I created this thread because many of us, including myself, often recommend that users who are new to Linux try Linux Mint.
Paul’s response @callpaul.eu , in the thread usb key and partitioning, it made me think about it and, regardless of whether there are more lightweight editions than others or whether the Debian edition is an autonomous edition of the Ubuntu evolution, there have to be more features that we can mention and for those of you who have tried various editions of Linux Mint, you will know that, regardless of whether some versions are lighter than others, they are not the same.
After this introduction, what I’d really like to know is your experience with the various editions, what differences you’ve found and, if you were advising an edition to a young Linux user, which edition you’d recommend.
I am finding, after 20 years of Ubuntu, that Debian is more trouble-free. I use, at various times, LMDE, Peppermint (either Debian or Devuan), and I really like Emmabuntus. I still check out various KDE distros when a new version is fielded. And I run the new ubuntu flavors in Boxes, just to see what’s new.
For a newbie I’d recommend Linux Mint (the Ubuntu derivative).
Wether I like it or not (khmmm… I don’t) nowadays Ubuntu is probably the most well known Linux distro.
The vast majority of recypes and how-tos are meant for Ubuntu, and as a derivative of it, those will work on Linux Mint.
The newbie comes most probably from Windows, and Linux Mint has a default look&feel, which is comfortable for an ex-windows-user.
That’s valid for any flavour of Mint, be it XFCE or Cinnamon.
Knowing the computer of that newbie I’d recommend XFCE/MATE or Cinnamon.
For a lower end, less capable hardware probably XFCE, maybe MATE, for a stronger hardware Cinnamon.
LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) is just there “just in case” something happens to Ubuntu, and cannot be used as the base of the distro.
Its goal is to ensure Linux Mint can continue to deliver the same user experience if Ubuntu was ever to disappear.
LMDE is much more near to Debian, than regular Mint to Ubuntu.
If you can drive LMDE, you can drive Debian too
So as a fan of Debian I like LMDE better, for a newbie I’d recommend regular Mint with the DE appropriate for his/her computer.
By the way, despite there’s no install image file with other DE’s, with LMDE you are not limited to Cinnamon: you can remove it and install XFCE for example.
I like way of thinking that the developers of Linux Mint show up.
They dislike snaps, as I do.
They like Debian, as I do.
They dislike the libadwaita madness as I do.
They don’t trust Canonical, as I don’t either.
They’re working on Wayland support for Cinnamon, which I really appreciate.
Whenever Cinnamon fully gets it, I leave KDE, and return to Cinnamon.
For lightweight I have 2 users on lubuntu, mainly because of there capacity to do things, not the computer. They surf the net and reply to emails. So lubuntu is enough dont think either is capable of libre office !
Thanks for setting this up as a discussion topic and look forward to reading more of others comments
Though I don’t agree with all the paths that Canonical has gone down, Ubuntu and its derivatives are compatible with a very wide range of hardware. This makes them a good choice as a starting place for a new user. It’s exactly how I got roped into Ubuntu—other versions of Linux required installation knowledge that I didn’t have (and mostly still don’t) but Ubuntu worked right out of the box.
I tried a Mint hard install recently… its OK, but does not suit my taste. The help at startup does not appeal and pushing timeshift seems to distract a user from proper backups. I switched to Peppermint (Devuan) for that project which involved trying out Gnome Boxes. Peppermint is smaller and cleaner than Mint.
I did also try LMDE (in a VM). I found the installer slightly troublesome… it is a simpler installer than Mint.
I think I am with @kovacslt … Debian ( or preferably Devuan) based distros
suit me better. I would like to see an LMDE based on Devuan or MX or Antix?
That would be fairly easy to do, starting from LMDE.
For a “newbie” Ubuntu or Mint would be hard to beat!!!
As for myself, I started using, and learning Gentoo, six or seven years back, and I now enjoy on seeing how far I can push a system using Gentoo. As for change, Gentoo is now, about as easy to install and use, as any other Linux.
I stopped liking ubuntu because I did not like the colour of the screen and the big chunky icons down the left, silly as it sounds, when i wanted to do someting I just could not find it after searching … plus some were on the left others top right.
My background is windows and apple. As are most of my user base so wanted something I could sell on a easy to use basis.
Put windows on one computer linux on the other… spot the difference ?
Open, close, make bigger or smaller they look the same. Ok the colour is different to x close. But run up firefox, chrome, email you just dont know.
Mac users show them control panel its almost the same
Do an update on windows takes hours and hours mint takes no time at all.
Install mint in 1 hour easy job, install a game, 5 mins from the application centre. Show it against android
All positive stuff.
Ok why debian ?
Last few times when trying to get mint to start up instead of windows from the 10 or 11 use usb, its not always seen the key, where as lmdb it sees it so its going to work.
Why not debian straight off because its confusing for new users to choose something for the desktop layout. Lmde has one choise and it looks good so happy with that for now
Hi, my friends,
Thank you all for your replies, but let’s say this is the first time I’m trying to install Linux and I’ve been advised Linux Mint and I have enough resources to use any edition of Linux Mint.
How can I decide whether to install MATE, because it has certain features that Cinnamon doesn’t have, or install Cinnamon, which has certain features that are better than Xfce or the other way around?
