Should Linux Mint "Debian" Edition Be The "Main" Edition?

[@PapasFilms]

LMDE actually uses its own custom installer. With later LMDE 4 versions they made it seem more like the Ubuntu one but it’s still their own.

[@fubaralakbar6800]

I would love to see your reaction if they came out with a Linux Mint Arch Edition

[@AyaWetts]

Run Manjaro Cinnamon... its about there

[@takmhz4918]

Manjaro ‘cinnamon Linux-Mint-themed’ huh

[@gamewarrior010]

@@AyaWetts endeavor os has a cinnamon option

[@AyaWetts]

@@gamewarrior010 You can run Cinnamon in any distro... Mint is about being user friendly... so is Manjaro. EndevourOS is about being easier than Arch, but not nearly as user friendly as other options... its still based all around the command line.

[@gamewarrior010]

@@AyaWetts I used manjaro cinnamon for a while before moving to endeavor. I switched because every time I tried to update or install any packages it gave me GPME errors. I have heard that I am no the only one to experience this issue and to fix it you have to go into the command line. One endeavor most things can be done though a GIU. Now for new users pamac is not pre-installed unforuntunatly but it ships with yay so it is not difficult to install.

[@BreetaiZentradi]

LMDE accomplishes several things. 1) The current version is based on Debian 11, which is close to Ubuntu 2021.10/2022.04 but is not a moving target like 22.04 is as long as it is pre-release. They are able to start working on issues the main edition of Mint will face when rebasing to 22.04 2) It gives the Mint team an idea of how much work it would entail to leave Ubuntu. 3) Leverage. It does not matter if it is Canonical going away, or making some sort of legal threat or some other unseen issue that could come from basing Mint off of Ubuntu. Why go after Mint? They will just drop the current mainline edition and roll to LMDE as the new default in a matter of days. The fact they can do this with almost no effort is a great deterrent to anyone who would consider such a move.

[@EvanOfTheDarkness]

Many closed source Linux apps target only "Ubuntu" and not Debian. Mint being based on Ubuntu, means that it can run these apps without an issue. In a perfect world developers would build packages for every distro, but today its usually Ubuntu, Suse and maybe Arch.

[@yehudahecht1520]

Fedora?

[@EvanOfTheDarkness]

@@yehudahecht1520 Sometimes fedora too. But Ubuntu and Suse are the fix ones, the others can change.

[@WildVoltorb]

Suse? Really?

[@Jopherss]

@@WildVoltorb Yeah that's really surprising

[@vincentadams3807]

It's usually ubuntu or fedora. I never see closed source or enterprise software for arch.

[@fotisbaltoumas]

The reason for Mint sticking with Ubuntu as its main source is software support. Almost always, when something new is introduced to Linux, it first comes to Ubuntu and Fedora, and then the other distributions follow. Obvious example: Steam. For six months it was Ubuntu-only, then Fedora and RHEL followed, and then everyone else. Officially. Unofficially, if you had an ubuntu-based distro (like Mint), you could install it from day one without much fuss.

[@OffscreenkillVA]

Yes, but by now Steam and Ubuntu actually dont like each other alot anymore, from what I gathered.

[@rauljosegarcia]

Linux Mint got me into the Linux world. It's a very user friendly distribution and I'll probably be sticking to it for a while.

[@AndrewPayne]

100% agree. Been using Mint for a few years and always loved the 'DE' distro

[@mjwford1]

I think you're on to something. The only thing probably holding them back is not enough people know about their Debian project and because of that, not enough people are using LMDE. We need to start a movement! I just switched to LMDE. Gotta keep it going!

[@obiwankenobe3962]

I'd love to hop on the DE edition, because I prefer 32-bit for desktop setups (64-bit applications eat about 50% more RAM on average due to pointers being 64-bit, while speed boost resulting from 64-bit operations is usually only seen in highly-mathematical applications). But I'm heavily invested in XFCE (scripts and the like) and lack of it kills it for me. I hope they eventually add the XFCE version (yes, it's possible to add XFCE support to Cinnamon installation, but that will not fly in my case).

[@bigmikeobama5314]

LMDE was my first linux os and it was freakin awesome! i was highly impressed

[@xrafter]

I can smell the copypasta.

[@echoptic775]

@@xrafter btw do u use arch?

[@saulsho29]

@@echoptic775 btw for sure he uses arch

[@bayzed]

wat are u using now?

[@TON-vz3pe]

Btw

[@happyfeet4506]

I was, sick and tired of things breaking on arch. So today I've installed LMDE5. It's a piece of cake to boot from the live live USB. The installer is a joy to use and the whole package is smooth as silk and stable.

[@happyfeet4506]

@Noah Cameron I've never used a distro that's been so stable. I've not had a single issue with it. I've installed xfce desktop and it's a joy to use

[@jeancorriveau8686]

I used Arch and Manjaro for a while. Had dependency errors sometimes when installing apps. Never had that trouble with Debian-based distros. I now use LMDE 5 as well. The Welcome app guides me well as to what to do first. After two years of distro hopping, I have settled for Mint six months ago. Cinnamon DE is the most convenient one.

