POLL: LMDE or Linux Mint 17 Xfce?

[Ginsu543]

I currently have a rock-solid Mint 17 Cinnamon 64-bit system set up and running on my main rig. However, I have 200 GB on another drive partitioned just so for another Linux install (it's being unused at the moment). I have never before run Debian or Xfce, and I'm getting the itch to try something totally new besides Cinnamon or MATE. If you were me, which would you go for, LMDE or Mint 17 Xfce?

[excollier]

LMDE is only available as Cinnamon or Mate so you need Mint 17 XFCE then.....or some other Linux distro other than Mint with a de Mint don't offer, perhaps.

[killer de bug]

Why don't you try SolydX?

It has XFCE on top of a Debian base...
http://solydxk.com/

[linux_rules]

Why don't you try SolydX?

It has XFCE on top of a Debian base...
http://solydxk.com/

I installed Solydxk too but unfortunately it didn't boot after installation. Kernel panic !

[killer de bug]

Send a ?P to zerozero or go to SolydXK forum

[Ginsu543]

Why don't you try SolydX?

It has XFCE on top of a Debian base...
http://solydxk.com/

That's an idea! Have you tried it yourself, or do you just like the combination of Xfce + Debian as an alternative to Cinnamon + Debian (= LMDE) and Xfce + Ubuntu (= Mint Xfce)?

[kc1di]

I really like mint17 xfce , works great nice xfce desktop

[killer de bug]

That's an idea! Have you tried it yourself, or do you just like the combination of Xfce + Debian as an alternative to Cinnamon + Debian (= LMDE) and Xfce + Ubuntu (= Mint Xfce)?

I have it in a VB mostly for fun. I have LMDE as I prefer Cinnamon over XFCE. But SolydXK is a good distro.

[The Dark Side]

Linux Mint 17 Xfce. Linux Mint works better than LMDE.

[Distro-Don]

LMDE MATE works MUCH BETTER than LM17 Xfce.

[killer de bug]

Linux Mint 17 Xfce. Linux Mint works better than LMDE.

Tastes and colors hein...
In my opinion, there is no comparison possible between LMDE and Linux Mint based on Ubuntu. The first one is way ahead. Again, as I said, tastes and colors...

[JRG]

I have SolydX running on an old (late 2007) white MacBook and Linux Mint 17 Xfce running on an old (2006) 17" MacBook Pro.

I'm trying to decide whether to stick with Linux Mint which I've been running for several years (LM13, 14, 15, 16 and now 17). I"ve only been running Xfce for a few months, before that it was MATE. I love Xfce and (separate topic) the XFE 2-panel file manager.

I did try a version of LMDE with Xfce, but went back to Mint when LMDE dropped KDE and Xfce (not that I am interested in KDE, nice though it is). I like the idea of basing the distro on Debian without Canonical's fiddlings in there (hence the lure of LMDE and SolydX). I like Linux Mint's approach and ease of use (despite my computer background which includes working with various Unix systems).

What I'd like to know (and I am currently searching for the best forum to post this question or find the answer to it) is: "Will Linux Mint eventually be based directly on Debian?" and if so, "Will it continue to support KDE and Xfce?" If the answer to both of those is "YES", then I'll probably stick with Linux Mint; if it is uncertain, I will probably switch to SolydX.

[killer de bug]

What I'd like to know (and I am currently searching for the best forum to post this question or find the answer to it) is: "Will Linux Mint eventually be based directly on Debian?" and if so, "Will it continue to support KDE and Xfce?" If the answer to both of those is "YES", then I'll probably stick with Linux Mint; if it is uncertain, I will probably switch to SolydX.

You can switch to SolydXK for a while.

Linux Mint team has no intention to switch to a Debian base for now. They have just announced that Ubuntu 14.04 is their only development base for the next 2 years...

[xenopeek]

Linux Mint team has no intention to switch to a Debian base for now. They have just announced that Ubuntu 14.04 is their only development base for the next 2 years...

That might sound like LMDE is getting canned or something; that isn't the case. There are two development bases for Linux Mint:
- Ubuntu LTS for Linux Mint 17 and beyond
- Debian testing for LMDE

LMDE users are about 1/8th of Linux Mint users, so a switch from Ubuntu to Debian base isn't really justified. The plans for Linux Mint 17 and beyond are getting deserved attention from technological press, like this excellent review on Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/06/ ... certainty/. Worth a read for those that don't get the fuss about Linux Mint 17 and beyond plans

[/dev/urandom]

Probably because the "Main Edition" receives a better marketing.

Also LMDE suffers from the "Microsoft-style" update policy based on "update packs" and "patch days"...

[Monsta]

LMDE users are about 1/8th of Linux Mint users, so a switch from Ubuntu to Debian base isn't really justified.

Also add to that the important advantage of Ubuntu base over Debian: PPAs.

[tdockery97]

LMDE users are about 1/8th of Linux Mint users, so a switch from Ubuntu to Debian base isn't really justified.

Also add to that the important advantage of Ubuntu base over Debian: PPAs.

Excellent point, Monsta. In the real Debian world, if you don't have a package available you are sometimes stuck with compiling from source. With Ubuntu-based Mint you can use PPA's, making it much simpler to find/install packages that aren't provided in the Mint installation.

[Monsta]

And this is especially important with the current LTS strategy - the main edition of Mint will use the same base over 2 years, until April 2016.

[tdockery97]

And this is especially important with the current LTS strategy - the main edition of Mint will use the same base over 2 years, until April 2016.

Exactly. And Clem has stated that upgrading to Mint 18 in 2016 will be "trivial". I interpret that to mean that if you upgrade to each point release (via backports I presume), then you can upgrade to the next LTS just as they do in Ubuntu, without doing a reinstall. So Ubuntu-based Mint is now a semi-rolling distro similar in effect to LMDE.

[Monsta]

I remember he said it only about 17.x releases: the upgrade will be trivial because the base is the same.
I don't remember him saying the same about 17 -> 18 upgrade path: this is the usual Ubuntu dist-upgrade that fails for 20% of users IIRC.