Linux Mint vs. Linux Mint Debian Edition: Which Is Better?

Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is a very interesting distribution to say the least. It looks and acts nearly exactly the same as the standard version of Linux Mint, but LMDE is built on top of Debian instead of Ubuntu. In this video, Jay compares LMDE to the flagship edition of Linux Mint and also gives it an updated review.
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01:31 - What is "Linux Mint Debian Edition" (LMDE)
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[@OShackHennessy]

I donated to Mint just yesterday because I like it so much. I do donate to charities but never donate to things like this until now. I really support what they are doing.

[@denisaljic]

I agree! If you can support them do it. But there is only one OS that is 100% secure and that is TempleOS!

[@tenand11]

तुम्ही महिन्याला एक हजार डॉलर्स करू शकत असाल तर नक्की करा। त्याचा मध्ये प्रेरणास्थान म्हणून माझे नाव लिहा. 🎉

[@TomJacobW]

Great! 🙂

[@GCTWorks]

I think that Linux Mint keeping LMDE and their Ubuntu based version in sync is a super good idea. It gives me confidence about the future of Linux Mint. Like all the recent drama with Red Hat and now VMWare, companies can be bought. Canonical could go the same way. Then the business model will likely change. This gives Linux Mint that ability to jump ship without having their user base and community lose interest or be forced out. Linux Mint (Ubuntu version) became my daily driver back in September 2023. I was coming from Windows 11. This was a major leap for me, and I have really enjoyed the experience. I fight less with my own computer. I recently had to go back to using my Windows install (I dual boot) in order to use a CAD application and the experience terrible. I had not realized how much I used to fight Windows. Microsoft has made Windows objectively worse since I left as well. For an operating system license that I paid for, it pisses me off that they offer me ads and sponsored content in my own operating system. Also, compared to Mint, it is really hard to find many settings in Windows. Mint exposes a LOT of settings in the GUI, maybe not as much as KDE Plasma, but is much easier to use than Windows.

[@Kneedragon1962]

A word of explanation here, for people new to the Linux world. A few Distributions are originals. They're parents. They use the Linux kernel and the basics of the Linux tool-chain, but then they go their own way and develop everything themselves. Debian is a parent distro. So is Redhat / Fedora. So is Open SUSE. I guess Arch is another parent distro. Suppose I want a car. So I go and look at a Toyota Corrolla. But there's a company I just found who will sell me an improved Corrolla, better engine, improved suspension... Then there's another company, who will take that 'improved' Toyota and paint it a different colour, change the seats and the carpet and the tyres, and sell that as a new car. It's still sort of a Toyota at heart, but a much better one. Now let's say something happened to the company that makes the slightly modified one. What would happen to the company that takes that and makes further changes? They have 3 choices. Start modifying a different car, go out of business, or go direct to Toyota and start their work with an original complete Corrolla. Debian is a parent. Ubuntu takes Debian and makes some changes, then they distribute that. Mint takes what Ubuntu has already changed and spruced up, and they make some further improvements. That's what Mint is. So what would happen to Mint if Ubuntu (or the company who owns it, Canonical) went out of business? Or (let's say) they started making Ubuntu a paid-for distro, non free? Or did something Mint found completely unacceptable, like Microsoft's screenshot thing in Windows? The obvious thing to do, would be start with Debian, that Ubuntu hasn't even touched, and see if we can make a fully working Mint from that. That's what Mint Debian Edition is. Clem and lads & ladies at Mint have taken the current Debian and simply cut Ubuntu / Canonical completely out of the process. Is that better? [Roll eyes] Well it does mean some of the things we're used to, in Ubuntu based Mint, are not there. Yes, but can we still make a workable distro to put out, without any of the Ubuntu stuff? I think we should find out. Let's call it Linux Mint Debian Edition and quietly distribute it alongside our full Ubuntu based version, and see how that goes. At least this way, if Ubuntu / Canonical ever disappears or changes beyond recognition, we can quickly bring a Debian based version out to keep Mint going. It's kinda like a life-boat. The Debian edition is a little less polished and has slightly fewer toys and many hours of developer work missing. Things like the Linux Mint Driver Manager, are not there in the Debian Edition. It is perfectly useable, but it's not quite as user-friendly as the normal Mint. I personally use Mint + Mate, not the Debian Edition. I have been a very happy Mint + Mate user since about 2009 when they rolled Mate out for a beta-test. It turned out to be precisely what I was looking for, and I've been very happy with it ever since.

[@knaightmare9598]

Thanks, very helpful explanation.

[@orlanswf]

Thanks for the excellent explanation! Would you mind explaining what Mate is and its relation to Mint? I want to switch from Win10 to Linux soon, and I wanna know all the best possibilities :-)

[@Kneedragon1962]

@@orlanswf I took some time typing an explain, and I cited wikipedia. KZbin seem to not like it if you post wiki entries, my replies have vanished. I have a channel, on which I have posted a number of clips, many showing different Linux desktop distros, mostly running the Mate desktop. Have a look at those, and then google 'desktop environment', and also wikipedia that, and 'Mate'. Not being modest or anything, but they do a far better and more comprehensive job of explaining it than I do. Sorry ~ I did answer you once, and youtube has taken my answers down.

[@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115]

LMDE, or "I want my life as much Ubuntu-free as possible."

[@Soundwave142]

Yeah, I avoid anything with Ubuntu after they made questionable descisions.

[@_monti142]

@@Soundwave142 what are they

[@Soundwave142]

@@_monti142 One, they added ads into Ubuntu. Their snap packages are not really secure and efficient.

[@sm3801_smo]

@@_monti142 Canonical

[@garyweber8201]

@@_monti142 They keep pushing snap packages on their desktop users, and they just don't seem to show the same respect to open source projects as others do.

