Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is an interesting distribution. While most people are used to Ubuntu, LMDE may offer a different experience. Available in 32 and 64-bit, Gnome and Xfce (with plans of including LXDE and KDE), it's an interesting distro. It may be appropriate for a n00b who is used to the Windows system tray and would be intimidated by having to install codecs, flash and especially ndiswrapper, yet doesn't rely on Wine, Skype or craves the latest apps on commercial Ubuntu weblogs. It may be appropriate for anyone who wants a rolling distro, may not like Ubuntu's Unity, doesn't think mainstream Gnome Shell is ready for their desktop, would rather not add countless PPA's to get new versions of popular applications for security reasons, the list goes on.
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Differences and Similarities to Ubuntu
Compared to Ubuntu, LMDE:
- doesn't use Unity
- offers one of the better transitions from Gnome2 to Gnome3
- is a rolling release (because it's based on Debian), meaning the good thing is you only have to install LMDE once, keep running the updates and you always have new software, the downside is that you may have compatibility issues (for instance when upgrading a desktop environment, dependency issues, etc.)
- includes Flash, codecs and ndiswrapper
- Disc image is bigger than will fit on a CD, so it includes more stock apps most people want, such as GIMP and VLC
Similar to Ubuntu, LMDE:
- also has most of the same applications in the repositories including AptOnCD
- has a "Software Manager" (equivalence to the Software Center) in both Debian and Ubuntu-based Mint
- offers mainstream Linux desktop environments
Compared to the original Debian:
- includes Flash, codecs and ndiswrapper (in LMDE repositories)
- includes Firefox, not Iceweasel
- by default, rolls updates after testing them as "update packs", which can be changed by editing the software sources
Debian Repositories
There's a nifty Debian sources list generator here. A full-blown (and updated) sources list can be found here. The easiest way to install Viewnior in LMDE seems to be by using Crunchbang Statler's repository - deb http://packages.crunchbang.org/statler/ statler main. There's a bash script available for retreiving GPG keys for you on the Mepis wiki, then just run sudo gpgerror_fix.
Installing Wine
Unfortunately Wine doesn't seem to be in the repositories, however those considering LMDE either can live without Wine or should be able to figure out installing it from source (the Deb's for Wine-unstable for Debian are available here, further instructions here, including instructions for adding 3rd party repositories). Wine is also available in the Mepis repositories, which may be the easiest way to install the latest version of Wine.
One proposed solution that's been tried was using the repository found here, I was able to install Wine however it wouldn't automatically add itself to the applications menu, meaning I had to execute winecfg either via Alt+F2 or the command line to configure Wine.
Tweaks
- Thunar with Dropbox integration: download the tarball, extract the Deb and install it (from this thread). Restart Thunar and Dropbox and effects should kick in.
- Official Skype page on Debian wiki - might be a little outdated (Skype is in the Mint repositories for LMDE, including in 64-bit)
- Blog post on things to do post LMDE install (the author uses Gnome) here - dated September 2010
Manually Fix Bugs
The September 2011 snapshot was made available with Gnome and XFCE.
- To fix repos in LMDE (snapshot September 2011), follow the instructions posted here - unfortunately some of the LMDE repos weren't finalized prior to releasing the snapshot, so the snapshot includes some Debian (non-Mint) repos, which messes up dependencies
- To add a printer via Samba, install
smbclient(make surelibsmbclientandpython-smbcare also installed)
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