For you, what is the real difference when choosing between MATE, Cinnamon or Xfce (other than memory or lighter versions)?
Thanks
Jorge
P S.: I’m a fan of Debian too, and other distros. I must try Gentoo one day.
From a person that switched from Windows to Linux, I too would recommend Linux Mint Cinnamon. I found the switch from Windows to Linux Mint to be a smooth one.
The feel of Mint is Windows like.
Updates are easy and fast.
Timeshift makes taking snapshots simple and most system restores easy.
(A lot of people do not perform true backups)
Mint provides a path to update the system from one release to another. This keep the user from having to perform a clean install.
Mint is very stable, works right out of the box, provides 5 years of support.
And of course anything for Ubuntu most likely will work with Mint.
As a experienced Linux user, you are really in need of expanding your knowledge, of just how to really build Linux, either with Gentoo, without binary packages or with LFS (Linux From Scratch).
Mate and Cinnamon are both reincarnations of Gnome 2. So they are alike in many respects. Mate is more cut down ( or Cinnamon is more bloated) whichever way you view it.
Xfce has a totally different origin. I find Xfce easy to configure, but that is probably because I have used it exclusively in all my working distros. Xfce is considered a ‘light’ DE… ie small ram footprint.
All of them (Mate, Cinnamon, Xfce) have a drop-down menu. Gnome 3 is radically different… it has large icons occupying the whole screen… several screens if there are many. When Debian moved to Gnome3 i tried it for a while, found it inefficient, so gave up and went to Xfce. I believe Gnome 3 has now relented and reintroduced drop down menu as an option. It is too late for me, I like Xfce now. What I like about Xfce is session saving… I can power off, come back later and boot, and all my terminal windows are there , sitting in the same directories as when I powered off.
Does any other DE offer session saving?
I can quite happily work in a simple WM like IceWM or JWM. LXQt is a good light DE and I have tried it in Debian. A sophisticated DE like KDE Plasma does not appeal to me, but the Qt family are OK… their windows have a different appearance bu functio OK.
You can make that choice when you choose the .iso. It is no more difficult than choosing the right architecture.
Debian with the same DE as LMDE would be like LMDE in everything except the fancy help windows.
The best way is to try them and use for a week or 2… I think
I used XFCE only for a very short time.
It’s not that I don’t like it, I just liked MATE better.
That was long ago, I knew barely anything about Linux that time, and on my laptop that time, adjusting the backlight of the LCD was quite coarse in XFCE, whereas MATE provided fine steps… that silly difference made me choose MATE back then…
Nowadays I see it different, I could fiddle around XFCE to have finer backlight steps Regarding resource needs, they (XFCE, MATE) are quite close to my experience. On my current laptop I could not measure the difference, but for my curiosity measured some times on an old laptop.
I got that old laptop from a grandma’ (a friend of my mother) to “have a look at it” because it’s too slow…
So I measured some times there, and there it was a difference between MATE and XFCE (XFCE booted faster). See the footnote for time values
I looked at Cinnamon out of curiosity, and I liked it really. The hot corners, the overview of running tasks, the overall classic look&feel, the window placement on horizontal edges are things I liked.
Because of Wayland I tried Gnome too, but I can’t get used to it.
I kind of hate Nautilus, the file manager of it. I could not get used to the incosistent dialogs, sometimes a file open dialog has the “open” button on the bottom right where I expect it to be, sometimes on the top right, where I need to look at after I don’t find the button on the bottom right, sometimes I need to look around 3 times to find that button, because it is on the top near the left, and it blends in the window frame, so that it doesn’t look a button at all…
So thanks, Gnome is not for me. I’m too old for that
KDE is great, has all bells and whistles, looks very nice, it’s fast.
Oh, the customization possibilities areseem to be infinite.
The localization (english speaking users won’t notice that ) is lacking a lot.
So how do you choose your DE?
Try them and decide!
(Small letter footnote for my measurments, if you are interested: I started the stopwatch right with the power button, logged in as quick as possible, started Firefox as soon as its icon appeared on the desktop, stoped the stopwatch when the startpage loaded - for that in Linux I created a launcher .desktop for Firefox on the desktop, so I could launch Firefox the same speed as in Windows).
Time values:
Windows 10: 3 minutes 57 seconds
LMDE5 with MATE: 2 minutes 34 seconds
LMDE5 with XFCE: 1 minute 56 seconds
Just starting Firefox from a fully loaded, settled desktop:
Windows 10: 29 seconds
LMDE5 with MATE: 14 seconds
LMDE5 with XFCE: 13 seconds
Just be prepared that Mint installs some packages by default, which Debian does not. Such as for printing, Samba, etc.
So if you seem to miss something, it’s not that Debian lacks it completely, it’s just that it does not install it by default.
That is surprising… it is basically time taken to open a window. I did not expect DE’s to vary in that. Then again , if you take out Win10, it is not a big difference between Mate and Xfce.
Startup times are another matter… more a measure of the amount of code they have to load to get started.
I am starting to like my favorite Xfce a little more.
Stick all your stuff on external hdd. Then try anything, i liked mint kde first. Then mint didn’t do kde so tried
Opensuse
Manjaro
Arch, had fun there, learnt a lot
Now v happy with endeavour kde