[@brentwoods973]

I switched over from Windows 10 a couple of months ago after researching Linux Mint and LMDE 6. It was an easy switch for me and other than the terminal box it was easy to learn. Actually very easy! I don't use it for anything but KZbin, family picture editing and general web based programs. It is amazing that I hadn't heard of Linux before now. Glad to get rid of Microsoft programs too. In my trials I found that LMDE 6 works best for me. I have one new computer that Linux Mint 21.3, even the Edge version won't work with it's sound system. LMDE 6 works flawlessly with it though so I am not going to spend the time researching the issue. Both versions of Mint work the same in all of my applications except the sound issue. Thanks for all of your videos as they have helped me out immensely!

[@lettuceprayamen]

Welcome to the Linux Family 😊

[@jonspoonamore3721]

Old Net/Sys Admin here... I've said it a thousand times, Linux Mint was born to make Ubuntu into a much-better desktop experience (that was in 2006). Then over the years, Mint morphed into a distro that made Ubuntu "BEHAVE" vs better! I really can't imagine how much Ubuntu/Canonical BS the Mint Team has to wade-thru to make a usable distro these days. But... I'm willing to bet good-money it's light-years easier to make a distro based on Debian! I stopped using Mint when 18.x arrived. That's because of the instabilities of Ubuntu 16.x at that time. I came back to Mint when LMDE 4 arrived and stayed on-board ever since. IMO... The Mint Team took the Debian-Base (with almost no changes each version) and just added their "Desktop-Love" to it!!!

[@Bareego]

thanks for some decent info on this. If the current ubuntu Mint works stably for someone, would you change it to debian though ?

[@jonspoonamore3721]

@@Bareego No... If it works for you and you like it, stick with it. :) For me being in IT, I like distros optimized for performance without much tweaking. IMO... Debian does a better job. But hey... Just don't take my word for that. I suggest you test a lot of distros to see what you like and how they perform for you. My other choices for Desktop Linux are SprialLinux, Manjaro and hopefully soon-2-be Damn Small Linux. For Servers, It's Debian or Slackware these days.

[@jothain]

@@Bareego It's pretty much impossible to answer that as your needs reflect on the decision. I'm not currently using Mint at all, but I'd go for Mint Debian cause of following. Stable base which also means less updates and time and bandwidth wasted for them. I could still install my Libreoffice and FreeCAD to more recent versions with Flatpak or possibly even some repos. I'd select Mint Ubuntu base only for very recent hardware that would require it. It's also worth noting that its pretty much possible to run even bleeding edge software on stable and older base like Debian, but it's much harder to run stable base software on like rolling release distros. But this is just my opinion. Try out things. Just install like Virtualbox and get bit of feel in differences, just note that performance is always quite lacking on virtualized install and that you can run into hardware problems if actually going for something, here "Live" images are great to quickly test. There's a lot of good distros. openSUSE, Fedora, Debian, heck even Ubuntu for many to just name few big ones.

[@k.b.tidwell]

My alpha brain waves are in perfect sync with yours on this lol. I'm no IT person (though I wanted to be), and my first toe in the water with Linux was in 2014 with Mint. I too left 18.x, went around the world with over 50 distros trying to find the perfect one. I'm typing this on LMDE6, and though I still spool up new distro finds to try them out (or revisit improved distros I've tried before), I haven't found anything better. 😁

[@borko.danilovic]

Debian has an unstable bluetooth connection, at least in my case, while on Mint (ubuntu) I don't have that problem. They also have work to do with fixing Debian.

[@laletemanolete]

LMDE should become the standard.

[@jonspoonamore3721]

Absolutely agree!!! This will happen soon. Just wait for when Canonical FUBAR's Ubuntu one more time!

[@dfbess]

@@jonspoonamore3721, blah blah blah, it's all the same thing in the end..

[@jonspoonamore3721]

@@dfbess Agreed. If you are talking about Linux in general. But... IMO... Removing Ubuntu from the mix makes my life easier.

[@rawbeartoe_AK]

I think this will happen soon. With Ubuntu going Snappy and immutable, it may happen sooner than later.

[@pfitz4881]

@@dfbessMaybe in your blah blag blah end

[@AdamNeal]

I have LMDE on my desktop and laptop and they have been very stable without any issues at all. I love how 'it just works' no matter what.

[@arnox4554]

It's worse than redundant to MX Linux though. MX does everything Mint does and a lot more. Most notably though, they offer a native Advanced Hardware Support kernel.

[@leevfx]

@@arnox4554 MX offer a native Advanced Hardware Support kernel or Mint does?

[@arnox4554]

@@leevfx Only MX.

[@japhetkiplagat8452]

hi my brother in box me

[@johanb.7869]

@@arnox4554 But it has no upgrade tool. So when a new version is released, you have to install it again.

[@SnijtraM]

What really motivated me to switch my laptop from Ubuntu-based Mint to LMDE is the risk of corporate interference. Mint is going out of its way to provide the stability and freedom to choose non-proprietary sources, and the move to LMDE is 100% in line with that policy, seeing as how Ubuntu is silently "grooming" the user into a corporate style lock-in situation through the Snap store. With a creeping policy like that, it is easy to see that blacklisting Snap will interfere with the availability of apps as Ubuntu is planning to slowly kill off its repository ecosystem. I am planning for my desktop to follow soon.

[@robqwert2696]

Ddi you do it?

[@SnijtraM]

@@robqwert2696 Yes I did. Experience is almost exactly the same, only on a few more occasions you need to enter your password for administrative tasks. But I don't mind.

[@anantmishra6783]

8minutes in and this guy hasn't said a word about package management. good job.

