Author Topic: Linux Mint Goes Debian  (Read 901 times)

Offline Jeff

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Linux Mint Goes Debian
« on: September 07, 2010, 01:53:59 pm »
Howdy All,

I know a lot of us here are Linux Mint converties, but in case anyone hadn't seen this on their page yet they have released a "rolling release" version of Linux Mint based off of Debian's testing branch. Release announcement can be found here.

What do yall think? I am doing loading it now to dual boot with my Pinguy.

~Jeff Hoogland

Offline jason

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2010, 02:27:52 pm »
I have never tried Debian straight only forks such as ubuntu

At the moment I have not fully installed Pinguy - waiting for 10.10 as we are relatively near - dont ya just love liveUSB's

as I understand it Ubuntu was or is a fork of debian but with a more scheduled release program.  Debian lack of going beyond dev status with code says to me (wrongly or rightly )

1 no confidence in their own code
2 trying to hard for perfection
3 really slow dev due to what? lack of developers? skills( both of which i doubt!)

so on this basis it just doesnt appeal - I am a bleeding edge junky i guess

jason

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Offline Phossy

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #2 on: September 07, 2010, 03:03:16 pm »
Debian is very solid and is constantly in evolution, every so often they freeze the development at a point and call it a release. There is no fixed timing on this they just make sure everything is right before calling it stable. Ubuntu and other distros piggy back off Debian but rather than focus on stability (IMHO) they focus on a fixed release schedule and making it more amenable to the general public. Debian is a b1tch to install - Ubuntu is a breeze. Now, if Mint have made Debian more accesible then that's great news. I've also been following AuroraOS which again has ditched Ubuntu as it's base and gone back to Debian.

I don't know the ins and outs of it, but I know a lot of folks seem to be unhappy at how Ubuntu is evolving - it's priorities etc..

Offline Craig

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2010, 03:12:34 pm »
Thanks Jeff.

@ Jason. You can't get much more bleeding edge than a rolling release!  You do assume a little more risk though. It's just that the Debian devs set a pretty high standard before calling something "stable. "I'm downloading now.  :)

... OT but wouldn't Pinguy be much easier to maintain if it had its own repos?

Offline Jeff

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2010, 05:57:29 pm »
OT but wouldn't Pinguy be much easier to maintain if it had its own repos?

Thats debatable. The only advantage I would see gained from it would be to have an "official" repo containing all the extra software that all the added repos have in them. This way you could make sure it stays online.

The draw back to this is that at the same time you now have to have someone watch when new versions of software release, build the packages, upload them, ect. Plus hosting a repository requires  server/bandwidth.

~Jeff

Offline SteveOll

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2010, 11:17:21 pm »
Debian is very solid and is constantly in evolution, every so often they freeze the development at a point and call it a release. There is no fixed timing on this they just make sure everything is right before calling it stable. Ubuntu and other distros piggy back off Debian but rather than focus on stability (IMHO) they focus on a fixed release schedule and making it more amenable to the general public. Debian is a b1tch to install - Ubuntu is a breeze. Now, if Mint have made Debian more accesible then that's great news. I've also been following AuroraOS which again has ditched Ubuntu as it's base and gone back to Debian.

I don't know the ins and outs of it, but I know a lot of folks seem to be unhappy at how Ubuntu is evolving - it's priorities etc..

I have used Debian in the past and the install is not too bad if you are connected by ethernet to internet. If you don't do this and you can't get your wireless card/usb dongle enabled then it installs a very basic setup - Not even including Synaptic - as I recall. You also have to manually setup the mirrors and PPA's if this happens - a nightmare if you don't have another internet connected machine nearby.

I must admit I may go back to Debian when 6.0 is released as stable later in the year. Ubuntu is changing, and whilst it is making Linux more accessible to non-techie types, it is also slowly removing the included apps that allow for greater customisation (e.g. GDM login editor circa 9.04/9.10 release and Aptitude/Synaptic is to go in 10.10, etc.) Also they are going to start tracking OEM installations most likely to start paying royalties for the MP3 codecs that are offered for the Ubuntu One iTunes Clone.

