Linux Mint vs. Linux Mint Debian Edition: Which Is Better?

Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is a very interesting distribution to say the least. It looks and acts nearly exactly the same as the standard version of Linux Mint, but LMDE is built on top of Debian instead of Ubuntu. In this video, Jay compares LMDE to the flagship edition of Linux Mint and also gives it an updated review.

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*⏰ TIME CODES*
00:00 - Intro
01:31 - What is "Linux Mint Debian Edition" (LMDE)
03:10 - Why is the "Debian" edition necessary?
05:49 - Jay's overall impressions of LMDE*🎓 FULL LINUX COURSES FROM LEARN LINUX TV*

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[OShackHennessy]

I donated to Mint just yesterday because I like it so much. I do donate to charities but never donate to things like this until now. I really support what they are doing.

[Kneedragon]

A word of explanation here, for people new to the Linux world.
A few Distributions are originals. They're parents. They use the Linux kernel and the basics of the Linux tool-chain, but then they go their own way and develop everything themselves.
Debian is a parent distro. So is Redhat / Fedora. So is Open SUSE. I guess Arch is another parent distro.
Suppose I want a car. So I go and look at a Toyota Corrolla. But there's a company I just found who will sell me an improved Corrolla, better engine, improved suspension... Then there's another company, who will take that 'improved' Toyota and paint it a different colour, change the seats and the carpet and the tyres, and sell that as a new car. It's still sort of a Toyota at heart, but a much better one. Now let's say something happened to the company that makes the slightly modified one. What would happen to the company that takes that and makes further changes?
They have 3 choices. Start modifying a different car, go out of business, or go direct to Toyota and start their work with an original complete Corrolla.
Debian is a parent. Ubuntu takes Debian and makes some changes, then they distribute that. Mint takes what Ubuntu has already changed and spruced up, and they make some further improvements. That's what Mint is.
So what would happen to Mint if Ubuntu (or the company who owns it, Canonical) went out of business? Or (let's say) they started making Ubuntu a paid-for distro, non free? Or did something Mint found completely unacceptable, like Microsoft's screenshot thing in Windows?
The obvious thing to do, would be start with Debian, that Ubuntu hasn't even touched, and see if we can make a fully working Mint from that.
That's what Mint Debian Edition is. Clem and lads & ladies at Mint have taken the current Debian and simply cut Ubuntu / Canonical completely out of the process.
Is that better?
[Roll eyes] Well it does mean some of the things we're used to, in Ubuntu based Mint, are not there. Yes, but can we still make a workable distro to put out, without any of the Ubuntu stuff?
I think we should find out. Let's call it Linux Mint Debian Edition and quietly distribute it alongside our full Ubuntu based version, and see how that goes. At least this way, if Ubuntu / Canonical ever disappears or changes beyond recognition, we can quickly bring a Debian based version out to keep Mint going. It's kinda like a life-boat.
The Debian edition is a little less polished and has slightly fewer toys and many hours of developer work missing. Things like the Linux Mint Driver Manager, are not there in the Debian Edition. It is perfectly useable, but it's not quite as user-friendly as the normal Mint.
I personally use Mint + Mate, not the Debian Edition. I have been a very happy Mint + Mate user since about 2009 when they rolled Mate out for a beta-test. It turned out to be precisely what I was looking for, and I've been very happy with it ever since.

[GCTWorks]

I think that Linux Mint keeping LMDE and their Ubuntu based version in sync is a super good idea. It gives me confidence about the future of Linux Mint. Like all the recent drama with Red Hat and now VMWare, companies can be bought. Canonical could go the same way. Then the business model will likely change. This gives Linux Mint that ability to jump ship without having their user base and community lose interest or be forced out.
Linux Mint (Ubuntu version) became my daily driver back in September 2023. I was coming from Windows 11. This was a major leap for me, and I have really enjoyed the experience. I fight less with my own computer. I recently had to go back to using my Windows install (I dual boot) in order to use a CAD application and the experience terrible. I had not realized how much I used to fight Windows. Microsoft has made Windows objectively worse since I left as well. For an operating system license that I paid for, it pisses me off that they offer me ads and sponsored content in my own operating system. Also, compared to Mint, it is really hard to find many settings in Windows. Mint exposes a LOT of settings in the GUI, maybe not as much as KDE Plasma, but is much easier to use than Windows.

[EverybodyLinux]

Hi, Great video! Thanks, I just installed the Linux Mint 20.3 and aimed to upgrade to the most recent one. I already love it

[nosotrosloslobosestamosreg]

LMDE, or "I want my life as much Ubuntu-free as possible."