[@peterkensing565]

After a few years of intensive distrohopping, I finally ended up back at LMDE. A stable Debian with up-to-date Cinnamon desktop. If I ever need up-to-date software, there are always Flatpaks. Greetings from southern Germany.

[@kuhluhOG]

and toolbx/distrobox

[@channjose]

As a Linux beginner here, LMDE was a really good starting point, in which you have some useful out of the box software to get you seamlessly into the OS, but with some steps you have to do manually like the Nvidia drivers which I have to use, and that forced me into learning a bit more about how the terminal works and what can I do with it, if I had chosen Ubuntu Mint, I wouldn't have to deal with that so yeah, I'm happy I chose LMDE for my first distro.

[@kychemclass5850]

Hi. What made you choose LMDE over LM 'regular'?

[@channjose]

@@kychemclass5850 It is almost stock Debian but with some beginner friendly software to get into Linux, stock mint is too much bloated. I installed gnome on it though, didn't like cinnamon

[@mihkostas1340]

They also offer a 32-bit version , if for some reason you want to install mint on an older machine with a 32-bit processor.

[@kimgoss5033]

This is why I'm installing it. My version of Mint reached EOL and they no longer provide a 32 bit version. LMDE will work perfectly on my old T60.

[@EverybodyLinux]

Hi, Great video! Thanks, I just installed the Linux Mint 20.3 and aimed to upgrade to the most recent one. I already love it

[@cyberdyne981]

I switched over ALL my Mint installations (Laptop, Desktop, Wifes machines and all my work machines) to LMDE back in 2022. IMO, it is as good/better than Ubuntu base. Initially, I thought it was a great way to get away from all the snap drama (which Mint avoided), but feared I would miss some of the PPAs. Nope - I missed nothing. For all my use cases it has been more stable (I had some weird random screen freezes on Mint Ubuntu edition that turned out to be xserver-xorg-video-intel related). The updates and patches have been smooth as silk, including Bookworm to Bullesye. At first I switched 2 machines, but now I'm LMDE everywhere, except a few small VMs that are bare bones Debian/xfce.

[@Bareego]

Thanks for posting something about actual differences you experienced between both versions, sadly not many other people are that specific.

[@ericapelz260]

I'm running "standard" mint on several machines, including a Microsoft Surface Laptop 4, and LMDE is definitely on my must-try list.

[@capnsalty0200]

I tried it and liked it and installed it and have been using it exclusively for the past 2 and a half years.

[@MrOrtmeier]

I use LMDE and agree with every point you mentioned on why to use it: don't like canonical because of their anti-user antics, love Debian because they are 100% community and true FOSS, love cinnamon because it's the best DE, want system stability, don't need newer kernels because my hardware is from 2014. Best of cinnamon + the best of Debian = WIN. 🙂

[@laletemanolete]

You production quality has improved a lot!

[@deultima]

I've been running LMDE on my main machine for a couple months now and I got nothing but praise for it. I love to live on the edge, so I even moved over to the testing branch for the Debian sources, that way it functions like a semi-rolling release, so I get access to newer kernels and packages. Combined with the Steam Flatpak, not only do I have a stable production machine, it also handles all my favourite games with ease.

[@dominus6695]

Is there any mint yet that can adjust scroll speed in the mouse menu? Another thing is that I use 2 mice, and would like to change L/R buttons for just one of them (and scroll speed too, ideally). Also, why did they remove/changed the show desktop button? It's these kind of changes and details that mess up the love of an OS haha

[@theindependentlinuxuser]

I am on LMDE 6 for 3 months now. It is pretty good. Better than Ubuntu based.

[@UncleJemima]

what sets it apart from the Ubuntu base from an end user perspective?

[@santisven]

Does it change automatically to 6 from 5 or do you need a reinstall?

[@Hardcore_Remixer]

How is it different than the Ubuntu based one?

[@jothain]

@@Hardcore_Remixer Virtually none, but Debian has always been "stable" for most users (note that there are ie. testing repos) so that essentially means that software you install from default repositories, well they're quite a bit older version, especially when Debian version is nearing next big update. This is preference, Do you want very solid releases of software or do you want more recent not so throroughly tested software versions? I used to want newer releases, but things have dramatically changed for me. To me benefits are, like mentioned, very mature software to base system which also results in lesser need to update system and download packages. For instance going some rolling release it's absolutely normal to meet like 1-4gigs of updates weekly. Debian stable can be just few packages in same time. Now the biggest thing for me is that I can easily run those bleeding edge softwares to most part easily with Flatpak. I tend to select some software like Libreoffice and FreeCAD in more recent versions as they provide more features, but leave base system and stuff like videoplayers etc. to that stable base. I'd select Mint or other more up-to-date base only if I'd have very recent hardware that would need newer kernel to have hardware support. Though if I recall correctly this is also now possible in Mint Debian as there should exist also version with very fresh kernel if users need it.

[@UncleJemima]

please we need an answer 🙏

[@abunk8691]

Mint user here and when I had an Nvidia gpu the lack of Driver Manager on LMDE was a concern for me but as I upgraded to an AMD gpu I would be fine interchanging between regular Mint and LMDE. That is due to the work the Mint team done to make the two versions very close which I really appreciate since I can just replace my Mint 21.3 install with LMDE 6 install and update packages and I can be off and running as I would have on regular Mint. For example, I can pretty much just run my first install script that installs packages to the LMDE version after by commenting a few ppa repo specific lines because Debian repos (main and more so backports) have newer versions of packages I need compared to the Ubuntu version Mint 21.3 is based on.

