to visit our Mint Community Website at http://community.linuxmint.com/. You will find real-time help and conversation in our IRC channels. Just go to Menu>Internet>XChat IRC and when you open it you will automatically be taken to our #linuxmint-chat and #linuxmint-help channels. Once there you can enter the LMDE channel using "/join #linuxmint-debian". Have fun with Mint.

[The-Wizard]

Welcome to the Mint family forums

wizard

[Oscar799]

Hello TheEighthDwarf,
Welcome to Mint Forum
There is a lot of useful information for new and not-so-new users here -> http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 58#p302355

[nunol]

Welcome to the Linux Mint Forums TheEighthDwarf!

Cheers.

[rjs]

Seems to be a fever that is catching. Same here, years of Ubuntu and 11.04 left me speechless and frustrated. Thought I was just about to revert to stock debian as I used to run years ago on the desktop (still use on the servers).

LMDE made that a much nicer transition when backing away from buntu's direction.

And fast? LMDE... oh yeah. Like it should be. My guess is that it is roughly 50 or better percent faster than any buntu rev. Very snappy.

[rivenathos]

Welcome to the forum! LMDE is certainly a fun ride. I look forward to reading more of your observations with LMDE.