[@ArniesTech]

Basically Mint in a nutshell 💖

[@Perry....]

I'd love to know how everyone seems to be "breaking" shit. I've ran arch for a year now and my buddy has had it for 3 months and we both haven't had any problems that weren't easily fixed or not arch specific regardless.

[@killertigergaming6762]

@@Perry.... same i have been using it for 3 months and the only minor issue i had is some lib32 dependency issue which randomly went away after a update and never actually causes any issues

[@KevinBReynolds]

I am one of those that doesn't want to have anything to do with Ubuntu or Ubuntu based distros. I don't think Canonical has any idea of what they want to do or where they want to go. They just keep changing things and it causes problems for everyone else. I'm a simple user and I don't want all those headaches. I'm on a Debian based distro and have been for years now and love it. Everything just works and that's what my computer should do, work for me.

[@blueskies1014]

I've used Linux Mint for years and just switched my laptop to LMDE 5. It's fantastic! I like it even better than the Ubuntu main version. I will probably switch my LM 19.3 desktop to LMDE 5 soon, and I would be happy if Linux Mint eventually drops Ubuntu. I get why they haven't so far - they still feel like basing their distro on Ubuntu saves them some work - but probably not for long considering the way Ubuntu has been going.

[@marquito6986]

Why is that? Is Ubuntu going away in the foreseeable future?

[@patricktrakzel9657]

@@marquito6986 They will use more and more snap software packages, while other distros use Flatpaks. And there are some privacy issues with Canonical. But (K)(L)(X)Ubuntu is not going away as far as I know.

[@AlexandruDoarme]

I hope that System76! makes a similar move too. PopOS! deserves a better base.

[@stephenwilson0386]

Besides pushing Snaps (which personally doesn't bother me, they work fine for my use cases), what's wrong with Ubuntu?

[@killertigergaming6762]

@@stephenwilson0386 quite a lot before they were caught sending searches to amazon and to me at least there becoming more and more corporate with less focus on what the community wants as evidence of the snap thing Since there trying to basically centralize there own app store

[@ShinyHelmet]

I agree about Mint Debian. I've installed LMDE 5 since beta and have found it very stable and everything works. Steam works fine, and having slightly older software packages doesn't bother me.

[@bigl9527]

Next year : Linux Mint Gentoo Edition. Or maybe, just maybe. Linux Mint From Scratch Edition

[@bertboer2936]

What I miss in LMDE 5 compared to Mint 20.3, is the Driver Manager app (in Settings: Administration) to install network and NVidia drivers. For first time users this will be a hurdle.

[@ArniesTech]

I actually dont know why they dont just include that. Its nothing Ubuntu specific and Debian also comes with nonfree drivers/proprietary software.

[@sixdroid]

read the debian wiki

[@The_Wandering_Nerd]

I use the Ubuntu version because frankly, it's a better Ubuntu than Ubuntu. It gives you access to the entire Ubuntu LTS repo and Ubuntu PPAs while cutting out the snap nonsense and the grimy cruft of Ubuntu's GNOME implementation. I've tried LMDE and while it has an identical Cinnamon UI to the standard version, you're limited to Debian repos which are updated even more slowly than Ubuntu's. I've also had some minor hardware issues that I haven't had in the standard Ubuntu-based Linux Mint. So personally I think if the Mint team wants to go full Debian they have a bit more polishing to do before it's ready for prime time.

[@NawidN]

According to the comments, LMDE would also have to provide more desktop environments out of the box.

[@herobrinecyberdemon8104]

Plus Debian shipping ready versions supporting wide range of CPU architectures - that will be VERY useful as we go on. The x86 is because they can compile it quickly from the existing x64, but additional versions can be added if theres demand for such.

[@hanro50]

Most of mint's system apps are written in Python. So that should be doable.

[@herobrinecyberdemon8104]

@@hanro50 Everything is doable when you're not a company interested in profits - such optimize only when forced or paid to, and their software devs are usually suckers because they'll pay them less when they're lowly qualified - why paid software is usually worse than free opensource one.

[@donpeer4477]

Thanks for covering this, Derek. I'm loving LMDE5 on my laptop!

[@michaelgautier]

I like the way you introduced the Debian edition of Linux Mint. In my own Linux video from July 2019, I make the case for Fedora. I definitely see Linux Mint Debian as a great choice for those who want a solid Microsoft Windows alternative.

[@ransan]

If the Debian base uses older packages than Ubuntu's LTS I feel like that doesn't make it as appealing. I know this is unlikely, but my fantasy is that they just rebase off of Fedora and work with the people maintaining the Cinnamon spin. It will have newer packages without being bleeding edge and the base is already Flatpak-friendly and they don't have to pull Snap out of it.