[@LeeMaiden]

Nvidia drivers are easy; sudo apt install nvidia-detect nvidia-detect (Should show you using the noveau driver) sudo apt install nvidia-driver -y sudo reboot nvidia-detect (Should show you using the nvidia driver) It will give you the most current Nvidia driver and control panel. I asked on the Mint forum and got this simple and easy solution. I'm running the 525.147.05 driver right now on LMDE 6, and it's dkms, so if you change kernels it builds the new module for you, you don't have to do a lot of this and that stuff.

[@abunk8691]

​@@LeeMaiden Thanks for the reply. I actually did that a couple of times when I had an an nvidia gpu and my installed driver bugged out and sent me to a black screen that I had to apt purge and install through tty.

[@Laszlo34]

@@LeeMaiden Suddenly I'm questioning my other post worrying about this. Hmm...

[@RoboJo-pq8pj]

The fact webapps seems most feature rich and up to date in mint has kept me from using anything else as a main. I set my laptop to basically be a 15" kindle reader, and also set up a few apps for all of my streaming sites. Everything I use regularly is a single click from the desktop, and it happens to work great as an oversized tablet. I've tried rolling releases for gaming, but they're never as stable and require actually backing up the system.

[@kychemclass5850]

a 15" kindle reader - LOL. Cool!

[@tonywise198]

My main reason to use LMDE would be to avoid the "corporate" base that is Canonical/Ubuntu.

[@user-ug1eo4xb7z]

I've used Mint as my daily driver since version 10. Last year I switch to LMDE for an seemingly odd reason, Red Hat. I reasoned that, if Red Hat can pull the plug on CentOS then Canonical might to something similar to the distros that use it's code. There's also Canonical business relationship with Microsoft and the rumors of a buy out. As Debian forms the foundation of Ubuntu the cli is familiar, it's also community based so unlikely to face dramatic change and LMDE is so similar to regular LM it doesn't feel like a switch. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but better to be safe than sorry.

[@pfitz4881]

Currently running LMDE5 on one laptop, LMDE6 on a second, and windows 10 on the third. LMDE is my daily driver and I love that it's rock solid! Just purchased a DELL XPS 9530 with windows11 Pro preinstalled. My intent is to install LMDE6 on a second internal m.2 SSD to Dual Boot just in case I have a need for Win11. I've used several distros and have settle on the rock solid performance of LMDE6

[@santisven]

Does LMDE update from 5 to 6 without the need to reinstall? I mean, unlike Ubuntu based, LMDE doesn't have an expiration date.

[@jonspoonamore3721]

@@santisven The fine folks over on Team Mint always post instructions on how to perform upgrades. I'm in IT. IMO, it's always best to perform a new install over an upgrade. It's easier for me to do that because of how I store my personal data. Plus... I have Scripts to install/uninstall software I need/don't-need. I can reinstall a desktop distro in about 20 to 30 minutes depending on Internet speeds.

[@santisven]

@@jonspoonamore3721 thank you

[@ivaylo5ev]

@@santisven Yes I started about a year ago with LMDE5, and I upgraded as soon as 6 arrived. It was almost fluent, It needed to fix a few PPAs I added manually because the Debian base of LMDE 6 also changed. Besides this, all worked great!

[@chuckintexas_1437]

Excellent presentation. I really like your CALM , clear , focused and well spoken narration . Nice Set and good simple & clear video production values too . L&S'ed right away !

[@nekonikku]

First time getting to one of these this early. The ecosystem of Linux flavors is kinda mind blowing when you thing about all the the people hours spent creating all these different approaches. Distro hopping really starts to make sense. Not sure if I want to dabble with BSD or Arch first. I’ve only dabbled with the Debian side of distros the past few years.

[@Daniel_VolumeDown]

NixOS?

[@robertsretrogaming]

I expect that the time will come when Canonical makes it infeasible for Mint to continue basing on Ubuntu. Whether they are all there yet, it’s clear the Mint devs also see the writing on the wall.

[@lettuceprayamen]

I love your videos! They are very informative and explained in a calm, easy to understand manner. Thank you 😊 You help new-comers to Linux.

[@BlueEyedVibeChecker]

As an aspiring indie dev for Dreamcast, I've been looking to make the games I make also run on PC and Nintendo platforms. And for me, Linux Mint Cinammon is by far the best for compatibility with Windows games, and even native Linux games with it having less issues than other distros. So I've opted for Linux Mint Cinnamon as my daily OS and have been comfortable on here for the past few days. I'm looking forward to the day Linux Mint gains more market share; it deserves it, it's surprisingly easy to use, terminal and all. And I came straight from Windows right into the deep end so to speak.

[@BlueEyedVibeChecker]

Though if anyone knows how to make GameSir wired controllers work on here, I'd appreciate some tips. Nothing has worked yet, even installing drivers, apps and other tools like Xpad, Xboxdrv, and Xone, etc.

[@cameronbosch1213]

Imagine using Linux and supporting the devil that is Nintendo...

[@BlueEyedVibeChecker]

@@cameronbosch1213 Imagine imagining that. I don't remember what I said and can't be asked to re-read it.

[@gormhatre]

I have LMDE 6 on a VM. It has been pretty cool. Better than Debian which is on another VM. I think it has some advantages over mainline Mint. Debian mint and up to date CInnamon is a lot cleaner than having ubuntu in the middle. I think LMDE receives updates faster than mainline Mint as well. The driver manager is the only issue. I hope Mint team can configure it in the future.

[@daviddrumm3673]

Have been moving to LMDE 6 from Mint 21.2 on a couple machines recently. I had issues getting a somewhat dated Nvidia video card to work as Nvidia's driver install has a conflict with the LMDE installed driver. After trying several web offered solutions that suggested workarounds, I found that the Debian 12 repository has the driver version I needed and it installed with APT INSTALL and a reboot. Not sure why it took me so long to try that. ALSO for those of you who are into using Ventoy for your ISOs, I was unable to do a "Something Else" disk install without a boot failure. The installed LMDE system will hang looking for the Ventoy drive (My Ventoy was on a USB M.2 drive). It installs fine if run from a USB stick like they expect you to be using.

