quick review: Linux Mint Debian 201204

well,

after my own less than satisfying experience with Ubuntu 12.04 i thought i might as well give this Mint a try.
i had never tried Cinnamon before and since it's included with LMDE...

Linux Mint Debian Edition does not use the Ubuntu layer, which makes it snappier and much faster than Ubuntu.
on my almost 5 years old dinosaur, grabbing a window by it's tile bar and rapidly moving it around feels a whole lot snappier than Ubuntu.

I gave Stellarium a try on Mint.
On Windows, i get a solid 60 fps.
Bodhi Linux had a stellar 90+ fps!
Ubuntu was a lamentable 20-25 fps.
Mint is around 40-45 fps which makes it very smooth!
and that's with the stock drivers included in Mint.
i don't even know what drivers it is using for my graphic card.lol

setting up the sound was very easy, which is always a +.
Mint is the first distro i try where the graphic and UI is not corrupted when resuming from Suspend.
unfortunately, i have to reboot to get the sound back but still, Mint is the best behaved i have seen so far in this regard.
maybe i can find a solution later about the sound but that's not a big deal for the moment.

the whole presentation feels a lot more geared toward desktop users than the Fisher Price interface of Unity and Metro, more suited for tablets it seems...

installing this thing requires a little more work than installing Ubuntu.
you have to manually create your partitions beforehand.
here's a cool video tutorial to get you sorted out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnj1rrkzdQQ

personally, i like this a whole lot better than Ubuntu.
it's the best distro i have seen since Bodhi Linux.
i haven't tried that many so take it for what it's worth...
i could easily see myself using this full-time, perhaps booting into Windows 7 once in a blue moon...

here is a good review of the latest LMDE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFGo0BFlnrY

 

one thing to watch out for:

i haven't learned how to do that just yet.
so the performance of Linux Mint Debian on my machine is most impressive since it would seem i am running on only 1 core out of 2?!

read this page before installing LMDE:
http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_debian.php

 

it would seem i am out of luck as the LMDE team doesn't support the 32 bit kernel anymore.
all that's left in the Synaptic Centre are dummy packages.

so if you want use LMDE on 32 bits makes sure you have an old machine with only 1 core/1 CPU.
because all the other ones will not be used.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=191&t=101318

i assume people with 64 bits machine should have no problems...

i'm in no rush to spend a few hundred dollars on a new machine, so these experiments will have to wait.

still, this LMDE is pretty damn nice, AFAIC!
just wish i had a newer machine to try all this stuff!lol

 

Neither Mint nor Debian have abandoned 32bit processor support.
Current distros are available in both 32bit and 64bit versions.
In order to accommodate older processors, a 32bit non-PAE Linux kernel is included in the distro.
Post-install, you can manually install 32bit PAE kernel.

re "all that's left in the Synaptic Centre are dummy packages":
suggest you recheck your repository sources list

Code:

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1979
LMDE in brief

    * Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is a semi-rolling distribution based on Debian Testing.
    * It’s available in both 32 and 64-bit as a live DVD with MATE/Cinnamon or Xfce.

 

right!
tnx for the heads-up.

i'm still fairly new at this so i'm gonna have to look into this further.
i guess it's just a matter of enabling some special repos.

i'll hit their forums sometimes soon for all the gory details.lol
i'll let you know my findings but that might take a couple of days.
i ain't gonna rush this.