[@wayland7150]

It depends what you're trying to do. If you just want an OS so you can reliably use your computer then Mint is excellent. If you're always trying the latest thing and don't need stability then Mint is the wrong one.

[@AdroSlice]

A fedora based linux mint sounds wonderful.

[@ransan]

@@AdroSlice Yes, specially considering Fedora makes you go through the extra steps of enabling RPMfusion, Flathub, and other codecs. These tasks are absolutely not difficult, but having a Fedora derivative that makes things convenient for newbies the same way Mint does would be wonderful.

[@kyleburant2083]

I mean packages are only a couple months newer on Ubuntu lts compared to debian and if you are already using a lts distro I feel like that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things

[@kyleburant2083]

@Watcher that might require more testing on mints part though (not that sid isn't fairly stable for a rolling release)

[@someguy4853]

It would be nice if there was a Mate and Xfce versions of LMDE as well.

[@someguy4853]

@Prince Cooper Mate is just as much LM as Cinnamon in fact Mate(the true Gnome) came out way before Cinnamon and most of Linux Mint history used Gnome 2 which is Mate. Also Mint based off of Ubuntu comes in 3 flavors not one.

[@hugbearsx4]

Should LMDE become maintream, it would probably mean the migration of those flavours too.

[@matthewperlman3356]

Mate is a must have for me.

[@ArniesTech]

@@hugbearsx4 exactly. Once LMDE becomes mainline, it will get all the love and goodies.

[@wellnesspathforme6236]

@@matthewperlman3356 I use Mate, too. Why is it a must have for you?

[@no-stresscat1519]

LMDE 5 was the second distro I was ever able to get my USB3 DisplayLink monitor to work on. The first one was Linux Mint. :)

[@fotodavidrodriguez]

I agree, LMDE should become the standard edition!

[@saltdad5263]

@Alex Hughes dude what are you on about lol, people are allowed to agree with things

[@brunokingz]

@Alex Hughes you are a fine example of why people still have prejudice against linux...

[@metahand7188]

I hope Linux Mint will also have an XFCE version of LMDE.

[@Nikolai508]

Currently only Cinnamon out of the box but Debian has XFCE packages, so you could install it yourself, the downside being you'd need to clean up the apps yourself. Removing the unwanted duplicate apps such as a secondary file manager.

[@fredmckinney8933]

Same. And MATE, too.

[@folksurvival]

Just install it. sudo apt install xfce4

[@ChrisFredriksson]

Hey DT, great video! Have to abandon Windows and I believe I'm heading to Linux Mint. Got near to 15 years of Debian experience and Ubuntu doesn't feel right, even if Linux Mint (normal) is based on Ubuntu it did feel "ok" at least. But I didn't know, so well hidden, that there are a Debian version of LM and I was happy to see this with your video. Sure, some programs are easier to install on Ubuntu and regular LM, but I can manage manual installs and deb installs, so I think I'll be fine with the Debian based LM. I don't personally like the other desktop variants out there, I "need" it to be Windows like and I think LM can do that for me. I'm more used to the non desktop Debian btw. Also, already looked up that all software that I use already exists or works on Linux, so I'm happy. Also, I'm very happy that you made this video as it feels like the way to go for me. You got yourself another subscriber also 😃

[@magburner]

I love LMDE4, been using it since release, I have had Zero issues with the OS on my (former) 2600K gaming rig. I plan to upgrade to LMDE5 when if/when there is an upgrade path.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

what about doing sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y enter your password and that should be that.

[@stevephillips2819]

Miss Linux Mint KDE edition - would love to have it based on Debian too

[@KDE666]

That's what I say!

[@KDE666]

Linux Mint on Debian is a great Idea, but the KDE Plasma Desktop is still missing to make it perfect! ☺

[@frankharrigan5368]

LMDE4 has been brilliant these past two years of using it as my main computer, so I'm looking forward to trying LMDE5.

[@ericpenrose3541]

The only reason I could think of for Mint not moving fully over to a Debian base is that MATE and XFce editions are missing from Linux Mint Debian, but Debian already does those (along with GNOME and .KDE which Mint could choose to later add). So .. who would be unhappy? As it is - preferring MATE - I'll probably make do with the not so slick Debian MATE.

[@enigmaster84]

I think there's some chicken and egg problem which prevents the base switching from Ubuntu to Debian. The Mint team is not big enough to ship all the flavours available for the mainline Mint for LMDE, and as long as their users can't choose their favourite DE they just stick to the mainline, and as long as the mainline is where their users go, the Mint team won't put their limited resources on developing all the LMDE flavours they could ship. The day we see the varous LMDE Mate, Xfce, Plasma, etc the transition will likely be more feasable. I don't think their userbase would switch before that, as if I remember correctly Mint doesn't offer a minimal install or a way to choose a desktop during installation, alas.

