Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

Misfit138 · 2010-12-30 18:37:12

litemotiv wrote:

Misfit138 wrote:
calling it outdated is a little irresponsible.
Haha.
Well outdated or not, i like the Mint philosophy and i'm still using Debian on my servers, so peace and good fortune be with them.

I like it too, I think they have succeeded in providing a very usable desktop OS. I agree with their decisions and how they use their resources. debian testing seems a much more logical and sustainable base than Ubuntu, imo.

ANOKNUSA · 2010-12-30 18:39:53

I thought about trying it when they first released it, but I'm pretty happy with Arch right now. I think this could serve as a good side-project for those looking for the rolling release experience with the simplicity of Mint's installation and setup process. The only concern I could see for the devs is that it's a very different experience from that which typically brings people to Mint. I hope it works out for them.

As a side question (@ kittykat): Would it be fair to label this as something like "Aptosid with Mint's tools and branding?"

Larsson · 2010-12-31 11:13:28

I've installed LMDE (32bit) on my fiances laptop and finds that it runs very well. The standard installation contains good (although not lightweight) software and the appearance are very appealing, except for their menu that most I've talked to either love or hate .

As compared to Ubuntu I get a feeling it's more "complete", and the fact it's a roling release based on Debian testing is a winning concept. It have great potential of becoming the perfect mix between the goodness of Arch Linux, Debian and Ubuntu/Linux Mint. I will definitely seed the torrents and use it as my first choice distro to my family and friends.

edit: LDM -> LMDE

Last edited by Larsson (2011-01-01 11:09:54)

kittykatt · 2011-01-01 05:11:00

I love the responses I see here. Love the support for the project!

@ANOKNUSA: I would say that's a little unfair to the Mint project. They put a ton of work into porting Mint to a Debian backend. Believe me, I was around for quite a few of the "wtfhowarewegoingtodothis? D:" episodes on SilverIRC and a few of the dev discussions. LMDE is just Mint with a Debian backbone and using the unstable repositories.

I've got the x86_64 version installed on both the laptop and the desktop right now. Runs smooth as ever.

toad · 2011-01-01 10:46:00

Any news on the 64-bit version???

kgas · 2011-01-01 12:01:54

Post #42 says

orschiro wrote:

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1604
The 64Bit version is out finally. Great, by joke this is the most convenient rolling release distribution I've ever tested.
Regards

toad · 2011-01-01 12:41:42

ouch! thanks, kgas...

ANOKNUSA · 2011-01-01 18:26:37

kitykatt wrote:

@ANOKNUSA: I would say that's a little unfair to the Mint project. They put a ton of work into porting Mint to a Debian backend. Believe me, I was around for quite a few of the "wtfhowarewegoingtodothis? D:" episodes on SilverIRC and a few of the dev discussions. LMDE is just Mint with a Debian backbone and using the unstable repositories.

Okay. I was just trying to put some context to it. I really do hope it the work pays off for 'em.

kittykatt · 2011-01-04 09:31:42

So do I. I believe it's definitely a step in the right direction.

penguin · 2011-01-04 14:07:28

Minimalist kmandla is very positive towards Mint Debian:
http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2011/01/03 … ight-gain/
http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/09/16 … nt-debian/
http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/12/13 … he-litter/

Labello · 2011-01-04 16:46:35

i am currently running it.

looks very cool so far. i have been using for a week now without any hickups. well... i was used to the bleeding-edge state of my packages but heck. i love the look and feel and that most of the stuff is really working out of the box

Texas · 2011-01-04 19:21:05

I ran it for a few weeks. I liked it quite a lot. It is the only thing that has tempted me to leave Arch, but no go. It is very hard now to live without the great wiki and community.

abhishekpathak · 2011-01-04 20:32:35

Seems like Mint is finally going to be more a "distro" than a remaster now.Great news this.

Misfit138 · 2011-01-05 00:55:30

abhishekpathak wrote:

Seems like Mint is finally going to be more a "distro" than a remaster now.Great news this.

Well said. I expressed a similar thought above.

disastrophe · 2011-01-23 10:54:15

I tried lmde for a little while. IMO it's a lot better than their mainstream edition but it has a couple of fundamental shortcomings.
It's based on testing which isn't really a true rolling release in the same sense that Sid is. When something breaks with testing, it can take weeks for a fix to hit the repos where it is generally fixed much more quickly in Sid, often in a mater of a couple of days. Sid also has better repos, although the software is still largely obsolete by Arch standards and as always the case with Debian, new and updated software comes very slowly.
It's very easy to convert lmde to Sid but what's the point? Just use Sid if you want a rolling release Debian, lmde doesn't really add anything to it other than branding, a couple of semi-usable tools, a couple of themes and wallpaper. Further, once you do convert to Sid, a couple of mint tools, such as mint update become obsolete --- the official Debian recommendation (strongly recommended) is that Sid only be updated outside of X in runlevel 3 using apt-get dist-upgrade ideally. As a Sid user myself sometimes, I have adhered to their recommendations and have rarely if ever experienced any breakage. Any other software available from the Mint repos, such as Firefox, codecs, etc. is also available for Debian proper if you know where to look. Sometimes you might need to compile something but I doubt if that would bother many people here or most Debian users for that matter.
The community has lots of really nice folks in it like any distro but the majority (incl. the mods) seem to lack competency or at least experience with Debian in most cases and do require considerable hand holding. I think of Mint in general as a place for disaffected Ubuntu users to go without giving up Ubuntu or more importantly, the mindset. As a "distro", Mint is okay as far as derivatives go but there really isn't much point.
For a Sid derivative, there is always aptosid which is fairly well executed and they tend to stay within the official Debian guidelines as well as providing a bit of a buffer between the Sid repos and the user. (fixes, etc.) I tried it for a while as well but couldn't see much point. Aptosid's community is also subject to some rather silly drama as well as highly censored forums.
If you want to use Debian, just use Debian. But it really doesn't have nearly as much to offer as Arch does, the more I distro hop the more I find myself not being able to settle for anything less.

Last edited by disastrophe (2011-01-23 11:05:49)

kittykatt · 2011-01-23 17:59:57

Mint isn't really aimed at experienced users who "know where to look" or know anything about the difference between Sid and Testing in Debian. It's more of, in my personal opinion, a "starter" distro for people that are interested in Linux but don't really know anything about it all yet. Mint is what I started out on and it's what I recommend as a first distro to any newcomer to Linux. They're like "Well, what do you use?" and I'm like "HEH, you don't want to use what I use quite yet." because Arch isn't for the newbie, in my opinion. It's easy for me nowadays, but getting used to it was a small bump in the road.

ancient_archer · 2011-02-13 17:06:33

I've got LMDE as a backup distro in case Linux Mint would fail and I must say it's perfect! Very fast, rolling distro with everything what a good distro should have...

Arch Linux

#51 2010-12-30 18:37:12

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#52 2010-12-30 18:39:53

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#53 2010-12-31 11:13:28

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#54 2011-01-01 05:11:00

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#55 2011-01-01 10:46:00

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#56 2011-01-01 12:01:54

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#57 2011-01-01 12:41:42

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#58 2011-01-01 18:26:37

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#59 2011-01-04 09:31:42

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#60 2011-01-04 14:07:28

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#61 2011-01-04 16:46:35

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#62 2011-01-04 19:21:05

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#63 2011-01-04 20:32:35

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#64 2011-01-05 00:55:30

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#65 2011-01-23 10:54:15

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#66 2011-01-23 17:59:57

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

#67 2011-02-13 17:06:33

Re: Debian Mint: Would you test it ?

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