LMDE 6 “Faye” released! – The Linux Mint Blog
blog.linuxmint.com

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.

  • superkret@lemmy.ml
    15·
    2 years ago

    Oh boy, here I go distro-hopping again.
    Just kidding - you can pry Slackware from my cold, dead hands.

  • makeasnek@lemmy.ml
    61·
    2 years ago

    Very excited to see this. After having been through the last few Ubuntu versions, they have made some very frustrating decisions that have made the system management side a real pain.

  • banazir@lemmy.ml
    4·
    2 years ago

    I wonder if they’ll ever ditch Ubuntu and release a version based on Debian Sid.

    • dinckel@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 years ago

      Not Sid, but that’s exactly that Mint LMDE is. Rather than being built on top of Ubuntu, it’s built on top of Debian

  • vettnerk@lemmy.ml
    2·
    2 years ago

    I would’ve jumped on this instantly, but I finally landed on a Min21 configuration that works well. New laptop => new hardware => need new nvidia driver => need new kernel.

    Which kernel does LMDE currently ship with?

  • bonus_crab@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 years ago

    SteamOS is debian based right? does that mean LMDE will benefit from valve’s commits in some ways mint wouldnt have otherwise?

    • pH3ra@lemmy.ml
      3·
      2 years ago
      1. Desktop Theming: LMDE is gonna look like Mint out of the box, while Debian is gonna look like this
      2. Mint Software repositories and Mint’s System tools, like Mint Install or Mint Update, on LMDE
      3. LMDE is installed with Calamares, which is a little more user friendly than Debian’s installer

      If you’re an advanced user there’s no big difference overall, but for a new user LMDE is gonna be a little easier to approach

    • danielfgom@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      23·
      2 years ago

      Literally the only difference is that regular Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu and LMDE is based on Debian.

      So LM will use the Ubuntu repo and any additions to the code Ubuntu made, whereas LMDE will use the Debian repos and their code.

      At the moment LMDE actually has a newer kernel (6) than LM (5) and newer apps, but that will change with the next version of Linux Mint when it should catch up.

      And finally, LMDE is also available in 32bit as well as 64bit, whereas LM is 64bit only.

  • Pantherina@feddit.de
    1·
    2 years ago

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

    • danielfgom@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      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

      • Pantherina@feddit.de
        1·
        2 years ago

        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.

        • danielfgom@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          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.

          • Pantherina@feddit.de
            1·
            2 years ago

            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?

            • danielfgom@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
              1·
              2 years ago

              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.

              • Pantherina@feddit.de
                1·
                2 years ago

                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?

                • danielfgom@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
                  2·
                  2 years ago

                  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.

      • danielfgom@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        Definitely. I’m assuming that it’s a 64bit CPU, but even if it’s 32bit they’ll have that too

  • thayer@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    I’ve never had a use for Linux Mint myself, but I’m still happy to see them cut out the middle man and base it directly off of Debian. Hopefully being closer to the source will result in even more upstream contributions.

    • danielfgom@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      I’m not a fan of the immutable distro and I think it goes against the LM philosophy. The user should always have full control over their system.

      They are looking at Wayland but for now X works better and with more applications. Reliability is a top priority for LM so they won’t just change to Wayland and have users systems break.

      I’m sure in a few years they’ll have Wayland

      • Pantherina@feddit.de
        1·
        2 years ago

        You have a lot of control over an immutable system. Linux mint is the noob distro, at least for loots of people. I dont think Cinnamon is really a poweruser desktop, I would see KDE here

        • danielfgom@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          2·
          2 years ago

          It’s considered a noob distro but it is full blown Linux after all so it can easily be used by pro’s as well as noobs.

          I like that it gets out the way and let’s you do what you need to do. And it looks good.

          After years of distro and DE hopping I understand the appeal of Mint: there’s nothing I need to configure, it’s reliable, it’s fast, lighter than Gnome, more legible than KDE and has useful extras like Warpinator and Timeshift.

          I quite like the app choices too and only need to install a handful of apps and only remove 3 of the installed apps: Rhythmbox, Thunderbird and Libre office.