[@encycl07pedia-]

Personally, I like the idea of installing my own software and desktop environment. I haven't found a distro that ships with DWM and a lot of the "basic" stuff on distros (image viewers, default video players, etc.) end up being uninstalled most of the time for me. I only have one workhorse PC that runs Mint 19. The rest I've converted to Debian 11 as it allows a minimal install with no DE unless you specify it. I've gotten so comfortable using tmux that the only time I use X is when I need to use Javascript. IMO, if Mint did it like my netinst Debian ISO and just gave you some options on what DE to include, that would work a whole lot better than packing up different ISOs with different DEs. It seems to me like a waste of time for the devs to have to create those for each DE.

[@enigmaster84]

@@encycl07pedia- you have your points indeed. I'm a Debian user as well and I like that it allows you to choose which DE you would like during installation, or install it at a later time. But Debian also offers different images with a DE already selected, which could be useful either to new users or to have a ready image should you not be able to access to the internet immediately. After all, it's just a matter of including one more task selection's packages. If Mint would implement a DE choice during installation it would be the best way imo, but at the same time I wouldn't get rid of readymade images with a DE.

[@kurtmampaey1208]

I switched from Mint ubuntu versio to LMDE for several years now and I like LMDE better, it's stable and you don't have to upgrade every 4 months to have the latest version. Security and privacy should also be better in LMDE. LMDE is faster than the regular linux mint cinnamon, according to my experience it works just as smoothly as xfce. There is at least as much software available as in the regular mint version and sometimes it works even better. So I completely agree, LMDE should be the only version.

[@AFCAWorldBodybuildingArchive]

To me LMDE is the perfect polished child generation to a "raw" giant. Same es Manjaro for Arch, SUSE to Slsckware, Fedora to RedHat. Mint should focus solely on LMDE 🙏

[@jeancorriveau8686]

I agree. I switched to LMDE yesterday from mainline Mint. Canonical could pull the plug on Ubuntu from its head office. Debian is community based--no head office.

[@ArniesTech]

@@jeancorriveau8686 that is/will be LMDEs strength 💪😌

[@jeancorriveau8686]

I switched to LMDE from the mainline one yesterday. Canonical could pull the plug on Ubuntu in the future from a decision at the head office. Debian, being community based, doesn't have a head office. So, it will live on for a long time. Debian's website says "Our developers are from more than 60 different countries, and Debian itself is translated into more than 80 languages."

[@cosmicvoid2207]

That's a no brainer! LMDE all the way!

[@BruceCarbonLakeriver]

indeed!

[@bh3553]

Thanks for the content! Not a huge mint fan, but I always learn something new from your videos. Just want to voice my support!

[@metl7734]

I really love the look of mint, something about it just feels so cozy and warm.

[@narwhal4304]

If the Linux Mint team was quicker to release new versions of LMDE based on newer versions of Debian, like MX Linux does, I wouldn't touch the Ubuntu version again. LMDE is perfectly fine for me, and LMDE 5 offers a newer kernel than 20.3 out of the box. Of coarse, that will change once Linux Mint 21 releases, but LMDE has the potential to be the best Debian-based distribution.

[@j.f.zarama3140]

I'd like to see, as soon as possible, LMDE ARM edition, to run directly on M1 or under a VM on macOS.

[@edalder2000]

I used Ubuntu based Mint for a few years. But Ubuntu's thing for Snap scared me off. I jumped onto MX Linux. Nice distro. But LMDE is a great solution.

[@folksurvival]

Mint doesn't have the Snap stuff that Ubuntu has though.

[@edalder2000]

@@folksurvival But Snap is such that a lot of Ubuntu is not maintained by Canonical. That leads to rot. It is seeps into Ubuntu the distros based upon Ubuntu.

[@sillyness3456]

I guess, the time for the Mint team to fully switch will come with the next or the following Ubuntu LTS release, as canonical has stated their intent to remove several crucial packages, Firefox being the most egregious example, from their repository to enforce Snap use.

[@littlepeon]

They won't.. Ubuntu is just to dang easy to customize the base is while Debian makes that a hassle.

[@syedhuzaifahassan4588]

DT: 14 minutes? I’m not going to wait 14 minutes. Me: *remembers the time I waited for GTA V to download and starts reflecting on other life choices*

[@UltimusShadow.]

Agreed. LMDE should be the flagship, stop fighting Ubuntu & don't wait for the Ubuntu train to crash just jump off. I've seen so many people support this opinion, why doesn't Clem act on this?

[@exnihilonihilfit6316]

Perhaps they get more value from using it than spend "fighting it"? Stop being so arrogant and think you know anything about that equation than the people who deal work on it on a daily basis! ^ thought about it for 1 minute and already knows it all! GTFO!

[@ArniesTech]

I hope LMDE becomes the mainline and therefore a direct cometitor to Ubuntu

[@VeitLehmann]

I agree! I heard that only a small fraction of users had chosen LMDE over the Ubuntu version, but I don't know if the numbers have changed recently after Debian Bookworm and LMDE 6 have been released. IMHO, they could try this: Provide Mate and XFCE spins of LMDE 6, promote LMDE the same as the Ubuntu version, and observe. This would lead to more reviews of LMDE, and they could see how many users would pick LMDE over the Ubuntu base. If the reviews are positive, and if a decent amount of new users picked LMDE, they could make it default. I would appreciate that, because I think that especially after the recent events in the Linux world, tech-savvy users are likely to prefer LMDE (I do), and everyday desktop users would hardly even notice a difference.