I can see Canonomical posturing to become the third dominant desktop OS after Windows and OSX   

Offline Craig

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #6 on: September 08, 2010, 05:26:49 am »
The LMDE  live DVD picked up my wireless with no problem  and the repos had already been configured. The installer is graphical. It's just not very pretty and at partition time, a newbie would probably get lost.  It basically says "This is what you've got;. What do you want to do with it?"  Is there a reason they don't use Ubiquity?

I see myself sticking with PGOS as my main OS for some time. I'm sure Pinguy will keep anything useful that Ubuntu wants to throw away or hide from us. 

Offline Jeff

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #7 on: September 08, 2010, 10:47:49 pm »
I'm sure Pinguy will keep anything useful that Ubuntu wants to throw away or hide from us.

Yep :)

I just figured I would mention LM's debian leap because I found it interesting. The real advantage I see to it is that I like the rolling release model.

~Jeff

Offline mmesantos1

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #8 on: September 10, 2010, 01:58:18 am »
I am one of the ISO testers at Mint and I am running LMDE full time on my main machine and it has been running great. It is nice not having any of the upstream issues from Ubuntu. I still like Ubuntu and the Other Distro's based off of it but Debian is very stable even the testing version of it. I think Pinguy could do a version of Debian testing and it would be great.  :)
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Offline Craig

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #9 on: September 10, 2010, 09:31:38 am »
I am one of the ISO testers at Mint and I am running LMDE full time on my main machine and it has been running great. It is nice not having any of the upstream issues from Ubuntu. I still like Ubuntu and the Other Distro's based off of it but Debian is very stable even the testing version of it. I think Pinguy could do a version of Debian testing and it would be great.  :)

When I was a noob, I would have been stuck in my tracks at the partitioning section. Is there a reason Ubiquity can't be adapted to it?   

If PinguyOS got even faster under Debian Testing, I'd use it in a heart beat.  :)

Offline mmesantos1

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #10 on: September 10, 2010, 11:29:36 am »
I am one of the ISO testers at Mint and I am running LMDE full time on my main machine and it has been running great. It is nice not having any of the upstream issues from Ubuntu. I still like Ubuntu and the Other Distro's based off of it but Debian is very stable even the testing version of it. I think Pinguy could do a version of Debian testing and it would be great.  :)

When I was a noob, I would have been stuck in my tracks at the partitioning section. Is there a reason Ubiquity can't be adapted to it?   

If PinguyOS got even faster under Debian Testing, I'd use it in a heart beat.  :)

Well I am not the Dev but they decided to write a installer from scratch, they did not use Debian's installer due to it not being as user friendly. As to not using Ubiquity I would think it would be more of a pain to port it to Debian that write there own from scratch.
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Offline Pinguy

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #11 on: September 10, 2010, 11:39:20 am »
This was a pretty good review for LMDE.

http://tinyurl.com/36zduy7
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Offline mmesantos1

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #12 on: September 10, 2010, 12:02:11 pm »
This was a pretty good review for LMDE.

http://tinyurl.com/36zduy7

Thank Pinguy, I have not read that review.  :)
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Offline Jeff

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #13 on: September 10, 2010, 01:30:21 pm »
Well I am not the Dev but they decided to write a installer from scratch, they did not use Debian's installer due to it not being as user friendly. As to not using Ubiquity I would think it would be more of a pain to port it to Debian that write there own from scratch.

See I don't think that was the issue. The latest beta release of Aurora (formerly EEEbuntu) is now built on Debian as well and it uses the good old Ubuntu-like installer still...

~Jeff

Offline mmesantos1

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Re: Linux Mint Goes Debian
« Reply #14 on: September 10, 2010, 01:51:33 pm »
Well I am not the Dev but they decided to write a installer from scratch, they did not use Debian's installer due to it not being as user friendly. As to not using Ubiquity I would think it would be more of a pain to port it to Debian that write there own from scratch.

See I don't think that was the issue. The latest beta release of Aurora (formerly EEEbuntu) is now built on Debian as well and it uses the good old Ubuntu-like installer still...

~Jeff

You may be correct Jeff it may be they did not want to have allot of Ubuntu packages in the build. I have not directly ask them why, I am only giving speculation. I could ask them if you would like but too me the new installer is fine and I am sure they will refine it to be more user firendly in time.  :)
My PC: AMD Athlon x2 2.3Ghz / DDR2 4GB / HDD 250GB / GeForce GTX 260 896MB / Dell 20" LCD / Corsair 850 PSU