[@sasookay514]

People want to avoid Ubuntu because they don’t trust Canonical

[@fixer1140]

And the bloody Snaps

[@Dante-420]

I just like Debian because of its commitment to free software!

[@gabriel38g]

True. 👍

[@rustyholt6619]

closed sourse ,and broken promises,,,,ya im outty, no more unbuntu for this kid

[@nxzstudio8495]

This is why after years of running Ubuntu on my desktop and servers I switched to something else ., them forcing you to use THEIR snap store is disgusting and removing support from dev files out of the box

[@williamstatt8651]

My reason for my using LMDE is because of the Software. There are software titles that I can not get from Ubuntu that I can get from Debian.

[@NOYB2024]

DistroBox fixes that.

[@Daniel_VolumeDown]

May I ask what is not avaiable on ubuntu that is avaiable on debian?

[@NorthernChimp]

Wdym? APT is available on Ubuntu. Which other way of getting sofware are you using that would be Debian-specific? 🤔

[@ianhenshaw2930]

I was interested in LMDE when I first heard about it. Mint is my favourite distro because of my workflow preferences , but when I wanted a second distro on a 2nd drive, using another cinnamon edition really made the grub menu confusing. So I put LMDE on the 2nd drive mainly just to differentiate in grub at first. Worked like a charm. Great distro in it's own right. Definitely a keeper. 👍

[@stevet7522]

If you love debian but dont like getting debian up and running them lmde is where its at.

[@prettysheddy]

Another great video and explanation. Also I would like if you did more proxmox vs/comparing xcpng videos. I understand Lawrence systems take but i would like the take of someone of primarily uses promox instead of xcpng.

[@michaelwright2986]

Redundancy is a good thing in itself, whenever there is a chance of error or failure--remember how early computer companies were always concerned about having a second source for vital components? The problem foreseen is evidently that Ubuntu might go off in undesirable directions--Canonical is a commercial organisation, and commercial organisations can do odd things with Linux (Microsoft buys Red Hat, for instance). It presumably doesn't take them much extra effort to do LMDE, and it's nice to see them operating in a risk averse way.

[@kuwintinkeristie532]

Maybe you can answer this; why does the latest upgrade disable our laptop sound cards, and why does Mint not address this with a fix or a rollback, or even a setting tab in the system settings? It's very irritating having to use a Bluetooth speaker, instead of our previously fine sound apps. Not all users are tech whizzes.

[@kychemclass5850]

Anecdotal difference: Older laptop had LM21.2 on it. I upgraded to LM21.3 then did a fresh install of LMDE. Boot time for LMDE was much quicker. Generally Jammy (Ubuntu) based distro's or updates (other than the LM21.2 -> 21.3 path) caused that laptop screen corruption when the login screen appeared. Was v. impressed with LMDE on that laptop so keeping it there, but LM 21.3 Cinnamon is my daily driver on my main computer.

[@AB-ey5dm]

I tried LMDE and decided that I wasn't ready for it. I had problem after problem until I found that the drivers that I needed to make Blender work the way that I expected were missing and that was the last straw for me. I switched back to traditional Mint. Honestly, if I ever decide to move on to a "harder" distro, it will probably be something else entirely.

[@donvineyard8654]

I've come to loath Ubuntu. I am extremely happy with LMDE. All my computers are now LMDE 6. All of the Mint icing on the Debian cake. I was originally worried that the versions of the software would be horribly out of date. This turned out to be a non-issue for me. The versions are up-to-date or very close to it. Highly recommend.

[@ahmedsameer8600]

I switched to LMDE as my daily driver since the Red Hat drama last year. Before that I used ALMA

[@Little-bird-told-me]

Do you know Mint gets about 3000 usd per month to run the distro ? Mint team is testimony to the linux eco system where Devs work tirelessly for a few pennies to provide us the user with free and outstanding desktop. It is also a reflection of fact that open source systems will already remain underappreciated

[@PaganWizard]

You mentioned the issue with NVIDIA drivers. Can you show how to work around the issue?? I have a 3060 video card. I am rather new to Linux, I have looked at a few other distros, but never really used them for more than an hour. LMDE was recently suggested to me as, a great alternative to MS you know who.

[@minifix]

Honestly, if you're completely new to Linux the regular Mint might be better, and your 3060 will probably work on it out of the box.

[@matthewness435]

I run LMDE on my living room computer. It’s great and super stable

[@ChrisSmith-rm6xl]

One additional advantage for the developers: Sometimes the distro you are basing your distro on does something small and unnoticed that is different from the way everybody else does it. You can inadvertantly depend on that thing and lock yourself into the distro. And it sometimes happens that the different thing is not different in a good way, or is even buggy. By doing another version based on another distro those situations stand out like a sore thumb, letting you consider whether or not to write code that depends on that unique thing.

[@RedhawksReport]

I gotta admit as a linux beginner i am a little bit confused. As a newbie, should I stay on the traditional LM or move over to LMDE? judging by other comments LMDE seem to be better...

[@tom-hy1kn]

They are basically the same, if you have a Nvidia graphic card getting a driver for LMDE isn't easy. I use LMDE because I hate the company Canonical.

[@marcusberggren9241]

​@@tom-hy1knfair enough. I decided on installing LMDE as I figured it is better for me in terms of future proofing. I am very happy with my switch from Windows 11 that I made a couple days ago. I do use W10 in a VM for one application that I still want to use sometimes.

[@chucklebeats]

Man's got the cleanest setup. Love the quality.