[@illdieanyway7865]

LM without systemd, using something like OpenRC would be perfect, they should try to use Nitrux as a base, that would be interesting

[@dougbrown7023]

Ty for your work. I am very new to Linux and I chose Linux mint. You gotta start somewhere. I started noticing changes in my cell phone and started investigating more and that my phone was changed to a custom version without my consent??? A line of script had been removed and another inserted. It was eye opening for me of course. For so long I was like I don't care about my privacy and now I do.. Nothing to hide but to go into the command line and do my own work gives me more control over my devices. So many layers but I like the challenge and it's like a cat and mouse game. Someone is keeping me on my toes lol 😆. Free Software and Freedom to use my cell phone and computer without all the stalking and data point simulation and data being recorded of my everymove. I was pawned and information sold on internet by Spokeo and others I am sure. Now I must learn everything I can. When your government knows absolutely everything there is to know about you and you know nothing about them YOU HAVE BEEN BAMBOOZLED. Thank you my Internet Angels who pop in now and then while I am researching and learning all this stuff again. I don't know what to think about whoever popped into my machine and setup the Linux Mint that I downloaded 😐. I'm gonna roll with it and learn more about defense; security and keeping my information safe and just so you know; I'M CONSTANTLY BEING WATCHED AND MONITORED. Stay safe 🙏 everyone. Just a random person who has been hacked for so long. If you can't beat them join them. My people perish for lack of knowledge. This is from the Bible but can be said about the same in life and our freedoms. NetworkChuck and David Bombal are also good 👍

[@stephenjacks8196]

All my customers are businesses and those running Linux use SUSE, Ubuntu, or Red Hat (Oracle). The companies behind those distributions are business friendly not Linux fan-boy distributions with "fix it yourself" support answers.

[@stefhannington2218]

I'm using Lmde5 at the moment and love it. Only thing I have changed is the kernel and instead updated to 5.16 by using debians unstable sources. I will not be changing my system anytime soon. 😁

[@ArniesTech]

The mint team, in my opinion, should make LMDE their flagship and ship it as a competitor to Ubuntu, not as its underdog child. 💪🙏

[@redfonzie21]

I laughed so hard when you said "We need a Linux Mint Arch Edition" I'm glad I didn't have my pizza in my mouth! I'd need CPR or something!!! I recently migrated from Windows 10 to Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.3 and I love it. I found a problem, though, in trying to put "Android in a Box" or "Anbox" on it in that even though I followed the instructions to the "T" it still doesn't load properly and then just shuts itself down. Allegedly it works flawlessly in previous versions? Aside from that, I've not had any issues from Mint. Also, I changed to the same background image you did.

[@JeffTurner0227]

I think the mint team just wants to give its users a few different options. I use arch based and Ubuntu based, havent used debian stock in quite a while. Maybe I'll dabble with it. Thanks for the video!

[@wayland7150]

DT thank you for reviewing LMDE. I suspect that it will affect installing things. I chose the Ubuntu versions when installing, we may find there are problems installing Steam or Wine etc. I also had to install a Snap package on standard Mint and this went ok once I had enabled Snap.

[@WR3ND]

Yeah man, I've been testing out LMDE5 and it is top tier for its target user base. I might have a few other preferences here or there but that's besides the point. It's a solid distro option and better than most at achieving what it aims to. I have no reservations recommending it over even the standard Linux Mint version other than it only ships with Cinnamon, and some might not prefer that.

[@Practical-IT]

If LMDE had the same "OEM Install" that the Ubuntu-based versions have, I'd be on board with your premise. The OEM Install option is useful to me for repurposing older PCs for resale while giving an OOTB experience for the person that ends up with the PC. If they got rid of asterisks in terminal for passwords by default, I'd be happier as well. I hate having to disable this every time.

[@StorageESP]

Why? those asteriks are useful

[@Practical-IT]

@@StorageESP you're welcome to your opinion, but no other OS I use has asterisks when you type passwords in the terminal, and I don't find them useful.

[@timflatus]

Couldn't agree with you more. A distro is a means to an end, a convenient way of delivering an Open Source OS. Given enough ingenuity and manual reading you can configure your desktop to work the way you want regardless of where you got it from. APT is a work of genius, I don't see why you'd want to complicate matters really

[@blas4me50]

I moved on to Mint, once Ubuntu switched to Unity. What happened to, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Linux Mint, has a really good community though. I've been running Pen Testing Distros, for the last couple of years, but just settled for Fedora. I have never used touch, and nano so much in my life, but it's getting me back into command line.

