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Linux Mint Debian Edition officially released

LMDE 6 has been officially released. The big deal about this is that it's based on the recently released Debian 12 and also that being based on Debian LMDE is 100% community based.

If you've been disappointed by what the Linux corporations have been doing lately or don't like the all-snap future that Ubuntu has opened, then this is the distro for you.

I'm running it as my daily driver and it works exactly like the regular Mint so you don't lose anything. Clem and team have done a great job, even newbies could use Debian now.

Personally I think LMDE is the future of Linux as Ubuntu goes it's own way, and this is a good thing for Mint and the Linux community. Let's get back to community distros and move away from the corps.

EDIT: LMDE is 64bit only. There is no 32bit option.

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  • Can someone explain to me how it differs from regular Debian Cinnamon? Is it as secure, with updates and all?

    • Underneath it's exactly the same and you will get all the same security updates. However Debian will not release any further updates to the Cinnamon desktop until Debian 13. And they don't theme it, your get the basic grey version m

      Linux Mint Debian Edition will include the latest Cinnamon desktop and it will be continually updated by the Mint team because they are the creators of the Cinnamon desktop. So you'll likely have a better version of cinnamon on LMDE.

      Plus they theme it out of the box. And LMDE includes other Mint utilities like Warpinator and Timeshift. These will also get updated sooner than plain Debian.

      And of course you are more likely to get support on Linux Mint compared to Debian

      • Nice, thanks for the explanation!

        I did have really good experiences with LM, notably

        • timeshift backups
        • unobtrusive updates
        • fully automatic LUKS unlock and mount

        But it broke for me. Also it wasnt fully Ubuntu, which was a hassle too.

        • I wonder why it broke? Did you reach out to support? They would have helped you.

          I also used to use full Ubuntu but I'm fed up with the snaps nonsense.

          I even went so far as to uninstall the snap system, yet somehow on doing apt update, it freaking re-installed it 🤬

          That's when I understood what Mint was about and why it's so great.

          Moving to LMDE I've taken a full step away from Ubuntu all together.

          • Random screen freezes afaik.

            I dont know the exact package Differences between Ubuntu and Debian, but I think LMDE will be pretty outdated soon, right? Ubuntu is also not really bleeding edge but way better. Until they stop packaging APT packages I guess it should be fine?

            • Random screen freezes sounds like a graphics card issue. Do you have an Nvidia graphics card by any chance because Nvidia doesn't supply any open source drivers so getting them to work is huge pain on Linux?

              Actually LMDE currently has newer packaged and kernel then regular LM because the Ubuntu base is from 22.04 whereas Debian 12 came out with the latest kernel and packages.

              For whatever reason Ubuntu never released an LTS this year so Mint has to wait until next year February. I suspect it will use the same kernel and packages as Debian, because it's an LTS, which never includes the very latest stuff.

              So we could be looking at a scenario where both LM and LMDE will have the same kernel and packages for at least one year, until the next Ubuntu LTS (25.04?).

              But even though LMDE will have the same kernel and packages for 2 years or so, Cinnamon desktop and the Mint apps will still be updated to the latest as far as I know.

              If your need the very latest packages then LM is probably what you should use but if don't need that and want stability and not having to update often then LMDE is the way to go.

              • No actually its said to be a typical AMD problem. Mint actually was Thinkpad T430 intel integrated Graphics, and AMD modern mobile graphics.

                Ok thanks, so Debian ≈ Ubuntu LTS?

                • Odd, AMD produce open source drivers....

                  You could say Debian = Ubuntu LTS, but only for 1 year because Ubuntu normally rehearses a new LTS every year (but not this year for some reason). Debian won't update for another 2 years at least.

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