[@D.von.N]

Great highligt about LMDE and Nvidia. I particularly bought a machine not having this chip to run Linux on it.

[@capencowl]

Ok, thanks. Since I have an Nvidia card and I’m just trying Linux, I’ll go with the regular version instead of LMDE so I can easily get drivers.

[@pauledo5026]

how to do you run the matrix live wallpaper on the PC behind you?

[@spiderron1463]

It's likely cmatrix running in a terminal in full screen mode [F11]

[@bradrawlings9162]

I’ve got LMDE 6 installed on my hp desktop with Ryzen 5 processor. No issues with anything.

[@Pepperpot666]

I am running regular Mint XFCE on my desktop PC and LMDE on an old Macbook Air 2013 without any problems. I really like how easy and accessible Mint is. I cannot be bothered with Ubuntu and the standard Gnome-desktop, which I really dislike.

[@gabriel38g]

I'm with you. I don't like Gnome.

[@user-cq5sn5hq4m]

"dislike Gnome" - veeeeery softly saying, my friend

[@jst601]

LMDE is worth the learning curve.

[@plato1273]

Your office setup is what I am working towards

[@Tzalim]

LMDE isn't redundant! It's a backup incase ubuntu goes down or whatever for some reason.

[@mivydeo]

Between Fedora cinnamon, debian cinnamon, ubuntu cinnamon, mint ubuntu edition is LMDE best for me...

[@Ken-vq6iv]

I generally like Debian; have tried it with the Cinnamon and with the xfce desktops. Debian linux is better for me with the Cinnamon desktop; but Debian with either desktop will not pick the correct driver for my old laser printer, a Samsung ML 2510 and this is using the CUPS database. I prefer Mint Cinnamon based upon Ubuntu. It picks up my Printer, uses the correct driver and it's the OS I'm using. So, no complaints here. I'm a newbie Linux user with some knowledge of the command line.

[@ro55mo22]

The redundancy of LMDE is in if Canonical decide to discontinue Ubuntu Desktop to focus on the cloud server business. So it is a 'backup' for the main Mint edition. I run headless Debian on all my servers but LMDE on my desktops. I just prefer it to some of the quirks in desktop Debian. The LMDE update manager and software store, for example, are better in LMDE in my opinion.

[@giandujavettorello6184]

LMDE: perfect distro! 😉👍

[@bobd5119]

One of my complaints is the absence of borders around windows. Look at 6:46 - a dark window on a black field. Would it kill the display manager's programmers to provide borders? I would pay for that.

[@Bareego]

I would have liked to see a bit more about what the actual differences are behind the hood. Why would people want debian rather than ubuntu based. Is it different startup files, a different package manager ?

[@k.b.tidwell]

The main issue nowadays is that Ubuntu's owner, Canonical, is pushing for Ubuntu to transition to using nothing but SNAPS. Canonical seems to be moving more and more in a corporate direction similar to Microsoft, which _probably_ means that one day Ubuntu will be proprietary or something worse. In other words, they're going in exactly the opposite direction than the spirit of Linux and the open source community has historically pointed. For my part I've used Mint extensively and LMDE does a fine job of presenting the same experience...mostly. It's not completely feature-equal yet, but it's moving that way. My only real hindrance so far in moving to it exclusively (I did run LMDE experimentally for a few months on another laptop) is that LMDE does not allow adding ANY PPA's. That makes it a challenge when I want to use software that's not in the software store, or which isn't available as a downloadable package anywhere. I know that the point is to get away from Ubuntu, the creator of PPA's, but seeing as how many, many, many devs out in the world cater to Ubuntu first, the chance of something being available with a PPA is very high compared to other avenues. If I could find a simple, direct way of allowing the PPA's, I'd change over today. But I can't, and I've looked a lot. I don't know why it's such a difficult issue, but for now it's a dealbreaker for me. Have a good day.

[@williamclark4908]

Ubuntu is Debian based. So the differences are fairly minor. Ubuntu basically added things that made things more user friendly. Sure, there is more to it than that, but that's the nutshell answer. Mint has been working on LMDE to do essentially the same thing. Unless you need hardware drivers like Nvidia, you will see very little difference between the two.

[@StormWarningMom]

Stability and easier to get up and running vs. Plain debian (for example, I installed Deb 12 and it won't update for me for anything.)

[@k.b.tidwell]

Update: it's actually rather easy to manually enter PPA addresses into LMDE6's software sources, so that's no longer a hindrance for me. I'm very happy with LMDE6 on several laptops of varying horsepower because it does a fine job of scaling up or down as the system requires.

[@guyman1570]

​@@k.b.tidwellgood to hear that!

[@MartinAhlman]

Good points! I prefer Debian Testing with Gnome (we have a long story together), but I do like both Linux Mint and Linux mint LMDE (I tried out LMDE when it was new, it was good then as well). Writing this on a Fedora 39 machine, works ok, but it's back to Debian soon. I like Fedora, I just prefer Debian. Use what you like!

[@CyperN077]

LMDE was my daily drivetr for years.

[@MarkusBrunnhofer]

LMDE with Lxde Desktop thats it ! :-)

[@environmentsollution]

I have both versions at my 2 Lenovo Laptops, love it! LMDE works perfect at a Celeron CPU and dual boot with W11 and LMDE.

[@cameronmoore136]

As someone who is considering switching my main Linux machine from Fedora to Debian, should I consider Linux Mint Debian edition instead? And if so, why? (Asking the community, not necessarily Learn Linux TV)

[@k.b.tidwell]

Having run both, it will definitely feel different. Not worse or better, just different. Perhaps like stepping from a Cadillac to a Lincoln? I will say that my brain clicks better with Debian-based distros and the Debian way of doing things on the command line. You might very well be the opposite to that, but my best advice is to make a live USB and wring it out. I don't mean this next as propaganda or fanboism at all, but I've always found software variety and availability to be noticeably better with Debian.