[@patricktrakzel9657]

I think you are right. I think it would be easier for them. If they would make a Linux Mint Arch Edition, and a Linux Mint RHEL Edition they and give the user a choice during installation on what desktop environment they want to install they would be the greatest distro in LinuxLand..

[@jason9414]

I have tested LMDE for a while now on new hardware and ten year old hardware and I found I could break mint time and time again with the ubuntu version and also found it significantly slower. LMDE is not only faster but I have not been able to break it at all, and I've thrown everything at it. After exhausting testing both, I have to implore the Linux mint team to dump the ubuntu version and make LMDE the mainstream version. The LMDE IS the distro to not only compete with Windows but to replace it. Finally a Linux distro that is better than Windows and Mac hands down!

[@Earl.Norris]

I am a Debian guy meaning I normally use Debian stable as my main driver. However I have run mint lmde3 and lmde4 on other than my main computer. I also still use mx Linux (Debian based) . I believe peppermint Linux has moved to Debian based. So I think lmde 5 is ready now to become the major distribution for mint. It's faster but may not be as polished. Make the desktop environment available in lmde. Ubuntu is a sinking ship from what I see. Maybe pop os will follow shortly after.

[@obiwankenobe3962]

With that 'snap' being package manager now, Ubuntu turned disgusting. I'm forced to use it at work, so I end up installing things in /usr/local to get by.

[@Ajay-pf6bv]

Couldn't agree more wondering why Mint sticks with Ubuntu. The same applies to Zorin, Pop!_OS and Elementary. And why are they not bundling their resources? A distro providing the features and desktops of Elementary, Zorin, Mint and Pop!_OS would probably be THE ultimate non-arch-based distro.

[@TheOriginalGeekyNoob]

As a vanilla Debian user, yep, I'd like to see LMDE being the stock image, with LMUE being the exception :D

LMDE has older software. That might be the reason why they keep Ubuntu as well.

[@theplaymakerno1]

He is right about the Linux Mint Arch Edition Thing. That would probably be the Best OS in the World. The only reason why I haven't switched back to Linux Mint from Manjaro is because of Mint not having the latest packages.

[@wayland7150]

That's both a strength and a weakness.

[@kenshinscott]

That's because it's to concern about being stable arch is great but not stable it breaks too easy

[@theplaymakerno1]

@@kenshinscott Usually users make mistakes that break arch. I only broke arch once. Broke Mint twice.

[@bbrr12]

@@theplaymakerno1 I agree with you but breaking and arch based distro is so much easier than any debian distro

[@pranze3484]

People who "need" the latest packages don't tend to be productive ones, they just mess around all day long smh

[@TogonzoMedia]

I'm an inactive PS2 homebrew dev under the handle "BatRastard" and every single line of code I contributed to OpenPS2Loader was done under Linux Mint, Debian, or LMDE precisely because Ubuntu is the worst rolling release I ever dealt with. Dead serious. I'm running Manjaro now, and I've broken Ubuntu by updating/upgrading more times than I've broken Manjaro (which is zero!). I eventually had to dump Linux Mint precisely because they don't need an Ubuntu base - Debian is more than sufficient.

[@ArrowGent]

ive been using mint since 2011-2012 for exactly the primary reasons you mentioned: gnome3 + unity + snap i use Mate the gnome2 fork.

[@dfrozendog3849]

LMDE 4 then 5 was my end to distro hopping. I began using Linux with Ubuntu 11.04.

[@themellonchef7217]

At 15:19 it says that xwayland is installed, I thought Cinnamon had no wayland support? Or is my information outdated?

[@neandertalac]

It still lacks a few easy to use tools, but it's a great distro that upgrades regular Debian experience. I look forward to development of this great distro

[@WhatInTheActual]

Which tools did you notice it lacking?

[@tonigon5767]

I overcame slow updates by switching to local mirrors.

[@Randy1-2-3]

I'm genuinely surprised he didn't change this on the video - it seemed like the thing he would do to test it out.

[@emiliokennkierza260]

Yes indeed. Been using it since version 3, addition of flatpaks pretty much covers the need to ditch ppa-based packages.

[@Amos_Huclkeberry]

LMDE used to be semi-rolling when it was based on Debian Testing. They rolled out update packs periodically. That was a long time ago.

[@Amos_Huclkeberry]

That's a great idea! Users could have the option to choose their branch in the welcome screen settings.

[@Amos_Huclkeberry]

@Watcher Yeah, I agree

[@tenfourproductionsllc]

Humm, I wonder if you could add testing to the sources.list file and get LMDE based on Debian testing??? I'm going to do just that on a VM, see how it works out.

[@salaciouscreations4323]

Issue I always get with Debian is realtec network drivers. Given how wide reaching realtec products are on motherboards you would think by now Debian would have no issues unless intel give them money to make other products worse. As you ask for help on anything network related the first thing people suggest is buy intel cards.

