Linux Mint Debian (201009) released!

[Eice]

Today is very important for Linux Mint. It’s one day to remember in the history of our project as we’re about to maintain a new distribution, a rolling one, which promises to be faster, more responsive and on which we’re less reliant on upstream components. Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) comes with a Debian base, which we transformed into a live media and on top of which we added a new installer. It’s rougher and in some aspects not as user-friendly as our other editions, it’s very young but it will improve continuously and rapidly, and it brings us one step closer to a situation where we’re fully in control of the system without being impacted by upstream decisions.

http://www.linuxmint.com/blog/?p=1527

[korben]

what are the tangible differences beides the core?

waiting for your experience comments

[wearetheborg]

As a debian user, I'm interested!!!

Debian testing isn't a rolling release. I'd expect some headaches when Debian 7 comes along.
Anyone tried it yet? How are fonts compared to Ubuntu/Mint?

[tlu]

As mentioned earlier, Debian Testing isn't as up-to-date as many users would prefer. I wonder if Romeo will make a difference by providing the most recent versions of the major apps.

EDIT: BTW, as mentioned in this thread, Ubuntu offers some security advantages over Debian. Another reason not to move.

Good point re security, Debian's stance is lackluster at best (let the user worry about that), ootb there are next to no proactive defenses.

IMHO there are two reasons to use Debian in favour of Ubuntu on a Desktop:
You don't like/trust Canonical and only use 100% (somewhat) democratic free and libre software
or
you still think in 2010 you can't run a "newb distro" and be "leet" at the same time.

Most cited reason is stability but I think that's a poor one, I got burned by Debian too and Ubuntu LTS is really stable if you wait a month or so for the first bug fixes to be released.

[linuxforall]

Actually stock Ubuntu doesn't even come with mp3 codecs and is quite free as per FOSS guidelines, adding medibuntu and codecs is left to the user's choice.

[Eice]

Posting this from the live environment now. As far as my 30 minutes of poking around goes, the user experience is virtually identical to non-Debian LM, except for the quirks as mentioned in the release notes. Firefox, Thunderbird, OOo and Pidgin are all relatively up-to-date. Same old GNOME interface, same old default theme. As far as cursory checks go, it's the same old Linux Mint.

Not sure if I'll have time to install it this weekend, but we'll see...

[tlu]

Originally Posted by Eice

Firefox, Thunderbird, OOo and Pidgin are all relatively up-to-date.

Could you tell us which versions are used?

[Eice]

Originally Posted by tlu

Could you tell us which versions are used?

Fx 3.6.8, Tb 3.1.1, OOo 3.2.1, can't remember the specific version for Pidgin (booted out of the live environment now), but it was 2.7.x.

[tlu]

Originally Posted by Eice

Fx 3.6.8, Tb 3.1.1, OOo 3.2.1, can't remember the specific version for Pidgin (booted out of the live environment now), but it was 2.7.x.

Thanks

@Eice:

Originally Posted by katio

How are fonts compared to Ubuntu/Mint?

Please do tell

[Eice]

Originally Posted by katio

@Eice:
Please do tell

Given that I've been using Ubuntu instead of Mint lately, that I don't know what you want to know specifically, and my overall ignorance about Linux typography in general... may I present a screenshot instead.

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/8...reenshotpe.png

It's definitely not the Ubuntu Maverick beta fonts, though, if that was what you're after...

I was just interested in the font rendering, Debian ootb isn't that great (or used to be, I recall a certain patch used in Ubuntu got merged upstream and gets/got into Squeeze that way).
From what I see on that screenshot I think it's better but not there yet.

[Beavenburt]

I've always used this method in debian.

In terminal: dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config

Then in the dialog choose options; Autohinter, Automatic and No.

Then :dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig

Logout and back in.

Fonts should look a lot better. Of course, also install a range of useful fonts such as the mscorefonts etc. Also activate full hinting in gnome.

[FastGame]

I tried this on an older laptop.

Thinkpad T41
Pentium M 1.8 (Dothan core)
ATI 7500
2gig ram
Atheros a/b/g WiFi
SoundMax audio

The install went well, WiFi worked out of the box , no sound and touchpad tap & side scroll don't work

This is the first distro where flash is giving me a bad problem it flat out pegs the cpu @100 % and bogs the lappy down to a beaten dog....video play back does the same Maybe this is an ATI driver (or lack of) problem ? PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu, Puppy Linux don't give me this problem out of the box and touch pad, sound works.

Fonts don't look good to my eyes, did what Beavenburt suggest and I don't see any difference except what the full hinting in gnome provided.

BTW, I installed the same day the distro was released and it need 264 updates

Other than the problems above everything seems to run fine and stable.

Originally Posted by FastGame

Maybe this is an ATI driver (or lack of) problem ?

Try this
su
apt-get install firmware-linux-nonfree

(That's what I meant with 100% FOSS, other distros ship with this driver
see http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=494009 and http://www.debian.org/social_contract)

about the font rendering:
Crunchbang recently switched from Ubuntu to Debian as well, here's how you can patch it yourself:
http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/to...g-like-ubuntu/

[FastGame]

Thanks katio

I would've though that Linux Mint took care of all that ? the same as they do to Ubuntu.....

I'll give your suggestions a try.

BTW, I see at the Mint blog there was a bad ISO out at some of the servers, maybe I got one of those ?

[FastGame]

OK an update

I got the Flash fixed, fonts are looking good now

Scroll now works on the touch pad but still a no go on tap

Can't get the sound working

Going to give it a try on a more modern laptop and leave the old T41 with XP and PCLinuxOS.