[@MeMyself-gf7fn]

It's the future.

[@WalterPetrovic]

I have Mint running on one Dell PC and on an older MacBook Pro Laptop and on both is it great. I came into a Dell Latitude Laptop and decided to run LMDE on is, and I noticed no real difference. In all three Mint with the Cinnamon desktop is nice and easy to use, and there appears to be frequent updates, at least for software running on these systems. I used to be a real Windows guy, but Windows 11 has been a disappointment. I have it running on a new Chewi Laptop and for a $100 machine, Windows 11 is running fine on it. I hardly use it, but I find myself favoring my Mint units. What sold me on the technology of Linux is that the moment Linux is installed, it hunts down every single device you have, such as printers, and installs them right away. You don't need to hunt down the software or drivers and they initialize the moment you want to print something. Even on Windows it was sometimes a chore to print stuff. I am thinking of trying MX Linux but I am wondering if I should really waste my time when I just simply adore Mint.

[@hed420]

Your video quality looks really good. I'm watching it in 480p and it looks like I'm watching it in 1080p. Using Win 10 and it has an issue where the os is using the cpu at 100% constantly so I have to stay at 480p or lower so I'm looking to switch to linux soon.

[@tomapc]

Normal Mint : boots faster, snappier, never fails, runs for years Mint DE: faster video render by 5-7%, still tends to fail at random, like dropping bluetooth completely, touchpad not working after wake up, etc, but definitely much closer now to normal Mint than the last version, now it is comfortably usable.

[@bernds352]

just testing lmde. i've installed the mate desktop and it seemed a perfect laptop. exept one nasty debian behavior: they change the file associations back to defaults during updates. for example: my video player of choice is vlc. so, i had to uninstall everything i don't use. i couldn't even keep handbrake. that's why i would like to get rid of debian.

[@411DL]

Just installed standard Mint today on my newest laptop, Media PC is next up. Saw Debian version, didn't quite fully wrap my head around its goal with my goldfish attention span and moved on. Now with the nVidia driver being set more out of reach on lmde, had I gone down the lmde route and found out after install I would have had an easier time getting to my goal on standard Mint, I'da been irked a bit. Goal being just getting Steam/Proton working for road trips. Never use this laptop at home. That said, I get it. It's a Debian philosophy and it's in stride with Linus's attitude towards nVidia, which I totally understand. Still there's a place for LMDE on my older laptops where I want something that just works and doesn't need the latest software.

[@johanb.7869]

Debian based stable yes, but latest release of Thunderbird 115.8.1 that was released last week, still not available. Maybe it is now, but still wasn't yesterday. The tarball is the latest, but you can't send files with the tarball from the file manager🤔

[@CaptainDangeax]

The good question is "do I need the lastest latest version of Thunderbird ". For me the answer is no, so I stick to the latest update from repos and I spend my time doing something else

[@johanb.7869]

@@CaptainDangeax to each it's own😉

[@pantarei.]

I don't like how icons on the dock applet are tightly arranged and there is no easy option to make a bit wider gaps between them. Also there should be two different settings - one for the panel size and one for icons on the panel (dock applet) size, not just one panel size setting with automatic icons adjustment.

[@stevejohnson1321]

24.04, I finally had trouble with Ubuntu after 14 years. The system would no longer recover from Suspend, even though it worked on 23.10. I found no forecast for a patch, so I'm now on Debian 12.

[@marcopaolini3478]

Windows user since version 2.x, now I'm trying Mint first Ubuntu based and now LMDE: why? Because only with LMDE I'm able to backup / restore my entire PC (bare metal backup) using the free Veeam Agent for Linux. Oddly Veeam runs perfectly with Mint / Ubuntu only during the backup, but fails every time to fully restore the PC (it works if you restore single files). So, thank you Debian 🙂

[@rafa6536]

I had Ubuntu many years ago, then only Windows and didn't touched Linux for those years, and recently I installed Debian 12 :) I am amazed. Rock solid, way faster, no problems with drivers, easy installation, flatpak for some apps. On Windows I didn't have stable 100fps in Counter Strike 1.6, the only reason I had dual boot with Ubuntu then :) For new version of Gnome I can wait 2 years :P

[@13thravenpurple94]

Excellent video 👍 Thank you 💜

[@nathanhallisey441]

LMDE user here. Very happy user.

[@kirkmooneyham]

I would probably use LMDE if they could add a driver app. Some drivers are easy install and some are a PITA without it. Even in the standard LM, if you want to install a driver newer than what is offered, you can run into issues with keystores (if I'm remembering the term correctly, probably not).

[@donanderson6727]

I've had compatibility problems with flatpaks on Mint and other Ubuntu based distros. I know they have supposedly cleaned out all of the anti-flatpak changes before integrating it with their own but I don't think they're getting it all out. I've had zero issues with LMDE 6. It is the perfect distro.

[@DragoMorke]

I your video did not help me understand the actual differences. Those that you mentioned are almost inconsequential. Is it that the packages (except mint specific ones) come from debian rather than Ubuntu?

[@dominus6695]

Is there any mint yet that can adjust scroll speed in the mouse menu? Another thing is that I use 2 mice, and would like to change L/R buttons for just one of them.

[@gamewrit0058]

0:13 Thank you! I've been watching a variety of Linux videos, feeling lost, and just now finally understood that "distro" = distrobution system. 👍 I want to move from Windows - and I've used Mac when I have to - but I have yet to find beginner-friendly resources. I also want to convince my 70yo parents to switch, but Dad thinks Google and Chrome - and antivirus scams - are safe and reliable, and Mom buys mass-produced junk from FB ads.