[@cpt.sl_pirate]

16:06 DT will never see that mint comes with the best ever wallpapers with a new wallpaper package every distribution update cuz he never looks at the other tabs on the background choosing application :(

[@CyperN077]

Absolutely right about that statement. When I first looked into Linux Mint I immediately went to the Debian edition because I absolutely hate Ubuntu.

[@arkvsi8142]

Ubuntu haters shall not be welcomed to the heaven.... Says the Bible :v

[@rishirajsaikia1323]

Elaborate the points for hating Ubuntu.

[@LordDoucheBags]

@@rishirajsaikia1323 forcing snaps when they are shit

[@rishirajsaikia1323]

@@LordDoucheBags is pop os a good alternative to ubuntu ?

[@tbone020ify]

I play with all sorts of distros since 93 with red hat. In your opinion what distro do you think is the most compatible with all the different softwares out on linux. Love the videos. Have great evening.

[@ArrowGent]

i think one of the main draws for Ubuntu is the software support it recieves such as PPA some software is updated and maintained by 3rd party and hosted on the PPA launchpad specifically for Ubuntu while debian is supported by the software maintainers, they dont typically distribute .deb installers for each version of debian.

[@OldieBugger]

I was actually a bit disappointed when they rolled out the new Linux Mint website. The old one was much easier to use (in my opinion, at least). Ofc, if you want something that doesn't look 20 years old it's another thing. But I never cared about how it looked, I only wanted the functionality.

[@wayland7150]

It always bothers me when people say a new web site looks so much better than the old outdated one. It's really just fashion at this stage of web development. Nothing new in 15 years.

[@encycl07pedia-]

@@wayland7150 I disagree. The Web has gotten much worse in the last 15 years: now anybody can move pictures around in a sandbox and publish a webpage. You used to have to know how to format things to make a webpage and you didn't usually have a ton of code. Now 60% of the web is sourced from Google or Amazon repositories with libraries because web devs aren't given enough time to build a great project from scrap. See Koculu's "left-pad" for how ridiculously-dependent many websites are on external code that could be moved, lost, or removed at a moment's notice. That kind of crap didn't happen in 2007. The most you'd get were missing fonts or an broken embed because Flash wasn't enabled.

[@CaptainKenway]

Whilst I agree personally, most distros want to have a flashy modern website these days in order to attract new users. Especially ones like Mint that target the average Joe rather than more tech-savvy people.

[@ArniesTech]

Of course it should. I'll make a vido on that. Cant understand why they haven't done tht yet 🙏

[@DevDungeon]

I wonder if they are doing a test run before a full commit…. I love Debian! It is my primary driver on all my desktops now. I still wouldn’t use mint even if it was Debian though. Pure Debian is what I prefer.

[@Twis7]

Your channel is awesome. Keep it up :)))))

[@dryice-tech]

hey DT, great video! BR from brazil

[@tech-bore8839]

My only hangup with LMDE is the hassle of getting an external monitor to function with an Nvidia card. It's really the only reason I still use the Ubuntu version on one of my machines. If the LM team made it functional out of the box, like the Ubuntu version, I'd completely ditch the Ubuntu distro altogether.

[@r.eugenelee9148]

Yeah they should ditch Ubuntu. Look at MX/AntiX Linux. They have been around for at least 20 years without resorting to being a Ubuntu derivative. I totally agree with you Mr. Taylor.

[@robertmckeown3014]

I run MX with the XFCE on my old Dell laptop. It's flawless.

[@maclin248]

Yes, I use LMDE from version 3 on ... it's a very neat distribution and besides the kernel it's half the way to be a rolling release. The only thing ... they don't really support the KDE (Plasma) DE, which it's my favorite since I began to use Linux (openSUSE) on a daily basis in 2000.

[@chibani9964]

Debian stable packages more older then Ubuntu LTS I think that's way they choose Ubuntu over Debian but with flatpak may be...

[@BruceCarbonLakeriver]

same thought here but I'm still scratching my head. OTOH Ubuntu is seizing in popularity and got trouble several times the past years as I got word about. So I could understand why the Mint team is rebasing their distro ^^

[@zbiromax9228]

Hi. great video thank you for your work. I have a question. have you already had the opportunity to test and can use Linux distros: MassOs or Enso Os or Endless Os? Is stable, secure, respect privacy. thanks for your attention. greetings.

[@SomeOne-rh5so]

I agree vs you - if Mint team concentrate on LMDE that could be #1 distro.

[@123anonymous456]

I'm not a Mint user; does the Ubuntu based edition use the same (GA,hwe,oem) kernels? Because there are two Snaps that I couldn't live without, one being *livepatch* which saved me from having to reboot using a new kernel *immediately* once certain exploits had been identified in the past but bought me a couple of days. Also, Kubuntu just provides a good enough desktop experience, and a number of *popular* third party PPAs for Ubuntu keep a number of selected applications current at any given time as well.

[@zizlog_sound]

Hey DT, why do you use htop over top? Can't just be the colours, can it?