[brentwoods]

I switched over from Windows 10 a couple of months ago after researching Linux Mint and LMDE 6. It was an easy switch for me and other than the terminal box it was easy to learn. Actually very easy! I don't use it for anything but YouTube, family picture editing and general web based programs. It is amazing that I hadn't heard of Linux before now. Glad to get rid of Microsoft programs too.
In my trials I found that LMDE 6 works best for me. I have one new computer that Linux Mint 21.3, even the Edge version won't work with it's sound system. LMDE 6 works flawlessly with it though so I am not going to spend the time researching the issue. Both versions of Mint work the same in all of my applications except the sound issue. Thanks for all of your videos as they have helped me out immensely!

[jonspoonamore]

Old Net/Sys Admin here... I've said it a thousand times, Linux Mint was born to make Ubuntu into a much-better desktop experience (that was in 2006). Then over the years, Mint morphed into a distro that made Ubuntu "BEHAVE" vs better! I really can't imagine how much Ubuntu/Canonical BS the Mint Team has to wade-thru to make a usable distro these days. But... I'm willing to bet good-money it's light-years easier to make a distro based on Debian! I stopped using Mint when 18.x arrived. That's because of the instabilities of Ubuntu 16.x at that time. I came back to Mint when LMDE 4 arrived and stayed on-board ever since. IMO... The Mint Team took the Debian-Base (with almost no changes each version) and just added their "Desktop-Love" to it!!!

[AdamNeal]

I have LMDE on my desktop and laptop and they have been very stable without any issues at all. I love how 'it just works' no matter what.

[SnijtraM]

What really motivated me to switch my laptop from Ubuntu-based Mint to LMDE is the risk of corporate interference. Mint is going out of its way to provide the stability and freedom to choose non-proprietary sources, and the move to LMDE is 100% in line with that policy, seeing as how Ubuntu is silently "grooming" the user into a corporate style lock-in situation through the Snap store.
With a creeping policy like that, it is easy to see that blacklisting Snap will interfere with the availability of apps as Ubuntu is planning to slowly kill off its repository ecosystem.
I am planning for my desktop to follow soon.

[mihkostas]

They also offer a 32-bit version, if for some reason you want to install mint on an older machine with a 32-bit processor.

[lettuceprayamen]

I love your videos! They are very informative and explained in a calm, easy to understand manner. Thank you 😊 You help new-comers to Linux.

[daviddrumm]

Have been moving to LMDE 6 from Mint 21.2 on a couple machines recently. I had issues getting a somewhat dated Nvidia video card to work as Nvidia's driver install has a conflict with the LMDE installed driver. After trying several web offered solutions that suggested workarounds, I found that the Debian 12 repository has the driver version I needed and it installed with APT INSTALL and a reboot. Not sure why it took me so long to try that.
ALSO for those of you who are into using Ventoy for your ISOs, I was unable to do a "Something Else" disk install without a boot failure. The installed LMDE system will hang looking for the Ventoy drive (My Ventoy was on a USB M.2 drive). It installs fine if run from a USB stick like they expect you to be using.

[peterkensing]

After a few years of intensive distrohopping, I finally ended up back at LMDE. A stable Debian with up-to-date Cinnamon desktop. If I ever need up-to-date software, there are always Flatpaks. Greetings from southern Germany.

[prettysheddy]

Another great video and explanation. Also I would like if you did more proxmox vs/comparing xcpng videos. I understand Lawrence systems take but i would like the take of someone of primarily uses promox instead of xcpng.

[laletemanolete]

You production quality has improved a lot!

[cyberdyne]

I switched over ALL my Mint installations (Laptop, Desktop, Wifes machines and all my work machines) to LMDE back in 2022. IMO, it is as good/better than Ubuntu base. Initially, I thought it was a great way to get away from all the snap drama (which Mint avoided), but feared I would miss some of the PPAs. Nope - I missed nothing. For all my use cases it has been more stable (I had some weird random screen freezes on Mint Ubuntu edition that turned out to be xserver-xorg-video-intel related). The updates and patches have been smooth as silk, including Bookworm to Bullesye.

At first I switched 2 machines, but now I'm LMDE everywhere, except a few small VMs that are bare bones Debian/xfce.

[chuckintexas_]

Excellent presentation. I really like your CALM, clear, focused and well spoken narration .
Nice Set and good simple & clear video production values too . L&S'ed right away !

[channjose]

As a Linux beginner here, LMDE was a really good starting point, in which you have some useful out of the box software to get you seamlessly into the OS, but with some steps you have to do manually like the Nvidia drivers which I have to use, and that forced me into learning a bit more about how the terminal works and what can I do with it, if I had chosen Ubuntu Mint, I wouldn't have to deal with that so yeah, I'm happy I chose LMDE for my first distro.

[RoboJo-pqpj]

The fact webapps seems most feature rich and up to date in mint has kept me from using anything else as a main. I set my laptop to basically be a 15" kindle reader, and also set up a few apps for all of my streaming sites. Everything I use regularly is a single click from the desktop, and it happens to work great as an oversized tablet. I've tried rolling releases for gaming, but they're never as stable and require actually backing up the system.

[capnsalty]

I tried it and liked it and installed it and have been using it exclusively for the past 2 and a half years.