[@abuhammad]

I think the Debian desktop itself is getting more user friendly than it used to be before.

[@jimw7916]

its still nice knowing that if I needed to use a PPA in a pinch, Its fine on standard mint, but NOT possible on LMDE. That is a disadvantage on LMDE. Also on standard mint, its much easier to manage kernels via the update manager. This is NOT present on LMDE updater.

[@pfitz4881]

Look again.

[@jimw7916]

@@pfitz4881look again at WHAT?

[@joshuabeckwith7906]

Can be done with Synaptic Package manager and autoremoval of old Kernels can be done with nala.

[@jimw7916]

@@joshuabeckwith7906 synaptic only has apps that are in the mint repo

[@jimw7916]

@@pfitz4881 why?

[@user-ci8zu1wx2z]

i have had linux mint on my hp . and trying to install it it stops because of a trp that needs to be turned off in the bios , looked in bio and nothing

[@gormhatre]

If the Mint Team can figure out the driver manager or someone can pay them for the additional manpower required then LMDE woud be complete and perfect.

[@davemckewan4450]

I've used LMDE since v4. It's not a duplicate, it's a way of being able to continue on if Canonical go full M$ and keep insisting in stupid crap like snapshots. I do admit I wish they'd bring both the driver and kernel manager to LMDE though. But I can live without...

[@MeMyself-gf7fn]

They will be bringing it I'm sure.

[@tomschi9485]

*To sum up the 10 Minute video:* You explain that Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is useful if you a) don't like Ubuntu, if you b) prefer to use Debian or c) if you do not like to have so much updates as Ubuntu has. OK. *It's great to know that it's perfect to stay with the original Linux Mint because the alternative does not have any real benefit.*

[@MeMyself-gf7fn]

Ots benefit is that it's not reliant on a company preping itself for a buyout from the same company that most Mint users just escaped from. You can also get updates faster than the Ubuntu version if you set it up that way. Apparently you don't know that the Mint team has to spend time every time something comes from Ubuntu removing all of their proprietary garbage and then making it work for normal people again. We just left that nonsense behind, who wants to go through it again? So to sum up your paragraph long comment 1) you did not bother to read the other comments here talking about the differences 2) the man litterally pointed out differences in the video 3) them being the same in most functions is a selling point not a minus. In conclusion, there are plenty of reasons to switch to LMDE, they just went over your head.

[@tomschi9485]

@@MeMyself-gf7fn *Thank you very much for your explanations!,* yes, not it makes sense. Your 8 sentences explained it more clearly than the video…

[@craminal]

Thank you 95% of this video was filler

[@Bonez0r]

@@MeMyself-gf7fn "buyout from the same company that most Mint users just escaped from" Which company is that? Sorry I'm new to linux, still in the early stage of switching from Windows.

[@TheChadXperience909]

I think, Jay just really likes the color green.

[@nicholasroberts6954]

Given the scheduled demise of support for W10, I'm looking for a replacement OS for W10. I have an Intel atom based tablet, an old Lynx 1010b, running on fully updated W10. I use this together with the proprietry keyboard as a mini laptop. It is still going strong after 9 years and I would like to keep using it rather than add it to the electronic waste pile. I suspect that an upgrade to W11 would be beyond the machines capability. But there is a limitation on use. Whilst the processor is 64 bit, the software (And possibly some of the hardware) has been configured so that it will only run 32 bit OSes. Consequently, the current mainstream Linux distros cannot be run. I tried standard Mint Mate, and despite completely wiping the on-board storage, it wouldn't load, saying it needed 16.9 GB of room and only 16GB was available. I presume that report is an error related to a 64 bit OS trying to read a 32 bit system? Also, the on-board memory is only 2GB. With the above in mind I was thinking of using Mint LMDE, which is 32 bit. I'd be interested to learn whether anybody has tried using Mint LMDE on this type of tablet (Or similar) and what results were. MT.

[@Bass-xv7rp]

Hmmmmm... Does LMDE come in a LXC container template for Proxmox???

[@needsLITHIUM]

My current favorite DE/Distro is KDE and MX Linux, respectively. That said, I was living on Linux Mint for a LONG time. It's still easily one of my favorite distros, and Cinnamon stays as my second favorite DE, with XFCE + Whisker Menu as 3rd, and old Unity as 4th. I have to say, as much as I used to love GNOME 2, I can't stand MATE nowadays. It feels... CLUNKY and ANCIENT. I still find myself liking GNOME less and less. I also find that the more Snaps improves as a format, the worse Canonical's implementation and security get. Flatpaks are just better, even if permissions are managed on a per-app basis.This leads me farther and farther from Ubuntu. I'd rather use PCLinuxOS, or compile LFS from tarballs than anything Ubuntu - and that last one is my idea of torture.

[@jojobobbubble5688]

I hope a lot more Ubuntu families decide to rebase off of Debian proper at some point. I kinda hope the next thing System76 does after COSMIC is rebase off of Debian

[@ACampbell6167]

I really enjoy using mint Ubuntu because it is very user-friendly. Not so fond of LMDE because of its installer. It does not work with screen reader very well.

[@markshade8398]

I have use LM regular for about 5 years now. If I switched what differences would I notice? Or would itnlook and feel the same just not be based on Ububtu? And, if the original base is the onlydnifference, in a short answer why would Debian be better thN Ububtu? Thanks for the video!

[@famousmwofficial8046]

Its probably not as easy anymore since it doesn't have all the ease of use of Ubuntu underneath, lack of secureboot signing too probably.

[@markshade8398]

@@famousmwofficial8046 thanks!

[@gamewrit0058]

9:40 "It's a good redundant." 👍