[@mydogsbutler]

Speaking as a freelance dev, for my main laptop and desktop, I'm on Windows. I still find it more dev friendly than any Linux distro. WSL/2 Ubuntu is so optimized it usually feels like bare metal. It's also easier to write programs to target different OSes. Support for full version of Visual Studio (the premier IDE for some popular use cases ) The main con is MS obsession with telemetry. That said, I also have an extra Ubuntu laptop, a VPS, some servers, a couple of local VMs running Ubuntu desktop 20.04 as well as dozens of containers, VPS/VMs running Ubuntu server. Like many others, I dislike Ubuntu's UI. While I could switch to another Linux desktop I've stuck to Ubuntu because I still think it's one of the best distros for enterprise development. - Since all the Linux development I do is meant to run on a Ubuntu server I keep the core os of desktop and server the same (reduces bugs and increases familiarity). - Debian-based (i.e. tons of tooling in the repos).. - Canonical's focus on improving the stability of already stable Debian (extremely important for production use) - frequency of updates of both OS and packages (major security issue for production use ) - LTS version (makes DevOps a little easier) - with CentOS gone, Redhat has lost its allure due to cost - Ubuntu is supported on the aforementioned WSL/2 (also use VM Workstation but it's less snappy both in startup and execution time) The main thing that turns me off about the Ubuntu ecosystem is the default bulkiness of server releases. Large size leaves room for instability, a larger attack surface, and less efficient resource use. You can uninstall packages but the problem is it can sometimes break things. A super stripped-down, Canonical tested, Ubuntu server version a lot closer in size to Alpine would be preferable. For server distros, it makes far more sense to keep everything in the repos and download as needed. Chances are you are going to minimize and containerize everything for production. So what's most important is minimizing the number of things that can break and making the best use of the hardware.

[@auntiecarol]

Quality post. Almost too good for youtube!

[@ronaldronald8819]

Back to the roots. Not that building on Ubuntu would be a house of cards, but Debian well Yea lets do that.

[@drassx615]

Your very last comment makes me wish I had the three things to make it happen, time, resources, and of course skill. I think a Linux Mint Arch Edition would be awesome. Yes I can make any flavor of linux look and feel like any other flavor of linux if I want to, but I'm lazy I want it to look and feel like mint right out of the install so I can continue to recommend it to new linux users who are migrating from windows.

[@MichaelJHathaway]

I agree with you Derek. LMDE is easy Debian, easy to install, easy to use for beginner / intermediate users, already has things like sudo installed, etc. It is no where near as stable or reliable as vanilla Debian.

[@MichaelJHathaway]

Two things about running Debian. If you are trying to run it as a desktop as a system similar to Ubuntu and on newer hardware, you have to upgrade the kernel to at least 5.15, which you can do easily and have it auto upgrade. This will solve a huge number of issues, especially with newer video hardware. The other thing about Debian is that if you wish to rely on pre-made packages, they are going to be a little older (but not as dramatically older as some users whine about). Like me, you can build your own packages and you will be just as up to date or newer than software on Ubuntu, without the negative effects of things like, well, Ubuntu.

[@leeashleyanthony]

I kind of am using 'Linux Mint Arch Edition' Cinnamon DE Linux Mint Cinnamon Themes Slick Greeter (Lightdm) Although I use 'yay' to install and update software, I have Pamac installed, which I think is a Manjaro's GUI installer/updater. Do you think Linux Mint would base of Manjaro?

[@difri84]

on a concept level i agree about just focusing linux mint lmde, but truth is ubuntu does a lot a work, selecting packages from testing, freezing them at the version the where everypackages works fine with each other and mint is just changing some corporate choice they don't agree on plus some software developed by themeselves. on lmde they just take debian stable and flavor it with mint custom app and themes. so linux mint mainline will have more update packages thanks to the ubuntu selection. if they were just focusing on lmde they would have a much older package repository unless they start selectin and freezing testing packages from debian testing wich is actually a lot of work!!! they are not a corporate they are just a small group. given the appropriate resources they could definetily do that, but they don't seem to have that kind of resources at the moment

[@KDE666]

I had LMDE4 and I loved it very well until Timeshift has made snapshots of my deleted virtual maschines and so my drive kept being full no matter what I deleted 🤦🏼‍♂️ thats why I switched to Kubuntu, purged snap on there and installed flatpak and I love it too 🥰

[@ErdrickHero]

I skipped regular mint and went straight to LMDE4. At first I liked it, but after a few weeks of use I started having issues like neither the Ubuntu or debian versions of certain software installing properly. I recall being unable to install a lot of software prerequisites. I may try LMDE5, but I've found I prefer XFCE over cinnamon, so I might pick a different distro for my next attempt at switching to Linux.

[@dougtilaran3496]

Run Sparky rolling edition for xfce

[@MarcCastellsBallesta]

I switched from Ubuntu to Debian a few years ago to get a taste of "the mother of" what I was using. It feels great. I've always had LMDE in sight but never had the time to test it. Maybe I install it on my girlfriend's laptop.