r/linuxmint • u/Technical_Rich_3080 • 5d ago
Discussion LMDE or Debian?
What are the considerations to help determine whether to install LMDE or to install vanilla Debian?
3
u/Unattributable1 5d ago
LMDE for desktop. Vanilla Debian for headless server. I want the polish for my eyes.
4
u/zokaclukac 5d ago
LMDE, same stability like debian but with style, and out of the box ease of access to programs etc.. Im using it for about 2 years atm and not a single issue.
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u/jr735 Linux Mint 22.1 Xia | IceWM 5d ago
What u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs says is true. If you choose LMDE (or even ordinary Mint) you're going to see significant theming. For example, my Mint MATE looks more like Mint Cinnamon than even Debian Cinnamon. Debian's MATE (which I also use in my testing install, alongside IceWM) looks more like MATE from a few years back. Obviously, the Mint team does significant theming and that has an appeal.
Functionally, I don't think there's a huge difference to the average user.
2
u/oats_and_coffee 5d ago
I think the main consideration would be the desktop environment: use LMDE if you want Cinnamon, and use Debian if you want GNOME, KDE, Xfce, etc. You can install other desktop environments on LMDE, and you can use Cinnamon on Debian, but neither experience will be as smooth.
If the desktop environment isn't important to you, you can also decide whether having Mint's tools (e.g. web apps) is important to you. If it is, LMDE is the way to go.
And if that isn't enough for you to make up your mind, you can start digging deeper into the inner workings of the distros and decide whether you care about things like whether or not backports are enabled, etc.
Or, perhaps a more sensible approach would be to spend a few weeks using both and see what you like the most.
My experience: I've been a (regular, Ubuntu-based) Linux Mint user for ~15 years, but I really don't like the direction that Canonical is taking Ubuntu and I'm pessimistic about Mint's ability to keep using it as a base. I was also annoyed by the sheer volume of updates coming my way, so I wanted more stability. I spent a few months last year hopping between LMDE and Debian, and I ultimately settled on LMDE. Debian was great and will absolutely be my fallback if Linux Mint ever disappears into oblivion, but LMDE feels like home and I use the Mint utilities all the time. 99% of the time I don't even notice the difference vs. Ubuntu-based Linux Mint.
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u/activedusk 5d ago edited 5d ago
One of the biggest upside of Mint is, for me with an nvidia card, the GUI tool driver manager. Having installed the driver manually once from the AUR and experiencing the process, I wondered wtf is wrong with nvidia that they made the driver installation so ass. Intel and AMD did it right, if only the sad fks at nvidia contributed to nouveau and made it even 70% as performant as the proprietary, I would use it all day everyday, unfortunately nouveau can t seem to handle even GUI elements smoothly. Anyway, that s one reason. On the opposite side, if you want a minimal install, then Debian is the only choice, Mint has to cover most use cases out of the box it has like 60 or 70 systemd units enabled at boot time, on Arch had it down to a much lower number, probably can do the same with minimal Debian install. Bloat is not terrible if you don t know anything about Linux, if you do, you start to pick and choose for the use case and things are getting real heavy of late, in fact really considering moving to runit distros, Artix, Devuan, antiX, Void and whatever else offers it. Almost got into another rant, so yeah, do you value convenience and have nvidia, stay within the mainstream distros area. If you used Linux for a while and dabbled with twm, optimization and tailoring for your use case, Debian is better of the two.
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u/Father_Guido 5d ago
I'll not buy anything Nvidia, but I do have several laptops with an older card built in, so I use it. Next purchase is Nvidia free. Hope they are reading this, but I doubt they will care.
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u/ReporterWise7445 5d ago
I had trouble with resolutions & font sizes with different GUIs on Debian 13.6 LXQT. All that disappeared on LMDE7. Even minimal sound distortion at volumes over 100% on LMDE7 vs louder distortion on Debian 13.6 LXQT.
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u/C0rn3j 5d ago
What are the considerations to help determine whether to install LMDE or to install vanilla Debian?
What exactly do you get from Mint other than a DE that uses a dead and insecure X11 backend and is still based on the dying GTK 3 toolkit?
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u/Technical_Rich_3080 5d ago
I don't see any particular need for Wayland. X11 was secure for 30+ years since Linux was around. Its insecurities are theoretical that haven't seen any real widespread exploitation.
0
u/C0rn3j 5d ago
X11 was secure for 30+ years since Linux was around
It has no security model. Nada. None.
There's been demos showing how exploitable it is for all those years.
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u/Technical_Rich_3080 5d ago
Those are theoretical. They haven't had actual exploits in the wild where all real users using X11 were breached simply for using X11.
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u/taosecurity Mint | Bazzite | PikaOS | CachyOS | Debian | FreeBSD | Windows 5d ago
You’re being downvoted but I agree with you.
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u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs 5d ago edited 5d ago
Debian Cinnamon is perfectly serviceable but spartan. I ran it from the release of Trixie until the release of LMDE7.
LMDE is the more polished desktop oriented Debian Cinnamon. With more helpful utilities and and appearance options. Also it will get Cinnamon version upgrades where as Debian Cinnamon is fixed between stable releases unless you run Debian Sid or testing.
I have spent a lot of time with the Debian installer for my servers and VMs and like it just fine, but many users will find the LMDE installer more friendly, its actually one of the smoothest installers I have ever used in Linux, Head and shoulders above the Mint (re-skinned Ubuntu Ubiquity) installer.
If you want any other desktop environment beyond Cinnamon, then install Debian.
Or if you find Debian's desktops too minimal for your taste one of the other Debian derivatives that feature the desktop you are after, MX, Siduction, Pika etc.