posted by
janrinok
on Saturday March 08 2014, @09:35AM
from the more-distros-than-I-know-what-to-with dept.
from the more-distros-than-I-know-what-to-with dept.
Potato Battery writes:
"ZDNet has posted an overview comparing Debian and three first- and second-generation derivatives. LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) is derived directly from Debian Testing, unlike its more famous Ubuntu-derived relative; SolydXK is somewhat of a spinoff from LMDE; and Tanglu is a new offering based on Debian Testing and the Tanglu development team expects to provide a lot of the testing, integration, packaging and distribution of patches and updates to avoid the long development delays and freezes that Debian goes through in the development/distribution cycle.
Everyone knows Debian, and I've dabbled with the Ubuntu-related Mint, but the other two were new to me. Has anyone put them through their paces?"
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Debian, Mint (LMDE), SolydXK, and Tanglu Overview
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(Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Saturday March 08 2014, @02:53PM
"I've dabbled with the Ubuntu-related Mint"
I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but the "Ubuntu-related Mint" is NOT THE SAME THING as LMDE. Linux Mint Debian Edition is a direct spinoff from Debian. An LMDE install can use packages directly from Debian repositories. LMDE cannot use packages from any Ubuntu repository. (Well, maybe you technically could make them work, but you will soon have a broken system if you force it.)
"Linux Mint", sans any mention of "Debian Edition" is a distinct and separate release from LMDE, and the packages from the repositories should NEVER BE MIXED. Linux Mint is Ubuntu, and LMDE is Debian.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewforum.php?f=199 [linuxmint.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Potato Battery on Saturday March 08 2014, @03:13PM
Sorry for not being clear, what I was trying to say was I've tried Ubuntu-derived Mint, but not the Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) that ZDnet went over in the article. Though they are not the same thing, the writer seemed to indicate that there were similarities in experience using them, so LMDE may not be totally terra incognita. The last two listed in the article, on the other hand, I'd never heard of before.
Thanks for highlighting the difference for anyone who might be reading.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Saturday March 08 2014, @03:16PM
Ahhhh - after I posted, I re-read your post once again. Then it dawned on me that maybe you didn't mean exactly what I thought you meant. Got it!
(Score: 1) by SuperCharlie on Saturday March 08 2014, @05:51PM
I decided to make the Linux jump a while back and found that I ran into driver probs with Debian versions while the Ubuntu versions simply worked.. and thus, I ended up switching to Mint/Ubuntu version. Im sure I could research, compile, yada the drivers, but as a noob it just got too hairy too quick on the Debian side.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Potato Battery on Saturday March 08 2014, @06:18PM
I know what you mean. My work is an MS shop, so any Linux experimenting is on my own (limited) time. One thing I've discovered over the years is that sometimes driver problems in a particular area (I'm thinking here specifically of Mac Wi-Fi cards) go away as someone smarter than me scratches the itch and fixes it, so I tend to circle back around every so often to see if something that used to be a problem in a particular distro is gone. As you might imagine, for this hobby live disks are my friend. :-)
(Score: 2, Informative) by mrider on Saturday March 08 2014, @09:05PM
Debian is an extremely conservative distribution, so it's not surprising to have driver issues if your hardware is even slightly new or odd. That's why it's almost guaranteed to get a few "funny" mod points when mentioning how long it takes to get anything into Debian. I wouldn't be surprised if you were able to get everything working in the next major release of LMDE.
Doctor: "Do you hear voices?"
Me: "Only when my bluetooth is charged."
(Score: 2, Informative) by blackest_k on Sunday March 09 2014, @02:01AM
Debian install discs come in free and non free versions.
I did a bit of googling for the server I was installing and found that some of the network hardware might need nonfree firmware. So I chose an image with the nonfree firmware included and installation was a breeze.
On the other hand i just did a mint install on a 'new to me netbook' and had the broadcom problem.
I got started with ubuntu years ago moved to mint and now am very comfortable with debian
its not quite so newbie friendly but its good and my first choice of install.
I almost put mint debian on the netbook but it seems as if it gets infrequent updates which put me off. mint16 cinnamon seems good so far even making it easy to install google search.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 09 2014, @08:19AM
as a noob it just got too hairy too quick
8-) As mrider said, Debian is conservative WRT proprietary software.
If you want the restricted stuff out of the box, distros to try are:
Mint, Zorin, SolydXK, Sabayon, Pardus, Parsix.
Countries of origin:
Ireland, Ireland again, Netherlands, Italy, Turkey[1], Iran.
Country of origin for Debian: USA. Do I need to say more?
At startup, you just select the one you want [howtogeek.com]. When your needs are met, you can nuke an unwanted kernel.
[1] The Turkish equivalent of DARPA was instrumental in development but M$ recently swooped in with bribes and the gov't now has dropped official support and is buying Redmond's stuff again. In light of the NSA revelations, I wonder what the rank and file think about that.
-- gewg_
(Score: 3) by Maow on Saturday March 08 2014, @07:54PM
I know it's not a popular opinion, but I do feel that there are just too many distros available and would personally prefer it if more effort was put into polishing / improving the main ones that are well established.
I am not knocking anyone for putting together their own distros, I'm sure it's a fascinating learning experience and probably scratches an itch, so to speak.
I simply wish some of the enormous effort went elsewhere, that's all.
Said as someone who's a dedicated Linux user for many years.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jt on Saturday March 08 2014, @10:09PM
It is an increasingly popular opinion. Too many distros are just Ubuntu with a new wallpaper. A fun project for the creator but no real point for anyone else. Much of the best open source software was initially created to 'scratch an itch'; sadly the itch is sometimes just a desire to be a project leader rather than to build something.
(Score: 2, Funny) by rufty on Sunday March 09 2014, @12:10AM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Appalbarry on Saturday March 08 2014, @10:24PM
Just last week I replaced the hard drive on my old Dell PC (whoohoo! 2 gigs! No way I'll ever fill that up!), and with it did a fresh install of Mint Linux.
It took literally fifteen minutes, including formatting the drive, and adding the couple of non-default apps that I use.
Add another five minutes for a fresh install of VirtualBox and my essential "won't run under WINE" Windows apps are up and running too.
I date back to before Windows 3.1, and at various times have installed XP, ME, Vista, and 7, and have never had such an easy time of it. My memory of Windows re-installs was that it was usually a full day job what with massive updates, and reinstalling all of the applications.
OK - for me, and probably 90% of the people out there, Mint is just so easy and fast. Why would I choose to go with any of these Debian derivatives instead?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jt on Saturday March 08 2014, @10:46PM
Too many of the derivatives might save a few minutes of apt-get (or yum, or pacman, or whatever) installing some nice packages or useful initial config, but generally it would be better to just bundle up this config into a meta-package that could be used on any install rather than insisting on a whole distro. Too much duplication of redundant effort. Fun for the person doing it I guess, but surely it's more interesting to try building something novel? Even if it ultimately doesn't catch on?
(Score: 2, Funny) by outlier on Sunday March 09 2014, @04:36AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @09:27AM
I misread SolydXK as SoyldXK and thought we got our own distro. Sad panda.